Racialized Labour Market Incorporation? African Immigrants and the Role of Education‐Occupation Mismatch in Earnings

U.S. immigration policy debates increasingly center on attracting highly‐skilled immigrants. African immigrants, in particular, exhibit high levels of over‐education. But questions remain about whether African immigrants’ skills are appropriately utilized in the U.S. labour market. This paper uses U.S. Census and American Community Survey data to determine whether Africans’ over‐education leads to a corresponding wage disadvantage. I also investigate whether search and match, imperfect transferability, or queuing theory describes African immigrants’ wage outcomes. I find that, while African and Asian immigrants have similarly high rates of college education and over‐education, Africans experience significantly larger wage disadvantages due to over‐education. African immigrants’ low wages are closer to that of U.S. and Caribbean‐born blacks indicating that queuing theory describes their wage disadvantage. These findings suggest the need for policy addressing racial disparities in the labour market rather than new immigration policy.     

Latin American Migration to Spain: Main Reasons and Future Perspectives

Over the last two decades, Spain has evolved rapidly from a classic labour exporter to a labour importer. Until the 1930s Spain's migration history was predominantly marked by emigration to the Americas, and from the end of World War II until the early 1970s by emigration to some industrialized countries in Western Europe. For the first time in modern times, Spain is now the second country in the world with large‐scale immigration. Its strategic location, a relatively permissive immigration policy and economic opportunities derived from Spain's entry into the European Community have positioned this country as a major destination for immigrants. Additionally, since the mid‐1990s international migration in Spain has dramatically changed in origin composition. Despite the common perception of Africa as the most important source of immigration, some Latin American countries, in a very short time, have become some of the major sources of immigration to Spain; indeed, the term “Latin‐Americanization” has been coined to describe this process. This being so, the aim of this article is twofold. First, we examine the main reasons behind the extremely rapid increase of Latin American migration to Spain during the last decade. Then we briefly discuss some future perspectives.     

Earning Gaps for Chinese Immigrants in Canada and the United States

This study compares the US and Canada on the gap in earnings between Chinese immigrants and native‐born whites. Canada and the US are arguably more alike than most possible country pairings, yet they differ in significant ways in their approaches to immigration and integration. The primary difference between Canada and the US regarding immigration policy is that Canada selects a larger proportion of economic immigrants – that is, those admitted based on their ability to contribute to the economy – than the US's focus on family reunification. Canadian immigration and multicultural integration policy does not appear to improve Chinese immigrant earnings in the way that might be predicted from Canada's skilled‐based immigrant selection policy and welcoming social context. In spite of a more laissez‐faire approach to immigrant integration and a less skill‐selective immigration policy, we show that Chinese immigrants are earning relatively more in the US than in Canada.     

Flows of People and Knowledge between Italy and Australia

This article analyses 20 years of bilateral peoples' flows between Italy and Australia using a unique set of data collected by Australia's Department of Immigration and Citizenship. This period has witnessed substantial changes in the composition of migration between the two countries. Against a historical background where migration is mostly composed of unskilled Italians relocating to Australia, the past two decades have seen a progressive increase in the arrival of young and highly skilled/qualified Italians on a short‐term basis. Conversely, there has been an increase in older Australians moving to or visiting Italy for work. Such changes have affected the bilateral skill flows, whose relevance has increased as globalization forces have made international transport easier and cheaper. Australia remains a “magnet” for Italians, and, unlike the historical origin of Italy's early immigrants, it now enjoys a net inflow of highly skilled labour.     

‘Survival Employment’: Gender and Deskilling among African Immigrants in Canada

Recent research points to a growing gap between immigrant and native‐born outcomes in the Canadian labour market at the same time as selection processes emphasize recruiting highly educated newcomers. Drawing on interviews with well‐educated men and women who migrated from countries in sub‐Saharan Africa, this paper explores the gendered processes that produce weak economic integration in Canada. Three‐quarters of research participants experienced downward occupational mobility, with the majority employed in low‐skilled, low‐wage, insecure forms of “survival employment”. In a gendered labour market, where common demands for “Canadian experience”, “Canadian credentials” and “Canadian accents” were uneven across different sectors of the labour market, women faced particular difficulties finding “survival employment”; in the long run, however, women’s greater investment in additional post‐secondary education within Canada placed them in a somewhat better position than men. The policy implications of this study are fourfold: first, we raise questions about the efficacy of Canadian immigration policies that prioritize the recruitment of well‐educated immigrants without addressing the multiple barriers that result in deskillling; second, we question government policies and settlement practices that undermine more equitable economic integration of immigrants; third, we address the importance of tackling the “everyday racism” that immigrants experience in the Canadian labour market; and finally, we suggest the need to re‐think narrowly defined notions of economic integration in light of the gendered nature of contemporary labour markets, and immigrants’ own definitions of what constitutes meaningful integration.     

