Best of times,worst of times,and occupational mobility: the case of Soviet immigrants in Israel

This article compares the incorporation of two groups of immigrants from the former Soviet Union into the Israeli labour market.
The first group arrived in Israel in 1979 and the second group arrived in 1990. The first period was characterized by a small number of immigrants (best of times), and the second period was characterized by mass migration (worst of times).
Using data sets assembled by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, labour force status of the two groups in Israel were examined four years after arrival (1983 and 1994, respectively). We found no difference in rate of labour force participation but considerable differences in the rate of occupational mobility between the two groups of immigrants.
Specifically, the data reveal that immigrants were able to find employment in both periods. However, during periods of mass migration, recent immigrants had experienced higher rates of downward occupational mobility and greater loss of occupational status.     

Institutional Structure and Immigrant Integration: A Comparative Study of Immigrants' Labor Market Attainment in Canada and Israel1

The present study focuses on the incorporation of immigrants from the former Soviet Union in two receiving societies, Israel and Canada, during the first half of the 1990s. Both countries conducted national censuses in 1995 (Israel) and 1996 (Canada), making it possible to identify a large enough sample of immigrants and provide information on their demographic characteristics and their labor market activity. While both Canada and Israel are immigrant societies, their institutional contexts of immigrant reception differ considerably. Israel maintains no economic selection of the Jewish immigrants and provides substantial support for newcomers, who are viewed as a returning Diaspora. Canada employs multiple criteria for selecting immigrants, and the immigrants' social and economic incorporation is patterned primarily by market forces. The analysis first examines the characteristics of immigrants who arrived in the two countries and evaluates the extent of selectivity. Consistent with our hypotheses, Russian immigrants to Canada were more immediately suitable for the labor market, but experienced greater difficulty finding and maintaining employment. Nevertheless, immigrants to Canada attained higher‐status occupations and higher earnings than their compatriots in Israel did, although the Israeli labor market was more likely to reward their investments in education.     

Challenging transitions? Assessing the occupational mobility patterns of US immigrants by gender

This article uses the New Immigrant Survey to assess the occupational mobility of US immigrants. Estimates from OLS and Heckman selection models show the occupational mobility of immigrants follows a U-shaped pattern: immigrants arriving in the United States see their occupational status decline before it gradually improves. However, even 9 years after coming to the United States, the occupational status of immigrants remains lower than prior to their arrival in the country. Our findings also suggest that immigrant women with higher occupational status tend to move more often to the United States than immigrant men. Conversely, immigrant women are more likely than men to experience career interruptions after migration. Finally, occupational employment growth rates (defined as the growth rate in the number of jobs for an occupation) have a positive impact on both men and women immigrants' ability to recover their occupational status, though the impact appears to be greater for immigrant women.     

Do Pathways Matter? Linking Early Immigrant Employment Sequences and Later Economic Outcomes: Evidence from Canada

Employment mobility is a critical feature of immigrants’ settlement experiences and longer‐term life chances. While current research typically treats mobility as a singular outcome, becoming established in a new labor market is a complex process that can entail multiple transitions in and out of employment and between different types of jobs over time. This article advances understanding of the process of immigrant labor market incorporation by engaging with its potentially multidimensional, cumulative, and path‐dependent aspects. Using data from the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Canada, I test the impact of an empirically derived typology of month‐by‐month immigrant employment trajectories on the odds of occupational degradation and on weekly wages. I find that the pathways immigrants take through the labor market in their first four years constitute a distinct and important mechanism shaping later employment outcomes.     

The Formation of Transnational Identity among French Immigrants Employed in French‐Speaking Companies in Israel

This study focuses on the formation of a transnational identity among immigrants from France who are employed in French‐speaking companies in Israel (mostly call‐centres). The preliminary qualitative analysis shows that this unique employment pattern contributes to the formation of their transnational identity, which is a combination of their francophone, Jewish and Israeli identity. The findings obtained from a larger‐scale online survey indicated that French immigrants employed in French‐speaking companies are more ethnically, socially and culturally segregated, and less fluent in Hebrew than French immigrants who are not employed in such companies. However, no significant differences were found between these two groups in their Israeli identity and sense of belonging to Israeli society. In general, the French immigrants feel at home in Israel, are satisfied with their life in Israel and plan to remain there. The implications of these findings for policymakers are discussed.     

