Labour Market Inclusion of Immigrants in Austria and Sweden: The Significance of the Period of Migration and the Effect of Citizenship Acquisition

This paper attempts to assess the labour market integration of ex-Yugoslav immigrants in two European countries - Austria and Sweden - in terms of the relevant structural characteristics of the two societies, i.e. immigration and citizenship policies, labour market structure and welfare regimes, focusing on the role of the period of migration and the effect of citizenship acquisition on labour market outcomes. Austrian 1996 micro census and Swedish 1997 labour force survey data are utilized to explore the labour market attainment of former Yugoslav citizens in Austria and Sweden in terms of the four outcomes: labour force participation, unemployment, industrial concentration and occupational status. The results of the multivariate analysis show that in Sweden activity rates of all Yugoslav immigrants are substantially lower than those of the socio-demographically comparable native-born national population, while in Austria, Yugoslavs exhibit trends of labour force participation similar to native Austrians. Yugoslav immigrants are disadvantaged with respect to employment in both Sweden and Austria, but the magnitude of the unemployment gap of immigrants in Sweden is much higher. If successful in finding a job, Yugoslav immigrants of the most recent immigrant wave in Sweden managed to enter on average more prestigious occupations as compared to their compatriots in Austria, but are disadvantaged when compared to the native-born in both countries. Furthermore, in addition to the obvious segregation of the guest workers' wave in the non-tertiary sectors in both Sweden and Austria, over-representation of the most recent Yugoslav immigrants in the non-tertiary sector in Austria is evident. Focusing on the effect of the citizenship acquisition, the study proves that in Sweden, a country of permanent migration, citizenship per se does not influence labour market outcomes, when controlling for period of migration. In Austria, non-citizens have higher probability of labour force participation, higher risks of employment in non-tertiary sector and lower occupational status when controlling for the period of migration and socio-demographic characteristics