Abstract
ABSTRACTUsing data on new migrants to England from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey, we show how a key component of migrant integration - labour market progress in terms of wages and unemployment rates – is broadly positive in the early years after arrival across a range of migrant groups and across gender. However, the precise level of labour market success achieved varies considerably across groups reflecting both the initial entry-level and labour market trajectories after migration. Migrants from Western Europe and the Old Commonwealth countries have unemployment rates (wages) which are generally lower (higher) than other groups, particularly non-white groups, while migrants from the Accession countries experience relatively low unemployment but also low wages. Groups which have better outcomes on entry also tend to experience higher rates of progress over time in England. However, the extent of multiple deprivation in the local authority where migrants reside interacts with years since migration to dampen wage trajectories for some groups and accounting for deprivation highlights the importance of internal migration for access to employment. The results emphasise structural explanations for patterns of labour market integration of new migrants to England.
Highlights
Introduction and previous literatureThe migrant population in England, defined as those born abroad, rose from 3.5 million in 1991 to 7.3 million in 2011 and became more diverse with an increasing proportion originating from outside the Commonwealth, in particular from the European Union (EU), from the mid-2000s
This positive view of the typical immigrant trajectory is dubbed ‘Americanization’ in Chiswick’s (1978) influential paper, but is more generally referred to as ‘assimilation’, a term used to refer to a set of hypotheses, firmly based in the human capital model, which suggests that the wage profile of immigrants will rapidly grow to approach that of non-immigrant workers as they stay longer in the destination society
Three questions underpinned our empirical investigation of the labour market integration of new migrants
Summary
The migrant population in England, defined as those born abroad, rose from 3.5 million in 1991 to 7.3 million in 2011 and became more diverse with an increasing proportion originating from outside the Commonwealth, in particular from the European Union (EU), from the mid-2000s. This disadvantage, relative to the native-born, will shrink as migrants gain experience of the receiving country labour market, improve their language skills and acquire new qualifications which are of value to employers This positive view of the typical immigrant trajectory is dubbed ‘Americanization’ in Chiswick’s (1978) influential paper, but is more generally referred to as ‘assimilation’, a term used to refer to a set of hypotheses, firmly based in the human capital model, which suggests that the wage profile of immigrants will rapidly grow to approach that of non-immigrant workers as they stay longer in the destination society. Six specific groups of recent migrants are considered reflecting relatively homogenous countries or regions of origin and these are briefly considered in turn below
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