Resurgent Irish immigration to the U.S. in the 1980s and early 1990s: a socio-demographic profile

Irish immigration to the US has been motivated traditionally by a lack of employment opportunities at home. With the passage of the US Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, however, Irish immigrants were no longer explicitly favoured. Family reunification became the primary path of entry, which worked against the Irish who had lost their immediate generational link with US residents.
During the severe Irish recession of 1980–85 a resurgence in Irish outflows resulted in a large undocumented Irish population in the US. Most of this population was later legalized as a result of special legislation that targeted the Irish. There have been concerns in Ireland that the outflow in the 1980s, unlike prior flows, included a high proportion of skilled persons, leading some to characterize the outflow as a "new wave".
This article uses US immigration data to assess how the occupational characteristics of recent Irish immigrants compare with prior immigrant cohorts and also examines how Irish immigrants are incorporated into the US economy.
Recent Irish immigrants to the US spanned the occupational spectrum: accountants, engineers, nurses and other professionals found a booming job market in the most advanced sectors of the US economy, while less skilled immigrants found jobs in the informal economy. While the number of entering Irish professionals increased, flows of the less skilled increased even more dramatically, resulting in an overall decline in the occupational selectivity of Irish immigrants.
The 1980–85 Irish recession has been followed by robust growth for more than a decade. Ireland is now experiencing a net inflow of persons, including many Irish professionals returning from the US. However, Ireland continues to experience a net outflow of the young and less skilled which may once again result in a large undocumented Irish presence in the US.     

Channels of Entry and Preferred Destinations: The Circumvention of Denmark by Chinese Immigrants

As globalization spread during the 1990s, and especially since the turn of the millennium, European states have increasingly claimed their right to assert their sovereignty by regulating migration at the level of the individual (OECD, 2001: 76–81). Political parties have succeeded in gaining support on policy statements pertaining exclusively to migration. For example, recent legislation in Denmark restricts the categories of persons eligible as refugees to “Convention refugees” satisfying only the narrowest international criteria set out in the UN Refugee Convention. The civil rights of asylum seekers are restricted by prohibiting marriage while their applications are under review. To limit family reunification among immigrants, the present Danish Government has even prohibited immigrants with permanent residence status and Danish citizens from bringing non‐Danish spouses under age 24 into the country. These attempts at border enforcement and immigration control have been described by some critics as the endeavours of European Union (EU) members to build a “Fortress Europe” against immigrants from developing countries. Policy decisions and the implementation of various measures from finger printing to radar surveillance to control immigrants have corroborated such perceptions, but this paper will show that gaining entry to a highly controlled country such as Denmark from a poorer country such as the People's Republic of China (PRC) is fairly straightforward. Politicians may wish to convey the impression of being in control of international mobility by launching diverse anti‐immigration acts, but since the immigration embargo of the early 1970s all EU countries have received millions of immigrants, and increasingly permit or accept immigrants of various kinds to reside and work within their borders (Boeri et al., 2002). Immigration from developing countries is not evenly distributed throughout the EU, but rather targets specific destinations. This article will attempt to explain the direction of Chinese immigration flows to Europe in response to labour‐market demand, rather than as a consequence of “loopholes” in a country's legal or welfare provisions. By analysing historical and demographic data on the PRC Chinese in Denmark, I attempt to demonstrate that, despite being a European country with one of the lowest asylum rejection rates for PRC Chinese, the scope of Chinese asylum seekers and regular and irregular migrants arriving by way of family reunification remained limited in the 1990s compared to southern, central, and eastern European countries. My analysis of Danish data in relation to Chinese migration suggest that destinations related to the globalization of Chinese migration is more determined by labour and capital markets than the presumed attraction of social welfare benefits provided by a European welfare state such as Denmark.     

