Host Country Labor Research Articles

The relative pay for foreign work: A novel evidence from home and host countries

The literature has robustly documented a negative migrant-native wage gap in developed economies. Yet empirical evidence of pay differences has been elusive for developing countries. We approach this question by leveraging internationally harmonised microdata with 1.5 million individuals from 6 transition and developing countries and 15 OECD economies spanning from 1995 to 2016 and employ counterfactual decomposition techniques which allow us to control for individual-productivity and job-specific characteristics, and explain up to 74% of the observed immigrant-native wage gap. The Blinder-Oaxaca baseline results indicate that, vis-à-vis comparable workers born in developed economies, the pay for workers born in transition and developing economies is discounted both in their home country labour markets and – if migrating – also in developed host country labour markets. However, the unexplained native-to-migrant wage gap remains sizeable in most countries even after controlling for productivity differentials (26% and more). Cross-country correlation analyses provide a direct empirical evidence of the link between variation in unobserved job characteristics and skills among foreign-born and native-born workers and wage gap, while the labour market institutions and especially the labour market discrimination environment are of a second-order importance.

Transnational sensemaking narratives of highly skilled Canadian immigrants' career change

PurposeThe authors answer calls for research on the experiences of international professionals' career transitions by investigating how highly skilled immigrants make sense of their career changes in the host country's labor market.Design/methodology/approachThe authors report on a qualitative, inductive and elaborative study, drawing on sensemaking theories and career transitions literature and nine semi-structured reflective interviews with highly skilled Canadian immigrants.FindingsThe authors identified four career change narratives: mourning the past, accepting the present, recreating the past and starting fresh. These narratives are made sense of in a transnational context: participants contended with tensions between past, present and future careers and between relevant home and host country factors affecting their career decisions. Participants who were mourning the past or recreating the past identified more strongly with their home country professions and struggled to find resources in Canada. In accepting the present and starting fresh, participants leveraged host country networks to find career opportunities and establish themselves and their families in the new environment.Originality/valueA transnational ontology emphasizes that immigrants' lives are multifaceted and span multiple national contexts. The authors highlight how the tensions between the home and host country career contexts shape immigrants' sensemaking narratives of their international career change. The authors encourage scholars and practitioners to take a transnational contextual approach (spatial and temporal) to guide immigrants' career transitions and integration into the new social environment.

Factors influencing international students' trajectories: a comparative study of Chinese students in Japan and Australia

PurposeThis study aims to compare Chinese students' educational and career trajectories in Japan and Australia and to explore the factors that have influenced their choices that shaped their trajectories.Design/methodology/approachThe authors applied the push-pull and life planning models to compare the factors that shaped the Chinese students' trajectories in Japan and Australia. The mixed-method approach was adopted by combining the result of 353 questionnaire responses and ten semi-structured interviews of Chinese international graduates to understand the factors influencing their decision-makings when choosing a study destination, a workplace and a place for settlement. The authors also interviewed six human resources managers of local companies to understand how Chinese international graduates are evaluated in the host country's labor market.FindingsWhen choosing a study destination, cultural interest and inexpensive tuition fees are the pull factors for Japan, while family and friends' recommendations are strong motivations in choosing Australia. After graduation, utilization of capacity/specialty is a pull factor to work in Japan, while the prospect of promotion, good living environment and consideration for spouse/parents/children are the pull factors for Australia. Chinese graduates in Australia have stronger aspiration to remain in their study destination.Originality/valueSince there are few cross-national studies on international students' trajectories, this study filled the research gap by comparing the trajectories of Chinese students in Japan and Australia and clarifying the factors that shaped them.

Labor exportation, transnational production politics, and the formation of exploitation relationships—a case study of Chinese migrant workers in Japan

