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Labour market assimilation of immigrants in Spain: employment at the expense of bad job-matches?

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Author Info
Fernandez, Cristina () (IESE Business School)
Ortega, Carolina (FEDEA)

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Abstract

Spain has traditionally been known as a country of emigrants. However, in the last decade, Spain has experienced an unprecedented boom of immigration from three localized areas: Latin America, Africa and East Europe. In this paper, we study the behaviour of recent immigrants in the Spanish labour market identifying the major differences with the native population and tracking whether these differences fade away as their years of residence in Spain increase. With this objective, we focus on four labour market outcomes: labour supply, unemployment, incidence of overeducation and incidence of temporary contracts. Results show that, compared to natives, immigrants face initially higher participation rates, higher unemployment rates, higher incidence of overeducation and higher incidence of temporary contracts. However, five years after their arrival we could broadly say that participation rates start to converge to native rates, unemployment rates decrease to levels even lower than those of natives, and the incidence of temporary contracts and overeducation remains constant: no reduction of the gap with Spanish workers is observed. Therefore, we conclude that the Spanish labour market is managing to absorb the so called, 'immigration boom ', but at the expense of allocating immigrants in bad job-matches.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by IESE Business School in its series IESE Research Papers with number D/644.

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Length: 22 pages
Date of creation: 03 Sep 2006
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Handle: RePEc:ebg:iesewp:d-0644

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Postal: IESE Business School, Av Pearson 21, 08034 Barcelona, SPAIN
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Related research
Keywords: immigration; assimilation; labor force participation; unemployment; overeducation; temporary contracts;

Other versions of this item:

Find related papers by JEL classification:
J11 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Demographic Trends and Forecasts
J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Catalina Amuedo-Dorantes & Sara de la Rica, 2006. "Labor Market Assimilation of Recent Immigrants in Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 2104, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  2. Robert J. LaLonde & Robert H. Topel, 1990. "The Assimilation of Immigrants in the U.S. Labor Markets," NBER Working Papers 3573, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  3. Wei-Yin Hu, 2000. "Immigrant Earnings Assimilation: Estimates from Longitudinal Data," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 90(2), pages 368-372, May. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Derek Hum & Wayne Simpson, 2004. "Reinterpreting the performance of immigrant wages from panel data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 29(1), pages 129-147, January. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Chiswick, Barry R, 1978. "The Effect of Americanization on the Earnings of Foreign-born Men," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 86(5), pages 897-921, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  6. Baker, Michael & Benjamin, Dwayne, 1994. "The Performance of Immigrants in the Canadian Labor Market," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 12(3), pages 369-405, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  7. Pieter Bevelander & Helena Skyt Nielsen, 2001. "Declining employment success of immigrant males in Sweden: Observed or unobserved characteristics?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 14(3), pages 455-471. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  8. Borjas, George J, 1985. "Assimilation, Changes in Cohort Quality, and the Earnings of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 3(4), pages 463-89, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  9. Richard B. Freeman, 1982. "Crime and the Labor Market," NBER Working Papers 1031, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. David Card, 2005. "Is the New Immigration Really so Bad?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 115(507), pages F300-F323, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  11. Dustmann, C, 1993. "Earnings Adjustment of Temporary Migrants," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 6(2), pages 153-68, May.
  12. Chiswick, Barry R, 1986. "Is the New Immigration Less Skilled Than the Old?," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 4(2), pages 168-92, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Amelie Constant & Douglas S. Massey, 2003. "Self-selection, earnings, and out-migration: A longitudinal study of immigrants to Germany," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 16(4), pages 631-653, November. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  14. John M. Abowd & Richard B. Freeman, 1991. "Immigration, Trade and the Labor Market," NBER Books, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc, number abow91-1, September.
  15. Francine D. Blau & Lawrence M. Kahn, 2005. "Gender and Assimilation Among Mexican Americans," NBER Working Papers 11512, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  16. Friedberg, Rachel M, 2000. "You Can't Take It with You? Immigrant Assimilation and the Portability of Human Capital," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 18(2), pages 221-51, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
    Other versions:
  17. George J. Borjas, 1994. "The Economics of Immigration," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 32(4), pages 1667-1717, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  18. Michael Beenstock & Barry R. Chiswick & Ari Paltiel, 2005. "Endogenous Assimilation and Immigrant Adjustment in Longitudinal Data," IZA Discussion Papers 1840, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
  19. Borjas, George J., 1999. "The economic analysis of immigration," Handbook of Labor Economics, in: O. Ashenfelter & D. Card (ed.), Handbook of Labor Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 28, pages 1697-1760 Elsevier. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  20. Harriet Orcutt Duleep & Mark C. Regets, 1996. "Earnings Convergence: Does It Matter Where Immigrants Come From or Why?," Canadian Journal of Economics, Canadian Economics Association, vol. 29(s1), pages 130-34, April.
  21. Pål Longva & Oddbjørn Raaum, 2003. "Earnings assimilation of immigrants in Norway – A reappraisal," Journal of Population Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 177-193, 02. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
Full references

Cited by:
(explanations, Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.)

  1. Mario Izquierdo & Aitor Lacuesta & Raquel Vegas, 2009. "Assimilation of immigrants in Spain: A longitudinal analysis," Banco de España Working Papers 0904, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  2. Sanromá, Esteve & Ramos, Raul & Simón, Hipólito, 2009. "Immigrant Wages in the Spanish Labour Market: Does the Origin of Human Capital Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 4157, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  3. Samuel Bentolila & Juan J. Dolado & Juan F. Jimeno, 2007. "Does Immigration Affect the Phillips Curve? Some Evidence for Spain," IZA Discussion Papers 3249, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA). [Downloadable!]
    Other versions:
  4. Aitor Lacuesta & Sergio Puente & Pilar Cuadrado, 2009. "Omitted variables in the measure of a labour quality index: the case of Spain," Banco de España Working Papers 0835, Banco de España. [Downloadable!]
  5. Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael & Carrera, Miguel & Antón, José-Ignacio, 2009. "From guests to hosts: a first whole picture of immigrant-native wage differentials in Spain," MPRA Paper 13928, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  6. Antón, José-Ignacio & Carrera, Miguel & Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael, 2009. "How are you doing in your grandpa’s country? Labour market performance of Latin American immigrants in Spain," MPRA Paper 15051, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  7. Muñoz de Bustillo, Rafael & Antón, José-Ignacio, 2009. "From rags to riches? Immigration and poverty in Spain," MPRA Paper 13848, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
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