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Immigration History, Entry Jobs, and the Labor Market Integration of Immigrants

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  • Ansala, Laura

    (City of Helsinki)

  • Aslund, Olof

    (Uppsala University)

  • Sarvimäki, Matti

    (Aalto University)

Abstract

This paper studies the relationship between past immigration experiences of the host country and the way new immigrants enter the labor market. We focus on two countries—Finland and Sweden—that have similar formal institutions but starkly different immigration histories. In both countries, immigrants tend to find their first jobs in low-paying establishments, where the manager and colleagues share their ethnic background. The associations between background characteristics, time to first job, other entry job characteristics, earnings dynamics and job stability are also remarkably similar. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the host country's immigration history plays a limited role in shaping the integration process.

Suggested Citation

  • Ansala, Laura & Aslund, Olof & Sarvimäki, Matti, 2020. "Immigration History, Entry Jobs, and the Labor Market Integration of Immigrants," IZA Discussion Papers 13089, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp13089
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    Cited by:

    1. Dagnelie, Olivier & Mayda, Anna Maria & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2019. "The labor market integration of refugees in the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 257-272.
    2. Anastasia Sinitsyna & Karin Torpan & Raul Eamets & Tiit Tammaru, 2021. "Overlap Between Industrial Niching and Workplace Segregation: Role of Immigration Policy, Culture and Country of Origin," Social Inclusion, Cogitatio Press, vol. 9(2), pages 179-191.
    3. Jacob Nielsen Arendt, 2022. "Labor market effects of a work-first policy for refugees," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 169-196, January.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    ethnic segregation; labor market integration; immigration; entry jobs;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J62 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Job, Occupational and Intergenerational Mobility; Promotion

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