In the context of globalization, the exporting of labor from developing countries to developed countries has shaped a relationship of exploitation between employers and employees. This study presents the case of Chinese migrant workers’ overtime pay in Japan and explores the formation mechanisms of exploitation using the analytical framework of “transnational production politics”. Transnational migrant workers often see overtime as an indispensable opportunity to generate extra income to support families back home. This need is being taken advantage of by employers who habitually reduce overtime pay or do not pay for overtime at all. Overtime pay often becomes a focal point of labor conflict. Because of the limited protections for migrant workers in the labor laws of host countries, the power granted to employers by the host country's labor system, competition from migrant workers of other nationalities, and the selective involvement of transnational intermediaries, Chinese migrants suffer a dilemma of either surrendering to low overtime pay or losing overtime work, or even their job altogether. Whether to resist or surrender, it seems that the outcome is all the same for migrant workers: they lose and employers win. This “transnational production” polity exercises its market authoritarianism. Elements such as the constraints of the foreign labor system, loopholes in the system used by employers, the global surplus labor supply, and the separation of the processes of labor maintenance and labor renewal in the mode of labor reproduction typical to migrant labor reflect the transnational production politics peculiar to international contract labor mobility. This becomes an important mechanism for the re-emergence of the forced exploitation of capital in developed capitalist countries. Unlike the exploitative relationship between local workers and employers in developed countries, the exploitation between migrant workers and employers is born out of imbalanced development between countries. Migrant workers not only have no access to protections afforded by the host country's welfare system, but also are controlled by strict laws regarding foreign labor and are threatened by competition from other migrant workers. All this has put employers in a strongly advantageous position in labor conflicts.

Economic Governance Quality and Chinese OFDI: Evidence from the “Belt and Road” Countries

China’s foreign direct investment in 54 countries along the “Belt and Road” from year 2003 to year 2019 are adopted as sample data, and economic system indicators such as business freedom, currency freedom, trade freedom, investment freedom, and fiscal freedom are introduced as the proxy variable for the quality of host-country’s economic governance, to analyze the impact of different economic governance levels of countries along the route on China’s foreign direct investment. Due to the missing data and the non-random characteristics of China’s investment in sample countries, the Heckman two-step model is adopted to solve the issue of self-selection bias, and policy impact of the “Belt and Road” initiative is introduced to explore the quality of economic governance of the countries along the route on China’s foreign direct investment. The findings show that, 1) China is more inclined to invest in host countries with a large market, and its investment preference is market-seeking; 2) the host-country labor freedom and financial freedom have a positive impact on Chinese direct investment, while trade freedom and investment freedom negatively affects Chinese investment; 3) the implementation of the “Belt and Road” initiative has affected the mechanism of host-country’s economic governance on China’s foreign direct investment.

MNC Digitalization - Why IT Professionals Leave MNC Subsidiaries Without Learning Opportunities

IT professionals and their knowledge about the use of digital technologies are a cornerstone for the competitiveness of modern MNCs. However, demand for these digital talents is high on many host country labor markets and MNC subsidiaries have strong incentives to retain them. We theorize that the retention of digital talents in MNC subsidiaries emerges from the learning opportunities that they can provide, not just the salaries. We integrate mechanisms from research on MNC mandates into theory explaining voluntary mobility constraints of employees and hypothesize that the non-monetary benefits from acquiring new skills in subsidiaries with mandates for digitalization projects increase the probability to retain IT professionals. We use data for 566 IT professionals employed by 104 foreign MNC subsidiaries in Denmark between 2002 and 2012 for the empirical test of this hypothesis. The results show that digital mandates help retaining IT professionals. The effect is stronger for subsidiaries with additional R&D mandates. However, potentially higher salaries on local labor markets do not outweigh the retention effects of digital mandates. These results have important implications for theory and practice on the readiness of MNCs to exploit digitalization opportunities.

DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF INTEGRATED Sezs AS STIMULUS TO ECONOMIC GROWTH

SEZs are considered as an economic tool since its first introduction but still there exist a very little evidence to date to figure out the factors of its vital outcome and success. This paper is aimed to evaluate different aspects of SEZs by investigating the growth of SEZs in developing and under developed economies of the world. For the generation of economic / business activities and employment opportunities, the investment in Industrial Sector Development is critical and a strong innovative economy can help to address the need for economic growth for targeting poverty and acceleration of socio-economic development. In the past decades number of SEZs has grown from Asia to Europe where SEZs play key role in economic prosperity and internationally most of the countries utilize their SEZs to attract foreign investors which will open the doors of employment for the population. However, not all SEZs play remarkably well like China’s Shenzhen but China’s performance in this area is a bench mark for the entire world as it achieves immense growth through its ventures of SEZs. It is estimated that almost 66m jobs are created by the SEZs all around the World out which almost 30m located at China. In Pakistan CPECis the project,transformingthe Country and opening the doors of new business opportunities, making the country as an internationalinvestmentdestination. The objective of establishing Special economic zones under the China Pakistan economic corridor is to keep the wheel growth moving as it accelerates the pace of social prosperity through surge in trade, expanding export and self-sufficiency by import substitution. With 9 special economic zones (SEZs) under CPEC yet to get operational in Pakistan, it remains to be seen if the government's plan of setting up prioritized SEZs with both Greenfield and Brownfield investment will achieve desired results and not become "land grabbing real estate ventures". This study is an attempt to explore the potential of industrialization along with the policy implications necessary for sustainable growth of these SEZs. Success of these SEZs lie under its legislation, provision of utilities, level of federal autonomy and the flawless management system.Differences in theaffectivity of SEZs are owned bythe particularities of the territories andnaturalendowmentswherethese zones are developed host country labor cost, market size and infrastructure are crucial and the delivery of positive outcome also largely depends on its geographical positions (Alexey Kuznetsov and Olga Kuznetsova, 2019). Establishment of sector specific zones for targeting tourism and agriculture sector development will also support the objective of socio economic development but still need special focus to develop basic infrastructure to attain sustainable development. This study will come up with the best suggested sustainable framework that bring high jumps of growth by contributing in the national output