Recent Immigration to Canada and the United States: A Mixed Tale of Relative Selection

Using large‐scale census data and adjusting for sending‐country fixed effect to account for changing composition of immigrants, we study relative immigrant selection to Canada and the U.S. during 1990–2006, a period characterized by diverging immigration policies in the two countries. Results show a gradual change in selection patterns in educational attainment and host‐country language proficiency in favor of Canada as its post‐1990 immigration policy allocated more points to the human capital of new entrants. Specifically, in 1990, new immigrants in Canada were less likely to have a B.A. degree than those in the U.S.; they were also less likely to have a highschool or lower education. By 2006, Canada surpassed the U.S. in drawing highly educated immigrants, while continuing to attract fewer low‐educated immigrants. Canada also improved its edge over the U.S. in terms of host‐country language proficiency of new immigrants. Entry‐level earnings, however, do not reflect the same trend: Recent immigrants to Canada have experienced a wage disadvantage compared to recent immigrants to the U.S., as well as Canadian natives. One plausible explanation is that while the Canadian points system has successfully attracted more educated immigrants, it may not be effective in capturing productivity‐related traits that are not easily measurable.     

Explaining Attitudes towards Self-employment among Immigrants: A Canadian Case Study

Implicit in Canada's immigration policies is that some immigrants are endowed with a particular entrepreneurial spirit, and that this spirit relates to immigrants’ origin. This paper examines whether attitudes towards entrepreneurship indeed relate to origin, or whether they can be explained through labour market circumstances at the place of settlement and/or Canada's immigrant selection procedure. The empirical study focuses on the reported attitudes towards entrepreneurship. A survey of 509 Vancouver residents of a predominantly Chinese immigrant neighbourhood, a predominantly South Asian immigrant neighbourhood, and a neighbourhood of non‐immigrants reveals that ethnic origin is a weak indicator of entrepreneurial attitudes. Instead, urban or rural background emerges as a more powerful predictor. The results also raise doubts about whether the Canadian government's immigration policy, which selects immigrants on the basis of economic potential, indeed selects immigrants with a greater desire to become self‐employed. Furthermore, the amount of time immigrants have spent in Canada does not significantly affect attitudes towards entrepreneurship.     

A New Era in Australian Multiculturalism? From Working‐Class “Ethnics” To a “Multicultural Middle‐Class”

This article analyses the changing socio‐economic profile of the “multicultural” section of the Australian population, in the past officially referred to as people of “non‐English‐speaking background” (NESB). After importing low‐skilled NESB labor to service the manufacturing boom of the post‐war decades, at the end of the 1970s, following economic restructuring, the Australian immigration program was refocused on skilled intake which resulted in immigrants increasingly becoming a middle‐class demographic. Over the past three decades, a “multicultural middle class” (MMC) has been created from two sources: the intake of highly skilled NESB immigrants and upwardly mobile second and third migrant generations. The article documents this demographic change using census and immigration data, and discusses what it may mean for the future of Australian multiculturalism, which, according to many analysts, is in crisis and requires re‐articulation.     

How to Overcome Deadlock in EU Immigration Politics

Immigration policy is a very unlikely case for EU integration. EU policy‐making is constrained by member states' sovereignty claims and interest heterogeneity. Still, tentative integration towards EU conditions of entry and residence for some immigrant categories can be observed. By using the example of the skilled labour migration directive, the article explains how deadlock in policy‐making was overcome. It explores the factors that led to agreement in the EU immigration policy area, from the Commission's first proposal on labour migration in 2001 to its adoption in 2009. Explanations for integration in the policy area are member states' venue shopping the EU level for changing domestic legislation, their interest in locking‐in national standards in EU law, and the EU Commission's agenda‐framing. Strategic partitioning of policy was also used by actors to overcome deadlock in policy‐making. The reframing of policies, by reducing their scope to a few narrowly defined immigrant categories, influenced their adoption. This mechanism was observed in studying the eight years of policy‐making leading to the labour migration directive. The longitudinal analysis helps to identify the key dynamics that define this nascent EU policy area.     

