Agents of Socialization and Female Migrants’ Employment: The Influence of Mothers and the Country Context

Abstract

Abstract Women around the world are on the move but find it difficult to secure jobs. Employment is vital for migrant integration as it affords financial security, autonomy in the family and helps to establish social contacts. Besides human capital, previous research has looked into ethnic origin and specific source country aspects as drivers of female migrant employment. By contrast, ideas of adolescence as the ‘impressionable’ years and individuals’ exposure to female employment at that time have not yet entered the discussion. However, these theoretical notions have previously been found to be highly predictive of employment in adulthood for natives. This study further investigates these theoretical ideas by using data on 2,047 female immigrants from the German Socio-Economic Panel. Female migrants’ employment and hours worked are analysed in multivariate regressions. The analyses focus on female migrants’ adolescent experiences with female employment in their family—namely, whether their mother worked—and in the broader labour market—measured by the female to male labour force participation rate—as explanatory variables. These two experiences are retrospectively captured for respondents at age 15. Analyses highlight the deep embeddedness of individuals in home country social norms and the power of role models during youth for later employment.