The impact of immigration and integration policies on immigrant-native labour market hierarchies

Abstract

Across European Union (EU) labour markets, immigrant and native populations exhibit disparate labour market outcomes, signifying widespread labour market hierarchies. Despite the considerable investment in migration and integration policies, it remains unclear whether these contribute to or alleviate labour market hierarchies between natives and immigrants. Using a longitudinal model based on individual-level EU LFS and country-level DEMIG POLICY and POLMIG databases, we explore variation in changes of immigration and integration policies across Western EU member states to study how they are linked to labour market hierarchies in terms of unemployment and employment quality gaps between immigrant and native populations. Our findings suggest that designing less restrictive immigration and integration policies could aid in reducing existing labour market disadvantages for immigrants, enabling them to realise their full potential and reduce the immigrant-native labour market hierarchies.