Self‐Selection and Economic Assimilation of Immigrants: The Case of Iranian Immigrants Arriving to Three Countries During 1979–1985

The study is designed to evaluate the impact of the interaction between patterns of immigrants' self‐selection and the context of reception at destinations on economic assimilation of Iranian immigrants who came to three countries during 1979–1985. For that purpose, we studied immigrants at the age of 22 or higher upon arrival by utilizing the 5 percent 1990 and 2000 Public Use Microdata files (PUMS) of the United States census, the 20 percent demographic samples of the 1983 and 1995 Israeli censuses of population, and the 1990 and 2000 Swedish registers. The results indicate that the “most qualified” immigrants – both on observed and unobserved variables – who left Iran right after the Islamic revolution, arrived in the US Their positive self‐selection led them to reach complete earnings assimilation with natives there. Iranian immigrants who arrived in Israel and Sweden did not achieve full earnings assimilation with natives. Of these two groups, a smaller immigrant‐to‐native gap in average earnings was found in Sweden, but in the same time Iranian immigrants in Israel were more positively self‐selected and showed better assimilation than their counterparts in Sweden. Market structure played a certain role in immigrants' earnings assimilation mainly in Sweden.     

Immigrant Economic Integration: A Prospective Analysis over Ten Years of Settlement

The growing diaspora in migration has prompted Western countries in recent years to examine the factors contributing to the economic integration of newcomers. If their integration is unsuccessful, it could create economic inequalities and be burdensome to the host society. The inequalities experienced by working immigrants have often been examined through cross‐sectional data describing the situation at a specific moment in time, with limited consideration of the complexity of the immigrant's settlement experience. This paper examines the economic integration of new immigrants through prospective analysis and considers multiple factors concurrently in an effort to address some of this complexity. The current study focuses on employment disparities across source regions. The analyses are taken from a ten‐year longitudinal survey describing the socio‐economic experience of 429 new immigrants settled in the Montreal metropolitan area. Over time, wage and occupational mobility increase, although it appears stagnant for different groups of respondents from specific regions such as East Asia, North Africa and the Middle East. Also, like respondents from sub‐Saharan Africa, these respondents face difficulties sustaining a position in the labour market.     

Immigrants and their occupational absorption: the Israeli case

This paper examines immigrants' occupational absorption by using 1) immigrants' satisfaction with their work in Israel, 2) similarity between jobs held abroad and in Israel, and 3) degree of occupational status persistence. In 1982, 41.9% of the Israeli population was foreign-born, and 84.2% were either immigrants or immigrants' children. 1972-1982 showed 1) a decrease in full-time employed persons and an increase in women's labor force participation; 2) higher educational levels; 3) an increase in scientific, academic, professional, technical, administrative, managerial, and clerical workers; and 4) lower unemployment. These trends, with Israel's high rate of inflation, make the adsorption of immigrants difficult. 80% of immigrants find work within 1 year; and, within 3 years, 78.7% report satisfaction with their work. 1) Status persistence, 2) ascent, 3) selectivity, 4) descent, and 5) random models describe immigrants change in socio-occupational status, before and after immigration. Data from the Statistical Abstract of Israel 1983 show downward mobility for immigrants in their first year. More than 1/3 of scientific and academic professionals in 1975-78, 45.2% in 1978/79, and 56.2% in 1979/80 were not employed in their previous occupations. After 3-5 years, however, most immigrants find employment in their fields. Women have lower status persistence, and hence, higher job mobility, than men; immigrants from European USSR and Western countries have higher status maintenance.     

The Occupational Assimilation of Hispanic Immigrants in the U.S.: Evidence from Panel Data1

This study focuses on the occupational component of the labor market adjustment of Hispanic immigrants. The author asks whether Hispanic immigrants assimilate with natives and what factors influence occupational attainment. The findings suggest that years since migration narrow the socioeconomic gap between Hispanic immigrants, their U.S.‐born Hispanic counterparts, and non‐Hispanic whites. The level of human capital affects the rate of occupational mobility and determines whether convergence occurs in the groups’ socioeconomic occupational status. The occupational status of Hispanic immigrants with low human capital remains fairly stable and does not converge with that of non‐Hispanic whites. However, those with high human capital experience upward occupational mobility. In part, their occupational assimilation is driven by the acquisition of human capital among younger Hispanic immigrants.     

