scholarly journals Female employment and migration in European countries: Introduction to the Special Issue

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michaela Kreyenfeld ◽  
Claudia Diehl ◽  
Martin Kroh ◽  
Johannes Giesecke
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Gender Role Attitudes ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Native Women ◽  
Female Migrants ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
And Migration

Objective: This chapter introduces the reader to the Special Issue "Female Employment and Migration in European Countries". Background: While there is a large body of research on the labour market performance of male migrants, women’s employment behaviour after migration has only recently moved into the focus of attention. Method: This Special Issue draws on various research methods and data sources, including register, census, and survey data. Some of the studies focus on specific national contexts, such as the German, Spanish, Dutch, and Belgian situations. Other studies compare female migrants across European countries and between origin and destination countries. Results: The contributions in this Special Issue help to disentangle the complex interplay of socio-economic factors, family and fertility behaviour, gender role attitudes, and institutional constraints and policies that shape the employment behaviour of migrant women after they migrate. Conclusion: In many European countries, the employment rates of first-generation female migrants, and particularly those of women from non-EU countries of origin, lag behind the employment rates of native women. While prior research has often reported that socio-economic and cultural factors play a role in shaping the employment behaviour of female migrants, the contributions in this volume also emphasise the strong relevance of institutional factors in the receiving country, including migration, family, and labour market policies.

scholarly journals From Social Protection to Social Investment

2021 ◽  
pp. 343-394
Author(s):  
Olaf van Vliet ◽  
Vincent Bakker ◽  
Lars van Doorn
Keyword(s):  
Technological Change ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Welfare States ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Investment Policies ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
European Welfare States

Globalization, technological change, and migration form three major challenges for European welfare states in the 21st century. These challenges are regarded as important sources of inequality on the labour market. Whereas the existing literature has mainly been focused on the sectors and occupations affected by globalization and technological change, the authors of this chapter argue that, via job polarization, these phenomena also affect the type of contract that workers have. They hypothesize that increased competition for low-paying jobs is associated with labour market flexibilization. Another major trend that they analyse is the free movement of labour. New data illustrate that labour migration from Central and Eastern European countries to Western European countries has grown slowly but substantially following recent enlargements of the Union. It has been considered a challenge for welfare states as it might contribute to feelings of economic insecurity and might erode solidarity, which forms the basis for the provision of social policy. Subsequently, the authors analyse how European welfare states have evolved over the past decades. They show that in spite of budgetary pressure stemming from globalization and migration, most countries have increased social expenditure. Furthermore, they analyse to what extent the focus has shifted from classical social protection to social investment policies to enable workers to adapt themselves to new labour market transformations. They contribute to the existing literature by covering years after the financial crisis for all EU member states and by demonstrating a novel way of correcting social expenditures for the number of recipients.

Does social investment make the labour market ‘flow’? Family policies and institutional complementarities in Italy, Spain, Japan and South Korea

2021 ◽  
pp. 129-166
Author(s):  
Ijin Hong ◽  
Jieun Lee
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Life Cycles ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Investment Strategies ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Family Policies ◽  
Context Sensitive ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Work Family

This chapter investigates whether social investments improve labour market flow by focusing on work–family reconciliation policy and women's labour market participation. It provides an overview on which institutional configurations one should consider to understand how the labour market flows during women's life cycles. The chapter then analyses Italy, Spain, Japan and South Korea and their institutional configurations. By investigating social investment latecomers in East Asia (Japan and Korea) and Southern Europe (Spain and Italy), the chapter reveals that social investment reform itself does not automatically lead to higher female employment rates, because the effectiveness of work–family reconciliation policy hugely depends on the institutional context. Ultimately, the chapter asserts that social investment strategies should be context-sensitive and tailored to different structural and institutional configurations if they are to be suitable and effective. It claims that, in order for social investment reform to be successful, complementary institutional reform is required.

scholarly journals Portuguese Labour Market Governance in Comparative Perspective

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Afonso
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Female Employment ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Private Regulation ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Employment Conditions ◽  
Market Governance ◽  
High Level ◽  
Southern European Countries

