The OECD has published four new Social, Employment and Migration Working Papers which provide accounts of how Germany, Sweden, Australia and Denmark have have handled their post-war migrant intakes. Each have different histories and policy responses, and while none could be considered an unequivocal success, Australia seems to have done better than most. The Danish government has actively promoted integration but employers appear to treat even the children of OECD immigrants badly. Sweden is still stuck with the legacy of the scarring effect the 1980s economic crisis, while Germany faces high levels of inactivity amongst Turkish women and a 'second generation' problem. Here are long excerpts from the executive summaries:
No. 47. The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Germany (PDF) by Thomas Liebig
Germany is currently in the process of a major restructuring of its complex integration framework. Under the new Immigration Act which came into force on 1 January 2005, there is a uniform introduction programme for all permanent immigrants.
As in the past, integration services focus largely on language training. There is little evaluation with respect to the effectiveness of this kind of training and it is generally not linked to labour market needs. Indeed, the scarce empirical evidence suggests that language training in Germany may not be very effective as a means of labour market integration. In addition to the regular integration services, there is a multitude of innovative projects. However, these are often locally-based and time-limited, and seldom designed in a way that would enable proper evaluation.
With respect to employment and unemployment rates, and particularly given their low educational attainment and the current economic situation, the labour market integration of immigrant men is relatively favourable in international comparison. However, immigrant women, and particularly those of Turkish origin, have very low employment rates. This is partly an outcome of policies which limited the labour market access of spouses. Most of these legal obstacles have been removed under the new Immigration Act.
The situation of the so-called “second generation” is of concern, as they have very low educational outcomes. This hampers their access to vocational training, which appears to have an even stronger impact on their employment prospects than on those of natives. The low educational attainment of the second generation seems to be at least partly attributable to structural features in the German education system, such as the early streaming which puts migrants’ children in a lower track. Especially problematic is the relatively late starting age for kindergarten and the prevalence of half-day education in kindergarten and school, which limits exposure to the German language at a crucial age. Immigrants’ access to self-employment is hampered by legal obstacles and a lack of information and subsequent access to financial credits.
Despite positive experiences with temporary employment as a labour market integration tool for immigrants in other OECD countries, immigrants are not a focus group of the Federal temporary employment programme.
No. 48. The Integration of Immigrants into the Labour Market: the Case of Sweden (PDF) by Georges Lemaître
The past fifteen years have seen a higher share of humanitarian migration in Sweden than in the past. This is a form of migration for which labour market integration appears to be slower than for other forms of migration in all countries. At the same time there has been a growing diversification of migration away from “Western” countries to those with a greater cultural distance.
With 1985 came the introduction of social assistance for refugees for an eighteen-month introductory period, the transfer of responsibility for integration away from the Labour Market Board and the refugee dispersal policy in which refugees were assigned to municipalities throughout Sweden to relieve the pressure on the large agglomerations, with local economic conditions not always being taken into account. The dispersal policy had a negative effect on immigrant outcomes, particularly with respect to those arriving during the economic crisis, for whom the effects seem in many cases to be persistent.
With the severe economic crisis of the 1990s, asylum seeking in Sweden continued and those asylum seekers that were recognised and granted a residence permit were met with a labour market situation that was highly unfavourable and where considerable numbers of native-born Swedes with domestic formal qualifications and work experience were also looking for work. At the same time, the crisis struck immigrants already present and employed disproportionately. The re-integration of immigrants into the ranks of the employed was rendered all the more difficult by the fact that some two-thirds of jobs, in the Swedish labour market appear to be filled through informal methods.
The situation of immigrants has improved significantly since the trough of the economic downturn, especially for new arrivals. The relatively favourable impact on employment of a minimum amount of language training and of vocational training for this group and the relatively low take-up of these suggest that there is room for improvement with regard to labour market outcomes in the early years of residence, which can be expected to persist with continued residence.
The situation for immigrants having arrived since the mid-eighties and having suffered the brunt of the economic crisis of the nineties remains unfavourable. It is difficult to see how the continuing employment problems of this group can be turned around without a strong economic expansion, given the re-enforcing nature of further non-employment on both inactivity and employer perceptions. If targeted measures are politically infeasible, then general measures that provide especially favourable results for immigrants need to be encouraged and expanded.
...What employers recognise and reward seems to be Swedish work experience and successful integration tends to be associated with early contact with the labour market. Results seem to suggest that the benefits of early employment experience on later employment are much stronger than those of Swedish vocational education. Improving the efficiency of language instruction so as not to overly prolong labour market entry and ensuring that proficiency requirements reflect actual occupational needs are matters of some importance.
No. 49. The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants in Australia (PDF) by Thomas Liebig
Overall, the labour market integration of immigrant men in Australia can be considered to be relatively favourable in international comparison. This is partly attributable to selection policy and the prevalence of the English language in many parts of the world. Even with similar socio-demographic characteristics, skilled migrants tend to perform better than other migrant groups. In contrast to the positive outcomes for immigrant men, the labour force participation of immigrant women is not high in international comparison.
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