New Directions in Immigration Policy: Canada's Evolving Approach to the Selection of Economic Immigrants

Canada's immigration system is currently undergoing significant change driven by several goals that include (1) a desire to improve the economic outcomes of entering immigrants; (2) an attempt to better respond to short‐term regional labor market shortages often associated with commodity booms, and (3) a desire to shift immigration away from the three largest cities to other regions of the country. These goals reflect the implementation of new immigration programs in the 2000s. The paper discusses the recent changes to Canadian immigration policy, examines preliminary evaluations of the new programs and discusses potential future issues emanating from the changes.     

Regionalization,economic restructuring and labour migration in Singapore

This paper documents the impact of economic development on changes in employment and labour migration in Singapore.
High export-led growth and the relaxation of immigration policies in the late 1960s enabled employment of substantial numbers of unskilled foreign labour in manufacturing, construction and domestic service sectors. Unskilled foreign labour in Singapore now totals about 350,000 or 20 per cent of the labour force. It has made possible an augmentation of domestic labour supply and skills which helped Singapore to achieve higher rates of economic growth. On the negative side, the influx of foreigners has been cited as one possible cause of low productivity growth in the 1970s. In addition to the increased demand on housing, the social costs of crime and the potential economic consequence arising from strained diplomatic ties with the source countries are also areas of concern.
Economic development in the 1990s, characterized by the regionalization drive which relocates relatively resource-intensive operations of Singapore-based companies overseas, has led to increased retrenchments and a moderation of demand for foreign workers. The upgrading of remaining production operations in Singapore is expected to increase demand for workers with higher skill levels. Emigration of highly educated and skilled professionals from Singapore became a national concern in the late 1980s. However, with regionalization, the new challenge in the 1990s has become one of encouraging Singaporeans to temporarily take up overseas positions.
The future foreign labour pool in Singapore is expected to comprise a growing proportion of skilled workers to sustain the 7–8 per cent economic growth rate in the medium term. Slower economic growth in the developed economies and the internationally competitive salaries paid to professionals in Singapore are expected to continue to reduce the outflow of permanent emigrants from Singapore.     

A Closed Immigration Country: Revisiting Japan as a Negative Case

The Japanese government maintains that the country admits only skilled economic migrants. Its statistics tell a different story. Skilled and low‐skilled economic migrants are admitted in equal measure. The aim of this article is to explain the dissonance between the government's policy rhetoric and policy outcome by turning to policy output. To this end, I quantitatively analyse immigration admission channels for economic migrants, using Ruhs' Openness and Rights Indicators (2013). The main findings not only go against much of what we believe about Japan but helps us reach a more nuanced understanding of its immigration policies. I demonstrate that Japanese immigration admission policies have become more open towards de facto low‐skilled economic migrants over time and are more open to de facto low‐skilled economic migrants than to de jure skilled economic migrants. Instead of openness, the gains made by certain groups of de jure skilled economic migrants have been exclusive immigration privileges related to permanent residence and family sponsorship.     

Are the Consequences of Experiencing Discrimination the same for Immigrants of Differing Socio‐Economic Status in Japan?

Scholars have identified the negative effects of discrimination on immigrants’ well‐being by focusing on the nature of discrimination. However, whether the social status of immigrants influences the effects of discrimination on well‐being remains unclear. To answer this question, this study extends current research by focusing on how immigrants’ occupational status moderates the effects of discrimination on well‐being. Based on two sets of survey data, the results show that skilled immigrants are more likely to be negatively affected by discrimination than are unskilled immigrants. This phenomenon might be explained by the immigrants’ comparisons of discrimination experiences prior to migration. The findings suggest that to explain the mechanism underlying discrimination's negative effect on immigrants’ psychological well‐being, researchers should pay more attention to immigrants’ characteristics and their experiences before migration. The results of this study have important implications for immigration policy in Japan and other ethnically homogeneous countries, such as South Korea.     

