Seminar
Immigrant's insertion in the labour market: occupational trajectories in compartive perspective
Ivana Fellini and Emilio Reyneri (University of Milan-Bicocca)
16 May 2016
Room A, h. 13.00-14.30
Graduate School in Social and Political Sciences
via Pace 10 - Milan
The international literature on the economic integration of immigrants in the destination countries tends to highlight a U-shaped occupational mobility pattern: a downgrading from last job in the country of origin to the first job in receiving country and then a recovery to a better job. Little comparative evidence is available due to the specific longitudinal information needed to the purpose. However, in recent years, some national surveys have addressed the problem recording immigrants' occupations in both the origin and in the destination country, and, as for the destination country, they have recorded not only their present but also their very first job. In lack of proper longitudinal data, these surveys allow to compare three different "points" in immigrants' occupational careers. Based on three national surveys covering the Italian, the French and the Spanish cases, the seminar will present and discuss preliminary results of a comparative analysis enquiring: i) whether the hypothesized U-shaped mobility pattern stands in all the three cases; ii) which individual characteristics are more likely associated with successful occupational trajectories in the destination countries.
Background readings
Akresh, I. R. (2008). Occupational trajectories of legal US immigrants: Downgrading and recovery. Population and Development Review, 34(3), 435–456.
Aysa-Lastra, M. L., & Cachón, L. (2013). Determinantes de la movilidad ocupacional segmentada de los inmigrantes no comunitarios en España. Revista Internacional de SociologÍa, 17(2), 383–413.
Chiswick, B. (1978). The effect of americanization on the earnings of foreign-born men. Journal of Political Economy, 86(5), 897–921.
Simón, H., Ramos, R., & Sanromá, E. (2014). Immigrant occupational mobility: Longitudinal evidence from Spain. European Journal of Population, 30(2), 223-255.
This seminar is part of the ResFron ESLS Cycle of seminars - 2016 Edition
