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The heterogeneous employment outcomes of first- and second-generation immigrants in Belgium

Author

Listed:
  • Céline Piton

    (Economics and Research Department, National Bank of Belgium & Université libre de Bruxelles (SBS-EM, CEB and DULBEA), GLO, humanOrg, IRES and IZA)

  • François Rycx

    (Université libre de Bruxelles (SBS-EM, CEB and DULBEA))

Abstract

This paper provides a comprehensive quantitative assessment of the relationship between people’s migration background and their likelihood of being employed in Belgium. Using detailed quarterly data for the period 2008-2014, we find not only that first-generation immigrants face a substantial employment penalty (up to -36% points) vis-à-vis their native counterparts, but also that their descendants continue to face serious difficulties in accessing the labour market. The employment gap is, ceteris paribus, more pronounced for the first than for the second generation. Yet, intergenerational mobility patterns are found to be quite heterogeneous: although the children of immigrants from the European Union (EU) fare much better than their parents, the improvement is much more limited for those from EU candidate countries, and almost null for the second generation from the Maghreb. The situation of second-generation immigrants with only one foreign-born parent seems to be fairly good. In contrast, it appears that the social elevator is broken for descendants of two non-EU-born immigrants. Immigrant women are also found to be particularly affected, especially those originating from outside the EU. As regards education, it appears to be an important tool for fostering the labour market integration of descendants of non-EU-born immigrants. For firstgeneration immigrants, though, it proves to be much less effective overall. Focusing on the first generation, we find that: i) access to jobs increases with the duration of residence, though fairly slowly on average; ii) citizenship acquisition is associated with significantly better employment outcomes, for both EU and non-EU-born immigrants; iii) proficiency in the host country language is a key driver of access to employment, especially for non-EU-born immigrants; and iv) around a decade is needed for the employment gap between refugees and other foreign-born workers to be (largely) suppressed.

Suggested Citation

  • Céline Piton & François Rycx, 2020. "The heterogeneous employment outcomes of first- and second-generation immigrants in Belgium," Working Paper Research 381, National Bank of Belgium.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbb:reswpp:202001-381
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Cockx, Bart & Lechner, Michael & Bollens, Joost, 2023. "Priority to unemployed immigrants? A causal machine learning evaluation of training in Belgium," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    2. Lisa Bagnoli & Antonio Estache & Maleke Fourati, 2021. "Mentoring as a Pathway to Labour Market Integration: Evidence from a Belgian Programme," Working Papers ECARES 2021-11, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    3. Céline Piton & François Rycx, 2021. "A Broken Social Elevator? Employment Outcomes of First- and Second-Generation Immigrants in Belgium," De Economist, Springer, vol. 169(3), pages 319-365, August.
    4. Tair Kasztan Flechner & Karel Neels & Jonas Wood & Naomi Biegel, 2022. "Exploring Women’s Uptake of Active Labour Market Programmes: The Role of Household Composition Across Migrant Origin Groups," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 10(2), pages 117-131.
    5. Brand, Claus & Obstbaum, Meri & Coenen, Günter & Sondermann, David & Lydon, Reamonn & Ajevskis, Viktors & Hammermann, Felix & Angino, Siria & Hernborg, Nils & Basso, Henrique & Hertweck, Matthias & Bi, 2021. "Employment and the conduct of monetary policy in the euro area," Occasional Paper Series 275, European Central Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    First- and second-generation immigrants; employment; 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
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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