Quality of Immigrants' Jobs”, in Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015: Settling In, OECD Publishing, Paris/European Union, Brussels
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Indicators of Immigrant Integration 2015 Settling In © OECD/European Union 2015 Chapter 6 Quality of immigrants’ jobs While access to employment is a key indicator of integration, the kind of job yields a more comprehensive picture of the nature of an immigrant’s place in the labour market. Indicators include job security, working hours, matches or mismatches between workers’ qualifications and skills and those required by the job. The incidence of self-employment and proportions of immigrants working in the public services sector are also relevant indicators. When it comes to immigrants, job quality indicators should be gauged against their experience (estimated by individuals’ ages), their levels of educational attainment, and the length of time they have resided in the host country. This chapter looks first at job contracts (temporary versus unlimited duration – Indicator 6.1), working hours (Indicator 6.2), job skills (Indicator 6.1), and the match between the level of qualifications required and those held by the worker (Indicator 6.4). It then considers the shares of self-employment (Indicator 6.5) and the integration of immigrant workers in the public services sector (Indicator 6.6). For further discussion of some of the issues that the indicators raise, see the section entitled “Data limitations” at the end of the chapter. 107 6. QUALITY OF IMMIGRANTS’ JOBS Key findings ● An average of 35% of highly educated immigrants in employment are overqualified OECD-wide, compared to one native-born in four in 2012-13. ● The standard of education systems across countries of origin is variable, as is the adequacy of arrangements for recognising foreign credentials. The result is overqualification rates among foreign-educated immigrants to the European Union that are double those of their peers who hold qualifications from the host country. In Switzerland, Germany and the United States, tertiary-educated immigrant workers trained in the host country are not more likely to be overqualified than their native-born peers. ● The longer immigrants reside in a country the better the quality of their jobs generally is. For example, on average, across the OECD in 2012-13, immigrants who had lived in the host country for ten years were no more likely to work with temporary contracts than their native counterparts. Such was the trend in the settlement countries, Portugal, Italy, and the United Kingdom. ● Nevertheless, even when they are long-term residents, the foreign-born are worse-off than their native-born peers when it comes to overqualification and working hours. Across the OECD, even after ten years in an OECD host country, nearly one-third of immigrants with a tertiary degree are overqualified for their job – by 6 percentage points more than the native-born. The gap is even wider in the European Union, where 30% of such foreign-born are overqualified, against less than 20% of the native-born. ● Across OECD countries, the share of immigrants working with a temporary contract evolved little between 2006-07 and 2012-13. In Spain, however, and – to a lesser degree – in Portugal, job losses chiefly affected temporary positions and their share in total immigrant employment fell by over 15 percentage points between 2006-07 and 2012-13. ● Conversely, the effect of the crisis on immigrants’ job quality has translated into a fall in the number of working hours, particularly among women. In 2012-13, immigrant women were more likely than their native-born peers to be working part-time, except in the settlement countries, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. In all OECD countries, however, the share of women who work part-time but want to work longer hours is higher among immigrants than women born in the host country. That proportion grew by 6 percentage points among immigrant women in the wake of the economic crisis that unfolded throughout the OECD. In the worst-hit countries – Greece, Ireland, and Spain – the increase was as high as 20 to 30 percentage points. ● Bar recent immigration destinations, immigrants are a little more likely than the native- born to be self-employed, especially if they have resided for at least ten years in the host country. However, foreign-born self-employed are more often sole proprietors of small businesses. ● The integration of immigrant workers in the public services sector varies widely. The longer immigrants reside in host country, the higher their rates of employment in the sector become, eventually becoming comparable with those of the native-born after ten years’ residence in Scandinavia and the United Kingdom. INDICATORS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION 2015: SETTLING IN © OECD/EUROPEAN UNION 2015 109 6. QUALITY OF IMMIGRANTS’ JOBS 6.1. Types of contracts Background Indicator In European countries temporary work denotes any kind of work governed by a fixed-term contract, including apprenticeships, “temp” agency work, and