Beware of the “poverty migrant”: media discourses on EU labour migration and the welfare state in Germany and the UK

Abstract This article examines the role of the media in the EU freedom of movement debate through the lens of high-circulation German and UK newspapers during the first half of 2014. It explores how the media problematised migration from Eastern European member states and its influence on national host country labour markets and welfare systems. It also analyses how different media outlets positioned themselves in relation to relevant policies or policy proposals. The findings show that most articles in our sample present low-skill, low-wage working European Union (EU) migrant class referred to as “poverty migrants” as a problem to be addressed at the policy level in contrast with the economically self-sufficient migrant with marketable skills. The article contributes to discussions on work, welfare, and mobility in the EU by cross-fertilising the literature on migration policy, freedom of movement, social rights, and the media.

Cross-border M&As: Theorizing the negative effect of political ideology mismatch with host country labor institutional context on employee outcomes

Negative employee behaviors (e.g., turnover and workplace deviance) can be pronounced during cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and they are often linked to their failure and suboptimal performance. Yet, thus far, M&A research has primarily focused on cultural clashes to account for such negative outcomes. Drawing on a multilevel perspective of role theory, we offer a conceptual framework that emphasizes the distinctiveness of cross-border M&As. We theorize how political ideology mismatch triggers psychological mechanisms that have important effects on employees’ attitudes and behaviors, and how the types of M&As and organizational justice perceptions could influence these psychological mechanisms. We contribute to advancing knowledge on employee outcomes in cross-border M&As by shedding light on how micro-relational dynamics interact with contextual factors to shape employees’ turnover and deviant workplace behaviors.

Employer Sanctions: A Policy with a Pitfall?

This chapter investigates the impact of the imposition of sanctions for employing illegal migrants on the welfare of native laborers. In response to such sanctions, managers in a firm may be reassigned from the supervision of production to the verification of the legality of the firm's labor force. The chapter analyzes three different conditions of the host country's labor market: full employment, voluntary unemployment, and minimal wage in combination with involuntary unemployment. It is shown that when the sanctions are steep enough, a profit-maximizing firm will assign managers to verification, which impedes the firm's productivity. The impact on the wages and / or employment of the native laborers depends on the efficiency of the verification technology, namely on the percentage of the filtered out illegal laborers in relation to the fraction of reassigned managers. If this efficiency is not high enough, the sanctions bring in their wake consequences that fly in the face of the very aim of their introduction: the welfare of the native laborers will take a beating.

Comparing Labor Market Trajectories of Refugee Women to Other Immigrant and Native-Born Women in the United States

ABSTRACT Even as the world has witnessed an unprecedented number of displaced individuals, resettlement of refugees has been met with fears about their ability to integrate into host economies. Such fears are compounded by the limited information on the long-term economic outcomes of resettlement. This study uses American Community Survey data to explore the labor market integration of refugee women resettled in the United States over the period 2002–16. It finds that, over time, refugee women tend to surpass the labor force participation (LFP) rates of native-born and other immigrant women in the US even after controlling for individual characteristics like level of education, English proficiency, and home country LFP. This indicates that refugee women are able to adapt and make positive contributions to the host labor market and strengthens the case for expanded refugee-resettlement programs in developed economies. HIGHLIGHTS The charged political debate in many developed economies about integrating refugees into economic and cultural life is often based on unfounded stereotypes. Gendered labor market outcomes of resettled groups are important to investigate since these outcomes have influenced other immigrant groups’ assimilation experiences. Though resettled refugee women in the US start with lower labor force participation rates than other groups, they outpace other immigrant and native-born women over time. Refugee women’s labor force participation rates are not influenced by their home country participation rates. Refugee women, therefore, seem quick to adapt to host country labor markets. However, their wages remain lower indicating structural inequality rather than lack of assimilation.

