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Do migrants displace native-born workers on the labour market? The impact of workers’ origin

Author

Listed:
  • Valentine Fays

    (UMONS (Soci&ter) and ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA))

  • Benoît Mahy

    (UMONS (Soci&ter) and ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA))

  • François Ryckx

    (ULB (CEBRIG, DULBEA),)

Abstract

This article is the first to examine how 1st-generation migrants affect the employment of workers born in the host country according to their origin, distinguishing between natives and 2nd-generation migrants. To do so, we take advantage of access to a unique linked employer-employee dataset for the Belgian economy enabling us to test these relationships at a quite precise level of the labour market, i.e. the firm level. Fixed effect estimates, including a large number of covariates, suggest complementarity between the employment of 1st-generation migrants and workers born in Belgium (both natives and 2nd-generation migrants, respectively). Several sensitivity tests, considering different levels of aggregation, workers’ levels of education, migrants’ region of origin, workers’ occupations, and sectors corroborate this conclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Valentine Fays & Benoît Mahy & François Ryckx, 2024. "Do migrants displace native-born workers on the labour market? The impact of workers’ origin," LIDAM Discussion Papers IRES 2024004, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvir:2024004
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    1st and 2nd generation migrants; Substainability; Complementarity; Moderating factors;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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