A division of labour? Labour market segmentation by region of origin: the case of intra-EU migrants in the UK, Germany and Denmark

Abstract

The EU enlargements of 2004 and 2007 made CEE citizen legally equal EU labour market participants. However, CEE immigrants still face 'racialisation' and segmentation in North-Western Europe in terms of labour market integration. Similar processes might extend to EU-South migrants, giving rise to a division of labour, whereby CEE and EU-South migrants find poor-quality, low-pay jobs in the North-Western EU labour markets.We compare the labour market integration of four groups of recent intra-EU migrants (EU8, EU2, EU-South and EU-West/EEA) in the UK, Germany and Denmark. Using labour force, microcensus and register data, we measure quantitative labour market integration through labour force participation, and qualitative integration through hourly wages.Despite differences in migration trends, labour markets and welfare regimes, we find a consistent pattern of labour market segmentation along occupational and industry lines amongst recent EU immigrant groups in the three countries. EU-West/EEA immigrants out-perform both natives and all other immigrant groups in terms of wages. EU8 and EU2 immigrants have high employment propensities, but also lower wages. EU-South immigrants have lower wages and lower employment propensities. These findings require replication across the North-Western EU countries; however, they suggest that inequalities across the EU are being reproduced rather than converging.

Impacts of negative labor market experiences on the life satisfaction of European East–West mobile workers: Cross-border commuters from the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in Austria

“…Reviewing recent empirical studies on labor-related East-West mobility across the EU, there is strong evidence of what might be termed a 'dark side' of East-West mobility. These studies together show that East-West mobile workers are highly concentrated in the industry sectors and occupations marked by relatively low wages as well as skill requirements, that they are comparatively often overqualified and that they experience earning disadvantages (Felbo-Kolding et al, 2019;Friberg et al, 2014;Fries-Tersch et al, 2018;Janicka and Kaczmarczyk, 2016;Johnston et al, 2015;Khattab and Fox, 2016;P r ıvara et al, 2019;Voitchovsky, 2014). In an overview of research on Eastern European migrants' wage differentials, mobility and qualification gaps in comparison to native workers, Fox et al (cf.…”

Labor Economics and Career Development in the Context of Globalized World

“…Their inflow put pressure to reduce wages of competing native workers (with the similar skills as immigrants possess) and increase of those complementary workers (with skills that complement of skills offered by immigrants [6]. The influence of the intra-EU migrants in the UK, Germany and Denmark was analyzed by Felbo-Kolding, Leschke, and Spreckelsen [7] after the 2004/2007 EU enlargement. They find that it causes a division of labor along occupational and industry lines and determinates wage differences in the mentioned countries, specifically, EU-West/EEA migrants occupy better jobs (even outperforming nationals), followed by EU-South and CEE migrants.…”

With a Little Help from My Friends: Social-Network Job Search and Overqualification among Recent Intra-EU Migrants Moving from East to West

“…Migrants’ destination countries differ in terms of labour market opportunities, labour market regulation and proximity of language (Dustmann and Fabbri, 2003), as well as the size and location of ethnic communities. Similarly, the labour market outcomes – including overqualification – of CEE migrants are likely to differ by country of origin given variations in pull and push factors, as shown with reference to wages in Germany, the UK and Denmark for recent Bulgarian and Romanian workers as compared to CEE migrants from the 2004 accession countries (Felbo-Kolding et al, 2019).…”

“…First, do similar links as those uncovered for overqualification exist between social networks and other indicators of job quality, including wages or contract type? Second, do the findings on overqualification also hold for intra-EU migrants from North-Western Europe who have higher reservation wages and have been shown to differ from recent CEE migrants in terms of migration motivations, occupational positions (Recchi, 2015) and working conditions (Felbo-Kolding et al, 2019)?…”