Immigrant–native gap in poverty: a cross-national European perspective

Abstract

Although there is considerable research evidence showing that immigrants are at great risk of poverty, there have been few comparative analyses of the poverty gap between immigrants and natives across Europe. We examine the patterns of variation in the immigrant–native poverty gap between and within countries. We simultaneously combine characteristics of households from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions and some key country-specific factors, distinguishing among mixed and non-mixed immigrant households and natives. The main findings for 2012 reveal that immigrants, especially non-mixed immigrant households, are exposed to a higher risk of poverty than natives, though this gap varies across countries. We find evidence of significant household-level effects, but the contribution of country-level variables to explain cross-country differences in the poverty gap is substantially higher. Concerning household characteristics, employment and being young have less effect (positive and negative, respectively) on immigrants than on natives, while each additional child has a more negative effect. Education seems to have a lower effect on the likelihood of being poor for non-mixed immigrant households than for natives and owning a house reduces this likelihood more for non-mixed immigrant households. In terms of country-level factors, labour market and social benefits seem to be equally important for both natives and immigrants. We also compare the results in 2012 with those for 2007 to check for possible changes over time related to the influence of the economic cycle on the poverty gap and/or on the importance of household- and country-level factors.