Is there any merit to the merit-based immigration system? What Sub-Saharan African immigrant labor and housing market outcomes tell us about U.S. economic and immigration systems

For decades, U.S. immigration policy debates have centered on creating a merit-based system limiting entry to high-skilled immigrants. Yet the emphasis on merit-based immigration ignores the fact that high-skilled immigrants already enter the United States in merit-based immigration assume high-skilled immigrants benefit the U.S. economy because they are better able than low-skilled immigrants to translate skills into economic success. Using Sub-Saharan (Black) African immigrants' labor and housing market outcomes, I show that meritocracy only partially explains U.S. labor and housing outcomes, leaving a merit-based system unlikely to address America's economic needs. The majority of immigrants to the U.S. are non-White, and racial discrimination in the labor market results in occupational and wage disadvantages in the U.S. Due to the public charge rule, high skilled immigrants may be less likely to get their visas renewed or green card applications approved because of these labor market disadvantages. Without stable visa status, high-skilled immigrants will be less likely to make long-term economic investments in the United States—an important way of contributing to the U.S. economy. Together, research indicates that U.S. immigration reform will not work without first enacting policy addressing racial disparities in economic systems.     

Labour Market Limbo: The Uneven Integration of Co‐Ethnic Argentine Immigrants in Spain

Immigration and citizenship laws that discriminate by race, ethnicity, and national origins are increasingly illegitimate in contemporary democracies, yet laws that grant privileged access and membership to immigrants who share natives' ethnicity persist. This enduring positive selection rests upon the assumption that co‐ethnicity fosters integration. Countering this logic, this article centers on co‐ethnics' insertion into local labour markets. It draws from a case study of Aguaviva, Spain, a depopulating village in which both co‐ethnic Argentines and Romanian immigrants reside. The analysis qualifies the trend of deracialization in immigration and citizenship policy and shows that positive preferences do not uniformly foster integration. In dual labour market systems, co‐ethnics struggle because they are not different enough for secondary sector jobs reserved for immigrant “others,” yet in the primary sector they enter into direct competition with natives.     

Migration at a Time of Global Economic Crisis: The Situation in Spain

In this paper, we offer an initial assessment of the impact of the economic crisis on Spain's migration flows. After a period of intensive economic growth and the ensuing immigratory appeal (1995–2007), Spain has been hit hard by the recession. This has modified the trends that had so far characterized foreign immigration in Spain. The impact of the economic recession has been particularly severe in the case of immigrant workers and, consequently, from an institutional point of view, the Spanish government has adopted various measures to restrict the arrival of new immigrants: it has reduced work permit quotas and it has modified the Foreign Residents Law, toughening residence permit requirements. It has also tried to encourage voluntary returns with a programme devised to provide assistance to immigrants originating from countries with which Spain has social security agreements. The response to this programme has, however, been very limited. Immigration flows have continued and rates of return have stayed low, although new trends are also detectable, such as a decrease in the number of irregular arrivals and a rise in informal employment, as well as differences in the impact of unemployment according to nationality and gender. This reveals the complexity of migration processes beyond the supply and demand of labour and the political will to regulate human mobility. Consequently, immigration patterns in Spain reveal the degree of complexity reached by human mobility, which has increased beyond the logic of the labour market and the government's attempts at regulating migration flows by means of institutional measures. The immigrants' hope of raising their standard of living and the socio‐economic differences between source and receiving countries, even at a time of severe economic crisis, do still serve as explanations for current migration networks, one of the key points in the current debate on international migration.     

The shaping of Australia's immigration and refugee policy

Since 1945, the objectives of Australia's immigration policy have been based at one time or another on security, self‐sufficiency, labour market considerations, economic growth, homogeneity, population building and social and humanitarian considerations. The scale of immigration has been influenced by the level of unemployment, general economic conditions prevailing at the time, the political party in government, the lobbying power of prospective interest groups, public perception and receptiveness, and foreign policy considerations. Australia's refugee policy (including intake), which was only formalized in 1977, has been determined by the resettlement needs around the world, foreign policy considerations and domestic politics.     

The effect of immigration on the earnings of native-born workers: Evidence from Australia

No consensus has been reached by previous studies on the impact of immigration on the earnings of natives. Using data from the Australia's 2001 Census of Population and Housing an individual-level earnings function is estimated by including the fraction of immigrants in a given skill group relative to total employment in that skill group as one of the independent variables. Using employees’ occupation and level of education as proxies for skill, the results indicate that generally immigrants have a significant positive effect on earnings of natives. The overall findings suggest that the increase in supply of labour due to immigration is offset by higher demand for labour and hence positive effect on native earnings.