The goal of the current study was to investigate the relationships among psychological resources, career barriers, and job search self-efficacy in a sample of post-2014 Syrian refugees. Participants included 330 refugees in Greece and the Netherlands. Data were obtained using paper-based surveys, with all measures translated into Arabic. Drawing from career construction theory (Savickas, 2005), we hypothesized that adaptive readiness, operationalized in terms of psychological capital, would be positively related to job search self-efficacy through career adaptability. In addition, social and administrative career barriers were hypothesized to moderate the first stage of the indirect effect between psychological capital and job search self-efficacy, such that this relationship is weaker when refugees experience higher career barriers. Results indicated that individuals with higher psychological capital more confidently engaged in job search behavior in the destination country, mostly due to their enhanced career adaptability. However, this relationship weakened when participants experienced higher social barriers and strengthened when they experienced higher administrative barriers. The findings provide further support for the career construction model of adaptation (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012) and pinpoint career adapt-ability resources as critical self-regulatory strengths that help individuals in this particularly vulnerable group adapt to occupational transitions. Moreover, the results highlight the potentially detrimental role of social barriers in this process. Based on the results, we offer implications for formulating training and career construction theory-based career counseling focused on enhancing career adaptability and psychological capital.

This article examines how the location, function and quality of immigrant accommodation facilities, regulated by local housing policies, shape the perceived effects of immigration on the well‐being of residents and immigrants in three villages in the Netherlands. Drawing on semistructured interviews with local government representatives, residents and Romanian and Polish immigrants, we show how the different locations of the immigrant accommodations condition social interactions between residents and immigrants and, in this process, reinforce social hierarchies and inequalities. We illustrate how, sometimes unintentionally, spatial policies prepare the stage for conflicts to arise between immigrants and residents, shaping the latter's experiences of migration irrespective of the behaviour of the former. For immigrants, the location of their accommodation sets the limits to what they can do in terms of private behaviour and social relations, exposing them to social control and evaluation.

In this study, we analyse the relationship between migration and inequality, within a network setting. Specifically, we employ social network analysis to investigate whether migration flows move between countries with similar or dissimilar levels of income and inequality, across 41 European countries. We observe that emigration flows move between more unequal to less unequal countries and find indications of two migration regimes: one reflecting the movement predominantly between EU-15 member states and another propelled by per-capita income differences for the migrants from other countries in Europe. As the first study to investigate the relationship between inequality and migration flows within a network, rather than considering the flows as unrelated to each other, it significantly contributes to our understanding of the complex relationship between inequality and migration.

This chapter provides the historical context for the past half-century in Europe, focusing specifically on the link between migration and economic development and inequality. The literature review suggests that there are several channels through which migration affects economic inequality between countries in one or the other direction, and it may decrease inequality within countries. The net effects are an open empirical question and are likely to depend on the institutional and policy context, sources and destinations of migration, and its type. The authors undertake an empirical analysis and find that immigration has contributed to reducing inequality within the 25 European Union (EU) countries over the 2003–2017 period. As the EU has attracted mostly high-skilled immigrants throughout this period, the authors’ results are consistent with the ameliorating effect of high-skilled migration on within-country inequality, as predicted by theory.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of employment protection legislation (EPL) on self-employment in a comparative analysis between immigrants and natives. Specifically, it investigates whether, as a result of more stringent regulations, self-employment becomes a vehicle for better labour market integration for immigrants and natives, and for better matching between the supply and demand of labour and skills. Design/methodology/approach The authors use OECD indicators on the strictness of EPL, self-employment rates calculated for natives and immigrants from the EU Labour Force Survey and a range of control variables, in a longitudinal study covering 18 European countries over the period 1995–2013. The analysis employs a panel regression with random effects as the baseline model, with country and time fixed effects models serving for robustness checks. Findings The results indicate that EPL of regular contracts affects native self-employment positively, with some evidence of a negative effect for immigrants. On the other hand, EPL of temporary contracts positively affects immigrants’ self-employment. These results indicate that a stricter EPL crowds out incumbent native workers from the prime employment segment of regular contracts into self-employment, whereas a similar effect exists for immigrant workers in the segment of temporary contracts. This is consistent with the hypothesis of segmentation of labour market opportunities between insiders and outsiders, with implications for immigration, employment and entrepreneurship policies. Originality/value This is the first study to systematically study the effect of EPL on immigrant and native self-employment in a comparative framework. It elucidates to what extent self-employment serves as an alternative channel of labour market integration in response to less and more strict regulation of regular and temporary employment contracts. Distinguishing immigrant and native workers helps us understand how these effects may differ for outsiders and insiders in the labour market, as represented by the two groups.