Modes of labor market incorporation and occupational cost among new immigrants to Israel

"The present study contributes to the literature on international migration by examining social, demographic and contextual factors that influence modes of labor market incorporation and occupational cost among new immigrants during their first years after migration. The data for the analysis were obtained from the 1983 Census of Population conducted by Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics. The analysis focuses on men who immigrated to Israel between 1979 to 1983.... The data reveal that the likelihood of finding employment, the mode of labor market incorporation, and the size of the occupational cost are significantly affected by geocultural origin, occupation in the country of origin, and individual-level demographic and human capital resources. The meaning of the differentiated effects are discussed in detail. The findings point toward two central aspects that should be examined in the study of labor market incorporation of new immigrants: employment status and occupational cost."     

The labour market absorption of CIS immigrants to Israel: 1989-1994

The labour market absorption in the 1990s of some 600,000 immigrants from the ex-USSR has, on the whole, been a major success. The rate of unemployment among immigrants who came in 1990 has converged on the rate of unemployment for native Israelis. However, concern has been focused on the low rates of occupational retention and the waste of human capital that this implies. We use three micro data sets to investigate the absorption dynamics of CIS immigrants in the Israeli labour market in the 1990s.
Our findings suggest that the employment absorption process is steady, if slow. The Labour Force Survey suggests that "academics" experience positive duration dependence during the first four years in Israel. Vocational training did not appear to promote employment absorption. However, Hebrew training has a beneficial effect on employment absorption. We caution against the interpretation of occupational mismatch as being identical with the waste of human capital. It takes a long time until owners of human capital can fully adapt it to their new milieu.     

‘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.     

Ethnic Enclaves,Networks and Self‐Employment among Middle Eastern Immigrants in Sweden

The proportion of immigrants from countries in the Middle East living in Sweden has increased since the 1970s, and it is a well‐known fact that immigrants from the Middle East suffer from low earnings and high rates of unemployment on the Swedish labour market. There are often great hopes that self‐employment will enable immigrants to improve their labour market situation. Further, in Sweden as in many other countries, the question of whether the existence of ethnic enclaves are good or bad for immigrants’ earnings and employment opportunities has also been widely debated. This paper presents a study of the extent to which Middle Eastern ethnic enclaves and networks in Sweden enhance or hinder immigrants’ self‐employment. The results show that the presence of ethnic enclaves increases the propensity for self‐employment. Thus, immigrants in ethnic enclaves provide their co‐ethnics with goods and services that Swedish natives are not able to provide. The results also show that ethnic networks seem to be an obstacle to immigrant self‐employment. One explanation is that an increase in network size implies increased competition for customers among self‐employed immigrants. The question of whether ethnic enclaves are good or bad for the integration of immigrants into the labour market has been widely debated. The results of this paper provide us with information about the integration puzzle. Ethnic enclaves seem to enhance self‐employment propensities among Middle Eastern immigrants in Sweden.     

Trapped in the Working Class? Prospects for the Intergenerational (Im)Mobility of Latino Youth

Opportunities for upward mobility have been declining in the United States in recent decades. Within this context, I examine the mobility trajectories of a contemporary cohort of 1.5‐, second‐, and third‐plus‐generation Latino youth. Drawing on survey data from California that accounts for the precarious legal status of many 1.5 generation immigrants, I find that Latino youths' patterns of postsecondary enrollment and employment do not differ by generation since migration. Additionally, I do not find evidence of racial/ethnic barriers to Latino youths' enrollment in less selective colleges and participation in the labor market. Yet, given the low socioeconomic origins of many Latino youth and their correspondingly low 4‐year college enrollment rates, only a small proportion will likely enjoy upward mobility through jobs that require a bachelor's degree. Overall, the cohort of Latino youth coming of age during the Great Recession is poised to experience working‐class stagnation. This group's future access to economic and political positions of power will likely be limited by their low enrollment rates in 4‐year colleges in general, but in selective postsecondary institutions in particular.     

