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Assimilation of migrants into the British labour market

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  • Dickens, Richard
  • McKnight, Abigail

Abstract

This paper discusses the extent to which migrants to Britain have been assimilated into the workforce. Migration into Britain has increased over the last 25 years, with a big increase in inflows in recent years. The paper shows that when a migrant worker first arrives they experience a pay gap with native born counterparts of over 30% for men and 15% for women. This pay penalty declines with years spent in Britain. For migrant men it takes 20 years to eradicate this difference; for migrant women just 4-6 years. Different nationalities experience different rates of assimilation, with Europeans catching up the fastest but Asian men showing little signs of catching up at all. More recent entry cohorts of migrants have fared better but this is largely because they enter with a smaller pay penalty rather than experience faster wage growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Dickens, Richard & McKnight, Abigail, 2008. "Assimilation of migrants into the British labour market," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 47489, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:47489
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    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/47489/
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Borjas, George J., 1999. "The economic analysis of immigration," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 28, pages 1697-1760, Elsevier.
    2. Bell, Brian D, 1997. "The Performance of Immigrants in the United Kingdom: Evidence from the GHS," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 107(441), pages 333-344, March.
    3. Borjas, George J, 1995. "Assimilation and Changes in Cohort Quality Revisited: What Happened to Immigrant Earnings in the 1980s?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 13(2), pages 201-245, April.
    4. Richard Dickens & Paul Gregg & Jonathan Wadsworth (ed.), 2003. "The Labour Market Under New Labour," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-59845-4, October.
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    Cited by:

    1. Knies, Gundi & Nandi, Alita & Platt, Lucinda, 2014. "Life satisfaction, ethnicity and neighbourhoods: is there an effect of neighbourhood ethnic composition on life satisfaction?," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 55669, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Chris Dawson & Michail Veliziotis & Benjamin Hopkins, 2018. "Understanding the Perception of the ‘Migrant Work Ethic’," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 32(5), pages 811-830, October.
    3. Gianni De Fraja & Sara Lemos & James Rockey, 2021. "The Wounds That Do Not Heal: The Lifetime Scar of Youth Unemployment," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 88(352), pages 896-941, October.
    4. Heather Dickey, 2014. "The Impact Of Migration On Regional Wage Inequality: A Semiparametric Approach," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(5), pages 893-915, November.
    5. Sara Lemos, 2011. "Mind the Gap: What Gap? A Detailed Picture of the Immigrant-Native Earnings Gap in the UK using Longitudinal Data between 1978 and 2006," Discussion Papers in Economics 11/38, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester, revised Oct 2011.
    6. Lemos, Sara, 2013. "Immigrant economic assimilation: Evidence from UK longitudinal data between 1978 and 2006," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 339-353.
    7. Kaya, Ezgi, 2024. "Labour Market Performance of Immigrants: New Evidence from Linked Administrative Data," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1418, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    8. Lemos, Sara, 2017. "Mind the gap: A detailed picture of the immigrant-native earnings gap in the UK using longitudinal data between 1978 and 2006," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 57-75.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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