remunerated training courses. It is the opposite of work governed by contracts of unlimited duration. In Australia, temporary work does not incorporate paid leave and everywhere it excludes the self-employed. Because no survey yields comparable information in the United States or New Zealand, this section does not consider those two countries. In addition to not being as well paid as permanent positions, temporary jobs often do not entitle workers to paid holidays, sick leave, unemployment insurance, other non-wage benefits, and training to the same degree as permanent positions. And employment protection legislation often does not require the same standards from employers. By its very nature temporary work often breeds a sense of insecurity. Coverage People aged 15-64 who are in employment, not including the self-employed or those still in education. Across the OECD in 2012-13, 13% of immigrants who were in work had a temporary contract, against some 11% of native-born workers. In the European Union, too, the percentage was higher among immigrants (16% versus 11%). And in most countries, both male and female immigrants were more likely to be hired under short-term contracts than their native-born peers. In Spain and Cyprus,1, 2 one immigrant in three had a short-term contract – a gap with the native-born of at least 15 percentage points. Temporary work is also widespread among immigrants in southern Europe, Sweden and Finland. However, in half of all countries, temporary work accounts for no more than 10% of immigrant employment, a proportion that shrinks as residence lengthens (Figure 6.1). It follows, therefore, that recently arrived immigrants are more likely to work temporary jobs, which they see as a way into the labour market. Indeed, in countries like the settlement destinations, Portugal, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the incidence of temporary work is no higher among immigrants with ten years residence to their name than among their peers born in the host country. The gap with the native-born also narrows considerably as the duration of residence lengthens in Cyprus.1, 2 Temporary work is more widespread among women in most countries, with the exception of southern Europe, where the trend is attributable to the fact that many work in personal care services, so generally have contracts of unlimited duration. Temporary work is more frequent among low-educated immigrants than among those who are highly qualified in most countries (Figures 6.2 and 6.3). Exceptions, though, are European countries where temporary work is less common (Austria, Luxembourg, Switzerland), together with Germany where roughly 15% of highly educated immigrants have short-term contracts. In most countries, temporary work does not account for much more of a share of employment than in 2006-07. Two stand-out exceptions are Spain and, to a lesser degree, Portugal, where half of all employed immigrants (most of whom had arrived by 2005) had fixed-term contracts in 2006-07. That share dropped to 35% in 2012-13, partly because job losses primarily affected short-term positions (Figure 6.A1.1). 110 INDICATORS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION 2015: SETTLING IN © OECD/EUROPEAN UNION 2015 40 30 20 Figure 6.1. 10 Percentages of total employment, persons aged 15-64 not in education All foreign-born 0 Workers with a temporary contract, 2012-13 Spain Cyprus1, 2 Portugal Netherlands Sweden Foreign-born (10 years of residence or more) Finland Greece 60 France 50 Figure 6.2. Slovenia EU total (28) 40 Italy 30 OECD total (28) 6. QUALITY OF IMMIGRANTS’ JOBS 20 Low-educated workersCroatia with a temporary contract, 2012-13 10 All foreign-bornPercentages of low-educated workers,Belgium aged 15-64 not in education Germany 0 Czech Republic Cyprus1, 2 Slovak Republic Iceland Spain Norway Native-born Portugal Canada Sweden Ireland Foreign-born (10 years of residence or more) Greece Malta Canada Denmark 40 Netherlands 1 2New http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933212451Zealand Figure 6.3. EU total (28) United Kingdom 30 France Hungary Switzerland Czech Republic 20 Austria OECD total (27) Highly educated workers with a temporary contract, 2012-13 Luxembourg 10 Percentages of highly educated workers, aged 15-64 not in education All foreign-born Hungary Turkey Croatia Australia 0 Italy Latvia Estonia Spain Slovenia Lithuania 1, 2 Belgium Cyprus Native-born Finland Finland Portugal New Zealand Foreign-born (10 years of residence or more) Norway Notes and sources are toCanada be found at the end of the chapter. Iceland INDICATORS OF IMMIGRANT INTEGRATION 2015: SETTLINGSweden IN © OECD/EUROPEAN UNION 2015 Greece 1 2Germany http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933212501 Netherlands Malta France Turkey Germany Ireland Austria United Kingdom Slovenia Denmark EU total (28) Latvia OECD total (27) Switzerland Italy Luxembourg Iceland Austria Native-born Belgium Malta Denmark Norway 1 2Switzerland http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/888933212516 Ireland Czech Republic Croatia United Kingdom New Zealand Luxembourg Hungary Turkey Latvia 111 6.