Abstract. This chapter analyses the core characteristics of labour market governance in Portugal in a comparative perspective, analyzing the interplay of public and private regulation in the setting of wages and employment conditions. The chapter describes the main characteristics of the Portuguese employment model within the European context and how it departs from other Southern European countries, notably when it comes to female and low-skilled employment. The chapter argues that the power relationships that emerged out of the transition to democracy favoured a more liberal employment regime than in Spain, resulting in a lower threshold of unemployment but also higher income inequalities and lower wage protections. The models have tended to converge in recent years, and income inequality in Portugal has diminished. The chapter highlights the high level of female employment since the 1960s, a characteristic that departs significantly from other Southern European countries. It is explained by specific contextual factors, notably the legacy of the colonial war and high rates of emigration.

scholarly journals The Diverse Patterns and the Diverse Causes of Migration and Mobility in Science

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (S1) ◽  
pp. S112-S126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Teichler ◽  
Alessandro Cavalli
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Research Institutes ◽  
European Policies ◽  
International Activities ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Globalized World ◽  
European Review

Five major themes are often addressed in the discourse of mobility in science: the definition and classification of the persons in mind (scholars, academics, researchers, etc); the frequency and the configuration of mobility; the roles mobility and migration play for the individuals; the roles they play for institutions (universities, research institutes, enterprises, etc); and finally the relevance of mobility and migration for the overall international activities within higher education and research in a ‘globalized world’. This article summarizes the concepts and findings presented as regards these themes in all of the articles in this special issue of European Review. The discourse both on concepts and findings suggests that mobility and migration are often viewed in isolation rather than in a wider context of features of internationalization. Moreover, attention often focuses on mobility and migration at the apex of the prestige and quality pyramid, notably in the countries most strongly involved; differences by country, sector and position in the reputational hierarchy would be viewed as more relevant if European policies aimed at a balance between market developments and cohesion across Europe and for keeping inequalities between European countries within limits.

Syrian Crisis and Migration

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pinar Yazgan ◽  
Deniz Eroglu Utku ◽  
Ibrahim Sirkeci
Keyword(s):  
Human Mobility ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Host Countries ◽  
Syrian Crisis ◽  
Mass Migration ◽  
Large Numbers ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Europe Today ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Near Future

With the growing insurrections in Syria in 2011, an exodus in large numbers have emerged. The turmoil and violence have caused mass migration to destinations both within the region and beyond. The current "refugee crisis" has escalated sharply and its impact is widening from neighbouring countries toward Europe. Today, the Syrian crisis is the major cause for an increase in displacement and the resultant dire humanitarian situation in the region. Since the conflict shows no signs of abating in the near future, there is a constant increase in the number of Syrians fleeing their homes. However, questions on the future impact of the Syrian crisis on the scope and scale of this human mobility are still to be answered. As the impact of the Syrian crisis on host countries increases, so does the demand for the analyses of the needs for development and protection in these countries. In this special issue, we aim to bring together a number of studies examining and discussing human mobility in relation to the Syrian crisis.

Narrating Society: Enacting ‘Immigrant’ Characters through Negotiating, Naturalization, and Forgetting

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sanne Boersma
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Work ◽  
Immigrant Integration ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Global Perspectives ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Media And Communication

This article scrutinizes how ‘immigrant’ characters of perpetual arrival are enacted in the social scientific work of immigrant integration monitoring. Immigrant integration research produces narratives in which characters—classified in highly specific, contingent ways as ‘immigrants’—are portrayed as arriving and never as having arrived. On the basis of ethnographic fieldwork at social scientific institutions and networks in four Western European countries, this article analyzes three practices that enact the characters of arrival narratives: negotiating, naturalizing, and forgetting. First, it shows how negotiating constitutes objects of research while at the same time a process of hybridization is observed among negotiating scientific and governmental actors. Second, a naturalization process is analyzed in which slippery categories become fixed and self-evident. Third, the practice of forgetting involves the fading away of contingent and historical circumstances of the research and specifically a dispensation of ‘native’ or ‘autochthonous’ populations. Consequently, the article states how some people are considered rightful occupants of ‘society’ and others are enacted to travel an infinite road toward an occupied societal space. Moreover, it shows how enactments of arriving ‘immigrant’ characters have performative effects in racially differentiating national populations and hence in narrating society. This article is part of the Global Perspectives, Media and Communication special issue on “Media, Migration, and Nationalism,” guest-edited by Koen Leurs and Tomohisa Hirata.

