Do Immigrants Compete with Natives in the Greek Labour Market? Evidence from the Skill-Cell Approach before and during the Great Recession

Abstract

We attempt to identify the impact of immigration on the labour market opportunities of resident workers by analysing data from the Greek Labour Force Survey (1999–2015) as well as census data for 1981, 1991, and 2001. Slicing the national labour market into education and experience segments, we find modest adverse effects on the employment outcomes of natives and usually insignificant effects on earnings. Our results are generally robust to alternative definitions of skill groups and the potential “downgrading” of immigrants. Importantly, we obtain similar results in qualitative terms when we account for potential endogenous selection into skill-cells, by implementing an instrumental variables approach in the spirit of Card (2001). We also show that veteran immigrants compete more heavily with natives than recent immigrants do. In addition, our analysis indicates that the effects of immigration were economically more important during the Greek crisis. Finally, the evidence supports the idea that migrants push natives towards complementary, non-routine tasks.

Questioning the feasibility and justice of basic income accounting for migration

“…Examining the empirical discussion on wage and employment effects caused by immigration shows that there is considerable debate on their direction and strength. Some studies find that migration has significant wage effects, stressing that immigrants act either as substitutes or complements depending on the skill composition of the migrating cohort and the workforce of the destination country (Borjas, 2013; Chletsos and Roupakias, 2019; Docquier et al, 2011; Filipski et al, 2020; Zorlu and Hartog, 2005). Others show only slightly negative or negligible effects on native wages and employment (Fallah et al, 2019; Glitz, 2012; Gutiérrez-Portilla et al, 2020; Sparreboom et al, 2019).…”

Impact of cultural diversity on local labor markets. Evidence from Greece's “age of mass migration”

“…However, it is important to highlight, that contrary to most traditional migration countries, foreign population in Greece is rather homogeneous, as the majority of migrants stem from a single country, the neighbor Albania (almost 50%). What is more, Greece mainly attracts unskilled migrants, who experience further “downgrading” in the Greek labor market (i.e., they tend to work into occupations which require less formal qualifications than theirs) due to differences in the quality of schooling between Greece and the sending countries (see e.g., Chletsos & Roupakias, forthcoming). As discussed in Peri (), these features, common in Southern European countries, stem from the fact that the skill premium is significantly lower that it is in the Anglo‐Saxon economies, and tend to reduce the expected gains stemming from possible complementarities and positive spillovers spurred by the presence of heterogeneous (in terms of birthplace and educational attainment) foreign populations.…”