Abstract
This article investigates how cultural factors might affect the employment of female immigrants to Europe. Cultural factors include the characteristics of individual women, their countries of origin in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the European regions where they reside. Data are from the European Social Survey (2002 to 2019) and various international organisations. Employment is predicted by educational level and religiosity, religious composition of the country of origin, and rates of unemployment in the region of residence. Less educated immigrants from Muslim countries have particularly low employment rates. Contrary to expectations, the employment of female immigrants seems unaffected by overall female employment rates in the region of residence, and correlation with female employment in the country of origin disappears when controlling for its religious composition. The findings for cultural factors are consistent with theories about transculturation and also with theories about religion and moral orders. They are less consistent with a standard acculturation model hitherto popular in the research literature.
Highlights
BackgroundThe employment of female immigrants has become a topic of public and academic debate, certainly in European regions with high female employment
If the employment rate in the home country increases by 10 p.p. (the unit used in this analysis, corresponding to 1.7 standard deviations (SD) in the data), the probability of being employed in a new country increases by 2.9 p.p
There is no correlation between female employment rates in the home country and the employment of female migrants when controlling for the religious composition of the home country
Summary
BackgroundThe employment of female immigrants has become a topic of public and academic debate, certainly in European regions with high female employment. Economic integration of female immigrants in Europe is typically less successful for migrants from poorer countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This article adds to the literature on female immigrants by considering cultural explanations for customary or typical female behaviour in both country of origin and region of residence, religious composition in country of origin and individual religiosity. It presents different theoretical understandings of how these cultural factors may affect the economic behaviour of immigrant women. The empirical analysis investigates the employment of 3146 female migrants from 69 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America, who were living in 136 European regions in the first nine rounds of the European Social Survey (ESS) between 2002 and 2019
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