scholarly journals Skilled Migrants in the Swedish Labour Market: An Analysis of Employment, Income and Occupational Status

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3428
Author(s):  
Nahikari Irastorza ◽  
Pieter Bevelander
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Highly Skilled Migrants ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
Integration Of Immigrants ◽  
Employment Rates

In a globalised world with an increasing division of labour, the competition for highly skilled individuals—regardless of their origin—is growing, as is the value of such individuals for national economies. Yet the majority of studies analysing the economic integration of immigrants shows that those who are highly skilled also have substantial hurdles to overcome: their employment rates and salaries are lower and they face a higher education-to-occupation mismatch compared to highly skilled natives. This paper contributes to the paucity of studies on the employment patterns of highly skilled immigrants to Sweden by providing an overview of the socio-demographic characteristics, labour-market participation and occupational mobility of highly educated migrants in Sweden. Based on a statistical analysis of register data, we compare their employment rates, salaries and occupational skill level and mobility to those of immigrants with lower education and with natives. The descriptive analysis of the data shows that, while highly skilled immigrants perform better than those with a lower educational level, they never catch up with their native counterparts. Our regression analyses confirm these patterns for highly skilled migrants. Furthermore, we find that reasons for migration matter for highly skilled migrants’ employment outcomes, with labour migrants having better employment rates, income and qualification-matched employment than family reunion migrants and refugees.

scholarly journals Introduction to the special issue: multiple jobholding in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-147
Author(s):  
Wieteke Conen ◽  
Karin Schulze Buschoff
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Clear Trend ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Quality Of Work ◽  
Labour Market Flexibility ◽  
Employment Situation ◽  
Over Time

In a number of European countries there is a clear trend towards increased multiple jobholding. As things stand, however, little is known about the structure and the potential consequences of this increase, notably in terms of quality of work and social protection. This special issue focuses on contemporary forms of multiple jobholding in Europe. Have the structure, nature and dynamics of multiple jobholding changed over time? What are the roles of labour market flexibility, technological change and work fragmentation in the development of multiple jobholding? And do multiple jobholders benefit from similar and adequate employment terms, conditions and protections compared with single jobholders, or are they worse off as a consequence of their (fragmented) employment situation? What implications do these findings have for unions, policy-makers and the regulation of work? The collection of articles in this special issue adds to the literature on emerging forms of employment in the digital age and challenges for social protection, also in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This introduction initiates a discussion of central debates on multiple jobholding and presents a synopsis of the articles in this issue.

The Political Economy of Work and Welfare

2021 ◽  
pp. 422-444
Author(s):  
Micheál L. Collins ◽  
Mary P. Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Social Protection ◽  
Full Employment ◽  
The Political ◽  
Welfare Regime ◽  
The Social ◽  
Sectoral Composition ◽  
And Migration ◽  
Institutional Architecture

The political economy of Irish work and welfare has dramatically changed over recent decades. Since the 1980s, Ireland has experienced two periods of high unemployment followed by two periods of full employment. Alongside this, we see considerable shifts in both the sectoral composition of the workforce and in the institutional architecture underpinning the labour market. Focusing on the last decade, this chapter contextualizes the Irish labour market in the Irish growth model, highlighting issues including occupational upgrading, low pay, gender composition, and migration. The chapter then explores links between this employment structure and Ireland’s changing welfare regime. It considers recent institutional changes, as the welfare regime shifted to a work-first form of activation, and the long-term sustainability of the social protection system. The chapter concludes by highlighting what we see as the core challenges for the political economy of work and welfare in Ireland.

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