Migration and Workplace Safety: A Theoretical Framework

Using microdata from the 2014 EU-LFS Ad Hoc Module on the “Labour market situation of immigrants and their immediate descendants”, we find that workers with lower human capital—i.e., both EU immigrants and natives—are engaged in more physically burdensome work, consistent with firms’ lower incentives to invest in safety. Extra-EU foreign-born workers are more likely to be placed in harder, manually laborious jobs than EU workers, probably due to the low transferability of skills acquired in the home country. Having extra-EU parents creates no disadvantage when individuals are born and educated in Europe. Hence, once education and country-specific skills are accounted for, migration status per se does not increase the physical burden. The results also suggest gender heterogeneity- immigrant women are likely to be segregated into service and care occupations, while immigrant men may access a broader range of occupations. Overall, the results are consistent with the theoretical model, highlighting the extent to which human capital acquired in the country of origin is valued in the European labour market. These findings have important policy implications, as they could inform public actions against labour market discrimination.