the labour market integration of immigrants and their children in austria
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The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and their Children in Austria. Thomas Liebig & Karolin Krause International Migration Division Directorate for Employment , Labour and Social Affairs OECD Vienna , 24 November 2011. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
The Labour Market Integration of Immigrants and their Children in Austria
Thomas Liebig & Karolin Krause
International Migration DivisionDirectorate for Employment, Labour and Social AffairsOECD
Vienna, 24 November 2011
The immigrant population:relatively large and a favourable
origin-country mix
• 25% of the population in Austria have at least one foreign-born parent
• The majority of immigrants have arrived after the fall of the Iron Curtain
Turkey12%
Ex-Yugoslavia29%
Germany15%
Other EU-155%
EU+1220%
other high-income
3%
other lower-income
15%
Composition of the immigrant population in Austria in 2009
2/16
Overall labour market outcomes are close to the OECD average,
in particular for men
Employment-population ratio of immigrants and native-born, men aged 15-64, in Austria and selected other OECD countries, 2009
Switzerl
and
United
Stat
es
United
King
dom
Austra
lia
Canad
a
Norway
Netherl
ands
AUSTRIA
OECD avera
ge
Denmark
German
y
Sweden
Fran
ce
Belgium
60
65
70
75
80
85
90
Foreign-born Native-born
3/16
The integration infrastructure in Austria:a rather complex and limited setting
• Multitude of actors• No structured integration programme
• Language training targets that are modest at best, with no link to the labour market
• Lack of research and evaluation• Many small-scale, time-limited integration measures with multi-level
financing• Separate work-permit system for (some) new arrivals• Recent improvements:
– Facilitation of labour market access – Targeted training programmes to place immigrants in shortage occupations (example
of good practice for other OECD-countries)
The whole against the backdrop of a rather flexible labour market with low unemployment and a strong role of the social partners. 4/16
RecommendationsImprove the integration framework
• Establish a structure for better experience-sharing and co-ordination of integration policy at the federal level.
• Overcome the current deficit in research and evaluation.
• Reduce the complexity of the work-permit system and abolish the remaining obstacles to the labour market access of permanent immigrants.
5/16
Immigrant women from lower-income countries are disadvantaged,
in particular recent arrivals
All fore
ign-bo
rn
Higher-
incom
e cou
ntries
Turkey
Ex-Yug
oslav
ia
Other lo
wer-inc
ome c
ountr
ies-60-50-40-30-20-10
010
up to 5 years 6-10 years 11 or more years
Percentage-point difference in the employment rates of immigrants compared with the native-born for different immigrant groups in Austria, women aged 15-64, by duration of
residence, 2008/2009
Small children in the household increase significantly the probability for women from lower-income countries to be far from the labour market 6/16
RecommendationsStrengthen integration measures
• Make sure that immigrant women who are far from the labour market are reached by integration measures.
• Implement a structured integration programme for new arrivals, targeted at labour market integration, as implemented in the Nordic countries.
• Extend the current programmes for skills- and vocation-specific language training and promote co-ordination of the existing programmes.
• Seek to increase the participation of the children of immigrants in pre-school education at age 3 and 4, ideally in parallel with integration measures for their immigrant mothers. 7/16
Many immigrants find their qualifications discountedbut recognition seems to help
Less than a third of immigrants with foreign degrees applied for recognition.
Percentage-point differences in the probability of being in highly-skilled employment for highly-educated persons aged 15-64 in Austria, foreign-born compared to native-born, 2008
Highest education from other higher-income country
Highest education from lower-income country
not a
sses
sed o
r not
recog
nised
recog
nised
-60
-40
-20
0
Highest education from Austria
8/16
Recommendations Make better use of the skills of migrants
• Make the possibilities for the recognition of foreign qualifications more widely known.
• Enhance transparency of the recognition process, ideally by the implementation of one-stop shops.
• Develop and implement tools for the accreditation of prior learning, in close co-operation with the social partners.
9/16
Many children of immigrants are at the margin of the labour market
Belgium
Netherl
ands
German
y
AUSTRIA
France
Denmark
Sweden
OECD avera
ge
United
King
dom
United
Stat
es
Austra
lia
Norway
Canad
a
Switzerl
and
02468
10121416
Children of native-born Native-born children of immigrants
Share of the low-educated who are neither in education nor in employment or training, among the native-born children of immigrants and the children of native-
born, aged 20-29, Austria and selected other OECD-countries, around 2007
10/16
The outcomes are particularly unfavourable for younger cohorts
Percentage-point difference in employment-rates of the native-born children of immigrants, compared with the children of natives, for men aged 15-24 and 25-34, not in education,
2009/2010
All native-born children of immigrants From Ex-Yugoslavia From Turkey-24
-19
-14
-9
-4
1
6
11
16
aged 15-24 aged 25-34
Nevertheless, the gaps are smaller than for the parent generation.
11/16
RecommendationsImprove education outcomes of children of immigrants
• Provide language testing and associated extensive language support in pre-primary education for those in need.
• Provide more structured German language training to the children of immigrants.
• Re-consider the current focus on “mother-tongue education”.
• Implement special measures for young immigrants who arrive at the end of obligatory schooling or just thereafter.
• Make sure that restrictions regarding family migration do not hamper the integration process of the children of immigrants. 12/16
Recommendations Improve labour market outcomes of children of immigrants
• Investigate the causes for the low outcomes of the 15-24 year old children of immigrants compared with their older peers, and take appropriate action.
• Promote access to vocational colleges and apprenticeships for the children of immigrants.
• Put more effort into increasing the employment prospects for the children of immigrants in the public sector, following the examples of the Netherlands, Norway and Belgium.
13/16
Additional barriers to labour market integration?The issue of discrimination
• (Statistical) discrimination in the labour market could explain persistent disadvantages faced even by immigrant offspring with good qualifications.
• Testing studies from other OECD countries show that discrimination is more frequent than generally expected, but no such study has been conducted in Austria yet.
• The topic of discrimination has received few public attention in Austria thus far.
• The infrastructure to combat discrimination is weaker than in most other European OECD countries.
14/16
Recommendations Streamline and strengthen the framework for
anti-discrimination
• Make the anti-discrimination framework more visible to immigrants and inform them about their rights.
• Conduct an experimental testing study to capture the incidence of discrimination in hiring, and communicate the findings widely.
• Consider more pro-active measures and diversity tools to tackle discrimination:– e. g. Diversity Label (see France)
– e. g. Diversity plans and counselling for small- and medium-sized enterprises (see Belgium)
15/16
Thank you for your attention!