Qualification programmes for immigrant health professionals: A systematic review.

Immigrant health professionals are a particularly vulnerable group in a host country's labour market, as they face several barriers when re-entering their occupations. International studies indicate that early interventions can increase the employability of immigrants. Qualification programmes are one of these early interventions that can support the re-integration of these health professionals into the labour market. The purpose of this review is to identify international qualification programmes for immigrant health professionals, analyse their content and evaluate their effectiveness. Six international databases (PubMed, Web of Science, CINAHL, PsychInfo, EBSCO and ProQuest Social Sciences) were systematically searched. The search terms were identified using the PICOS-framework. The review was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). Articles were screened independently by two authors and discussed. Studies included in the final synthesis were assessed with the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) and Kirkpatrick's Training Evaluation Model. Out of 10,371 findings, 31 articles were included in the final synthesis. The majority of them were addressed to international health care professionals and doctors. Two of them were addressed to refugee doctors. Three types of programme elements were identified: teaching, clinical practise and social support. The programmes' length ranged from 2 days to up to 2.5 years. Despite recommendations in its favour, pre- and post-programme support was scarce. Results also indicate a lack of transparency and quality in terms of evaluation. Effectiveness was mostly observed in the area of language improvement and an increase in self-confidence. This review points out the lack of systematically evaluated qualification programmes for immigrant health professionals. Programme providers should focus on implementing programmes for all health professionals as well as for underrepresented groups, such as refugees. In order to generate best practises it is necessary to evaluate these programmes. This requires the development of appropriate instruments when working with immigrant population in the context of educational programmes.

Do immigrants displace native workers? Evidence from matched panel data

Using rich matched employer-employee panel data, we analyse the impact of immigrants on natives' employment. Unlike most of the existing literature, we draw on matched data and focus at the firm, occupation and worker levels, which enables us to link the labour market outcomes of natives and immigrants precisely at the locus where many popular beliefs are formed. This paper, therefore, provides a novel test of complementarity and substitutability between the natives and immigrants. Our main result shows that, contrary to previous evidence, natives at even the lower end of the skills spectrum have their employment positively affected by the presence of immigrants in the same firm and occupation. The results highlight the importance of suitable data to properly assess the impact of migration on host country's labour market.

Integration of humanitarian migrants into the host country labour market: evidence from Australia

ABSTRACTThe objective of this paper is to identify the factors that influence the labour market integration of humanitarian migrants in the host country. A number of employment outcomes are examined including access to employment, access to stable employment, the wage/earnings level and the education-occupation mismatch. By using a recently collected panel survey data in Australia, the study shows that pre-migration education, work experience, previous migration episodes, as well as English proficiency, English training, study/job training undertaken in Australia and social capital form important determinants of the labour market integration of refugees in the host country. The paper highlights the differentiated impacts of these resources on the refugees’ outcomes at six months, one year and two years after arrival.

(The Struggle for) Refugee Integration into the Labour Market: Evidence from Europe

In this paper, we use repeated cross-sectional survey data to study the labour market performance of refugees across several EU countries and over time. In the first part, we document that labour market outcomes for refugees are consistently worse than those for other comparable migrants. The gap remains sizeable even after controlling for individual characteristics as well as for unobservables using a rich set of fixed effects and interactions between area of origin, entry cohort and destination country. Refugees are 11.6 percent less likely to have a job and 22.1 percent more likely to be unemployed than migrants with similar characteristics. Moreover, their income, occupational quality and labour market participation are also relatively weaker. This gap persists until about 10 years after immigration. In the second part, we assess the role of asylum policies in explaining the observed refugee gap. We conduct a difference-in-differences analysis that exploits the differential timing of dispersal policy enactment across European countries: we show that refugee cohorts exposed to these polices have persistently worse labour market outcomes. Further, we find that entry cohorts admitted when refugee status recognition rates are relatively high integrate better into the host country labour market.

