scholarly journals Russian-Speaking Immigrants in Post-Soviet Estonia: Towards Generation Fragmentation or Integration in Estonian Society

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 96-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellu Saar ◽  
Siim Krusell ◽  
Jelena Helemae

The disadvantages experienced by immigrants in education and labour markets have been of growing concern in many countries in recent years. However, little research has been undertaken on ethnic inequalities in labour markets in Eastern Europe, and especially in post-Soviet societies. This article considers the integration of the immigrant population into the labour market in post-Soviet Estonia, where the context and peculiarities of the arrived population are quite different from the assumptions of Western immigrant integration theories. The Russian-speaking population arrived in Estonia after World War II as internal migrants, because Estonia was part of the Soviet Union. A remarkably high proportion of them were well educated. After Estonia regained its independence in 1991, the context of integration changed radically, and the legal status of internal Soviet Union migrants was redefined. To account for these societal and political changes, we suggest making an analytical distinction between generations of immigrants in a demographic sense (being born in Estonia) and an integrational sense (becoming an integral part of the host society, in the labour market - having more similar patterns to those of the native population in the context of labour market outcomes). This distinction impacts differently on different age cohorts and we analysed outcomes of labour market integration alongside both nativity generations and age cohorts. Our analysis based on the 2011-2013 Labour Force Surveys shows that, while in most Western countries there are tendencies of convergence between natives and second-generation immigrants regarding structural integration, in Estonia the dynamics are different. The net disadvantage of young second-generation immigrants relative to their Estonian counterparts is either more pronounced compared to the disadvantage of their ‘parents’ age cohort relative to their Estonian peers (with regard to the risks of unemployment or chances of obtaining a high occupational position) or becoming less pronounced, but only for the highly educated portion of second generations (in terms of self-assessed over-education).

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (5) ◽  
pp. 939-957 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raquel Sebastian ◽  
Magdalena Ulceluse

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effect of an increase in the relative supply of immigrants on natives’ task reallocation, with a focus on Germany. Specifically, it investigates whether natives, as a response to increased immigration, re-specialise in communication-intensive occupations, where they arguably have a comparative advantage due to language proficiency. Design/methodology/approach The analysis uses regional data from the German Labour Force Survey between 2002 and 2014. To derive data on job tasks requirements, it employs the US Department of Labor’s O*NET database, the results of which are tested through a sensitivity analysis using the European Working Condition Survey and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies data sets. Findings The paper finds that indeed German workers respond to increasing immigration by shifting their task supply and providing more communication relative to manual tasks. Importantly, the decrease in the supply of communication tasks is stronger and more robust than the increase in the supply of manual tasks, pointing to a potential displacement effect taking place between natives and immigrants, alongside task reallocation. This would suggest that countries with relatively more rigid labour markets are less responsive to immigration shocks. Moreover, it suggests that labour market rigidity can minimise the gains from immigration and exacerbate employment effects. Originality/value The paper not only investigates task reallocation as a result of immigration in a different institutional context and labour market functioning, but the results feed into broader policy and scholarly discussions on the effects of immigration, including questions about how the institutional context affects labour market adjustment to immigration, worker occupational mobility in a more rigid labour markets and the fine balance needed between flexibility and rigidity.


2007 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 157-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lars Behrenz ◽  
Mats Hammarstedt ◽  
Jonas Månsson

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (5) ◽  
pp. 467-473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Domitilla Di Thiene ◽  
K Alexanderson ◽  
P Tinghög ◽  
G La Torre ◽  
E Mittendorfer-Rutz

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 93
Author(s):  
Miklós Illéssy ◽  
Ákos Huszár ◽  
Csaba Makó

In our study, we analyse data from the Hungarian Microcensus (2016) in order to map the proportion of Hungarian jobs threatened by the spread of automation. In doing so, we use the internationally well-known methodology of Carl Benedict Frey and Michael A. Osborne who estimated the probability of computerization for 702 occupations. The analysis was then repeated by Panarinen and Rouvinen for the Finnish labour market by converting the probabilities defined for the US occupational statistics to the European International Standard Classification of Occupations. Similar calculations were conducted for the Swedish and Norwegian labour markets. According to our results, almost every second Hungarian employee (44%) works in a job that is threatened by the development of digital technologies. The same ratio is 47% in the US and 53% in Sweden, while it is much lower in Finland (35%) and Norway (33%). It is especially alarming that 13% of the Hungarian workforce (i.e., almost 600,000 employees) works in an occupation where the probability of computerization is above 95%, while the number of those working in occupations where the same ratio is above 90% exceeds one million (i.e., 25% of the total Hungarian labour force). Diving deeper into the analysis, we can state that those with higher educational qualifications are more likely to work in an occupation that is more protected against computerization. Overall, there are no significant differences in the probability of computerization by gender; however, women are over-represented in the most endangered occupations.


2021 ◽  
pp. 001946622110238
Author(s):  
Shantanu De Roy ◽  
Mampi Bose

Indian labour markets are segmented based on caste, gender groups, region, types of workers and types of contractual arrangements. An important feature of the labour markets in India, notwithstanding intersectionalities across segments, is greater access to high-quality work with social security benefits to the privileged sections of the society as compared to the socially oppressed sections, including women. The latter dominate in low-quality, less stable and insecure work in the informal sector.The COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdown measures have increased the vulnerability of the informal workers, including the migrant workers. The article analyses the features of rural and urban labour markets, prior to the outbreak of the pandemic, that had contributed to vulnerability of the workforce. The analysis was based on the National Statistical Office ( NSO, 2020 )—Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) database of 2018–2019, NSSO (2014)—Report of the Situation of Agricultural Households in India, NSSO (2014)—Employment and Unemployment Survey, Labour Bureau, and the Economic Survey of India. It also analyses the impacts of the pandemic on the rural labour market based on the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) database. Our analysis reveals that the rural labour market in India was more adversely affected by the lockdown measures than the urban counterpart. In the rural areas, there was collapse of non-farm employment and increased participation in agricultural work was largely an outcome of distress. Furthermore, reverse migration of workers had led to sharp decline in remittances, particularly in the eastern Indian states that are largely agrarian and poor. The article advocates policy initiatives that include expansion of the rural employment programmes for providing relief to the poor and working population in India.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 169-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Crystal A. Ennis ◽  
Margaret Walton-Roberts

This article examines global social policy formation in the area of skilled migration, with a focus on the Gulf Arab region. Across the globe, migration governance presents challenges to multiple levels of authority; its complexity crosses many scales and involves a multitude of actors with diverse interests. Despite this jurisdictional complexity, migration remains one of the most staunchly defended realms of sovereign policy control. Building on global social policy literature, this article examines how ‘domestic’ labour migration policies reflect the entanglement of multiple states’ and agencies’ interests. Such entanglements result in what we characterize as a ‘multiplex system’, where skilled-migration policies are formed within, and shaped by, globalized policy spaces. To illustrate, we examine policies that shape the nursing labour market in Oman during a period when the state aims to transition from dependence on an expatriate to an increasingly nationalized labour force. Engaging a case-study methodology including a survey of migrant healthcare workers, semi-structured interviews and data analysis, we find that nursing labour markets in Oman represent an example of global policy formation due to the interaction of domestic and expatriate labour policies and provisioning systems. The transnational structuring of policy making that emerges reflects a contingent process marked by conflicting outcomes. We contend that Oman’s nursing labour market is an example of new spaces where global social policies emerge from the tension of competing national state and market interests.


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