Settlement Intentions and Immigrant Integration: The Case of Recently Arrived EU‐Immigrants in the Netherlands

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of settlement intentions on the integration of recently arrived EU‐immigrants in the Netherlands. Hypotheses on differences in integration, both shortly after arrival and over time, are derived from the intergenerational immigrant integration model. Based on two waves of the New Immigrants to the Netherlands Survey, a longitudinal multilevel model was estimated. Most differences were found with regard to the level of integration shortly after arrival. Immigrants who intended to stay had more contact with natives, were more proficient in Dutch, and consumed more host country media than immigrants who intend to leave. On the other hand, they worked fewer hours per week than immigrants who intend to leave. Differences over time were only found with regard to Dutch language proficiency: immigrants who intend to stay increased their proficiency more strongly than immigrants who intend to leave.     

LABOR MARKET PERFORMANCE EFFECTS OF DISCRIMINATION AND LOSS OF SKILL

We examine the impact of discrimination on labor market performance when workers are subject to a risk of losing skills during an unemployment experience. Within a search and matching framework, we show that both natives and immigrants are affected by discrimination. Discrimination in one sector has positive spillovers, inducing employment to increase in the other sector and the effect on labor market performance therefore depends on whether discrimination is present in only one sector or in both. Discrimination may induce workers to train more or less than natives after having lost their skills, dependent upon in which sector there is discrimination. Net output tends to be most negatively affected by discrimination among high‐skilled workers. (JEL J15, J31, J61, J64, J71)     

The Socio-economic Integration of the Ethiopian Community in Israel

Using data from the 1995 Israeli Census of Population, this study examines the demographic, human capital, and labour force characteristics of the Ethiopian community in Israel and its determinants of employment. The results provide strong evidence for the overall disadvantaged socio‐economic status of the Ethiopian community and reveal substantial gaps in educational and occupational attainment between Ethiopian Israelis and members of other ethnic groups in Israeli society. Ethiopian Israelis have substantially lower levels of education, lower employment rates, and are more likely to have low‐skilled occupations. However, multivariate analyses show that the determinants of employment of Ethiopian Israelis are relatively similar to those of other ethnic groups. Education and veteran status are found to be especially important factors associated with increased odds of employment. Although the rates of return from education are lower among Israelis of Ethiopian origin compared to other ethnic groups, this study suggests that education constitutes the major avenue for upward mobility in the Ethiopian community. Nevertheless, considering their current disadvantaged position, the question of whether Ethiopian immigrants will manage in the long run to climb up the socio‐economic ladder and significantly improve their status, or whether they run the risk of becoming a marginalized ethnic group in Israeli society, remains a major concern. Implications for the formation of a new cleavage in Israeli society and the emergence of a stratification system based on race are discussed.     

Which Child Immigrants Face Earnings Disparity? Age‐at‐immigration,Ethnic Minority Status and Labour Market Attainment in Canada

Using Canadian Census microdata from 1990 to 2005, we investigate the earnings attainment of immigrants to Canada in 6 age‐at‐arrival cohorts. In comparison to past work we extend our understanding regarding three dimensions of the age at immigration debate: we explore heterogeneity across fine grained age‐at‐arrival cohorts, over a fifteen‐year period and across different ethnic groups. We find that white immigrants and female immigrants arriving in Canada prior to age 18 face little earnings disparity. In contrast, visible minority male immigrants face significant earnings disparity regardless of their age‐at‐migration, and additionally this disparity increases sharply with age‐at‐migration. We find a break in earnings attainment at an age‐of‐arrival of 17, with immigrants arriving after this age performing much worse than those arriving at this age or earlier. The patterns observed are found for visible minority immigrants as a whole, and for Chinese, South Asian and African/Black origin immigrants examined separately.     

Fertility Change among Post‐1989 Immigrants to Israel from the Former Soviet Union

Research on the evolution of immigrant fertility patterns has focused on the expected reduction in fertility among immigrants from high fertility, less developed countries who arrive in relatively low‐fertility developed societies. The current research considers a different context in which immigrants from the low‐fertility Former Soviet Union arrive in a relatively high‐fertility setting in Israel. This research context allows us to test various theories of immigrant fertility, which cannot normally be distinguished empirically. Results from Cox multivariate regressions of parity‐specific progression do not support assimilation theory, which would predict an increase in fertility following migration, in this context. We interpret the very low fertility rates of the FSU immigrants in Israel, relative to all relevant comparison groups, in terms of the economic uncertainty and hardship experienced during a difficult transition period by immigrants who have high aspirations for social mobility in their destination society.