Europska kvalifikacijska putovnica za izbjeglice

Asylum seekers and refugees usually face problems with qualifications recognition that obstructs their access to the host country labour market. The Council of Europe/UNESCO Lisbon Recognition Convention regulates 'procedures designed to assess fairly and expeditiously whether refugees, displaced persons and persons in a refugee-like situation fulfil the relevant requirements for access to higher education'. Recently, the Council of Europe embarked on development of the European Qualifications Passport for Refugees. The idea was to introduce a document providing an assessment of the higher education qualifications based on available documentation and a structured interview. This document would present information on the applicant's work experience, language proficiency and provide reliable information for integration and progression towards employment and admission to further studies. The European Qualifications Passport would enable faster and smoother integration, particularly for those categories of internationally protected persons who cannot fully document their qualifications. This paper examines the legal basis on the European Qualifications Passport, institutional framework and possible implications for all host countries. The qualitative research provides an indepth analysis of legal and regulatory framework applicable to qualification recognition. The paper may contribute to ongoing discussion on integration of asylum seekers and refugees.

Naturalization and Labor Market Performance of Immigrants in Germany

Naturalization may be a relevant policy instrument affecting immigrant integration in host-country labor markets. We study the effect of naturalization on labor market outcomes of immigrants in Germany. We apply recent survey data and exploit a reform of naturalization rules in an instrumental variable estimation. In our sample of recent immigrants, linear regression yields positive correlations between naturalization and beneficial labor market outcomes. Once we account for the endogeneity of naturalization most coefficients decline in magnitude and lose statistical significance: male immigrants' labor market outcomes do not benefit significantly from naturalization. Naturalization reduces the risks of unemployment and welfare dependence for female immigrants. For males and females, the propensity to hold a permanent contract increase as a consequence of naturalization. The results are robust to modifications of samples and the instrument.

Does Outward Foreign Direct Investment Affect Job Polarization in the China's Labor Market?

Under the complex background that Chinese firms' going-out steps into the new normal and employment pressure enlarges increasingly, to explore the effect mechanism of OFDI (outward foreign direct investment) on employment polarization effect, is of great significance to the alleviation of employment contradiction at present. This paper uses the matched data of Chinese industrial firms, verifies the effect of OFDI on employment polarization based on PSM and DID method. It indicates that OFDI significantly increases the employment of its home country's labor market overall, however the impacts of OFDI differ widely:the impact of OFDI on the employment level of high-tech and low-tech firms is more obvious, and the promotion role of OFDI in medium-tech firms is relatively weak, namely the existence of high ends, middle low phenomenon of employment polarization.Further study finds that firms' foreign direct investment in the Belt and Road countries can alleviate the employment polarization of labor market in China. Compared with low-and-middle-income countries, to a certain extent the direct investment in high-income countries will intensify employment polarization trend of the host country's labor market. Compared with foreign firms, foreign investment of state-owned and private firms has intensified the trend of low-skill polarization of labor force. The research above provides a useful inspiration and reference for the sound interaction between better going-out of Chinese firms and employment priority strategy.

Prior host-country work experience and immigrant labor market outcomes: evidence from Canada

Recent changes to immigration selection policies favor skilled workers with prior work experience in the immigrant host country. Using unique administrative tax data for Canada, we estimate earnings equations to quantify the difference in earnings of immigrants with prior Canadian experience (prefilers) and those without prior experience (non-prefilers). We find that, relative to non-prefilers, entry earnings are higher for prefilers and, for male immigrants, this earnings advantage persists for at least 20 years after arrival. We show that the primary source of the higher entry earnings of prefilers is a higher return to foreign experience. In addition, the prefiler earnings advantage is largest for university graduates and the return to foreign experience is higher for prefilers from Western countries than those from the rest of the world. Our findings suggest that a move towards an immigrant selection system which uses previous host-country work experience as a criterion will improve the labor market performance of immigrants.

Immigration Economics by George J. Borjas: A Review Essay

We review Immigration Economics by George J. Borjas, published in 2014 by Harvard University Press. The book is written as a graduate-level textbook, and summarizes and updates many of Borjas's important contributions to the field over the past thirty years. A key message of the book is that immigration poses significant costs to many members of the host-country labor market. Though the theoretical and econometric approaches presented in the book will be very useful for students and specialists in the field, we argue that the book presents a one-sided view of immigration, with little or no attention to the growing body of work that offers a more nuanced picture of how immigrants fit into the host-country market and affect native workers. (JEL A22, J11, J24, J31, J61, R23)