"To what extent can different forms of social capital help immigrants make headway on the labour market? An answer to this pressing question begins here. Taking the Netherlands and Germany as case studies, the book identifies two forms of social capital that may work to increase employment, income and occupational status and, conversely, decrease unemployment. New insights into the concepts of bonding and bridging arise through quantitative research methods, using longitudinal and crosssectional data. Referring to a dense network with 'thick' trust, bonding is measured as family ties, co-ethnic ties and trust in the family. Bridging is seen in terms of interethnic ties, thus implying a crosscutting network with 'thin' trust. Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market reveals that although bonding allows immigrants to get by, bridging enables them to get ahead"--Publisher's description.

To what extent can different forms of social capital help immigrants make headway on the labour market? An answer to this pressing question begins here. Taking the Netherlands and Germany as case studies, the book identifies two forms of social capital that may work to increase employment, income and occupational status and, conversely, decrease unemployment. New insights into the concepts of bonding and bridging arise through quantitative research methods, using longitudinal and crosssectional data. Referring to a dense network with `thick trust, bonding is measured as family ties, co-ethnic ties and trust in the family. Bridging is seen in terms of interethnic ties, thus implying a crosscutting network with `thin trust. Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market reveals that although bonding allows immigrants to get by, bridging enables them to get ahead.

To what extent can different forms of social capital help immigrants make headway on the labour market? An answer to this pressing question begins here. Taking the Netherlands and Germany as case studies, the book identifies two forms of social capital that may work to increase employment, income and occupational status and, conversely, decrease unemployment. New insights into the concepts of bonding and bridging arise through quantitative research methods, using longitudinal and crosssectional data. Referring to a dense network with 'thick' trust, bonding is measured as family ties, co-ethnic ties and trust in the family. Bridging is seen in terms of interethnic ties, thus implying a crosscutting network with 'thin' trust. Immigrant Performance in the Labour Market reveals that although bonding allows immigrants to get by, bridging enables them to get ahead.

The paper uses a large survey (GSOEP) to analyze the labor market performance of immigrants in Germany. It finds that new immigrant workers earn on average 20 percent less than native workers with otherwise identical characteristics. The gap is smaller for immigrants from advanced countries, with good German language skills, and with a German degree, and larger for others. The gap declines gradually over time. Less success in obtaining jobs with higher occupational autonomy explains half of the wage gap. Immigrants are also initially less likely to participate in the labor market and more likely to be unemployed. While participation fully converges after 20 years, immigrants always remain more likely to be unemployed than the native labor force.

This book examines the role that institutional characteristics of host countries play in labour market integration of immigrants in the European Union. Drawing on existing research, it develops a comprehensive conceptual framework of factors and underlying mechanisms which affect immigrant integration in the fifteen nations that comprise the European Union. The author analyzes selected EU countries in depth, investigating the extent to which immigrants have succeeded or failed in different institutional contexts.

A study examined international differences in how immigrants perform in the labor market of their chosen country of residence. The empirical analysis used five census data sets from the three host countries to document the labor market performance of foreign-born persons in Australia, Canada, and the United States. Among the major empirical findings were the following: (1) prior to the mid-1960s, the United States and Canada attracted migrants who performed quite well in the labor market, whereas Australia attracted migrants who were not relatively successful in the Australian labor market; (2) these rankings were reversed during the 1970s, with migrants to Australia performing very well, whereas those choosing the United States had very low earnings; (3) changes in immigration policy initiated by the 1965 Amendments to the U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act induced a structural decline in the quality of immigrant cohorts who chose the United States as their destination; (4) U.S. citizens who emigrated to Canada had very low earnings despite their relatively high education level. The study concluded that economic theory suggests that much more can be learned about the selection process if immigrants are compared to persons from the same country of origin who chose not to migrate and if immigrants in any given host country are compared to migrants who chose other host countries as their destination. (The document includes a 43-item bibliography, 23 tables, 5 figures, and an index.) (CML)

Are immigrants squeezing Americans out of the work force? Or is competition wth foreign products imported by the United States an even greater danger to those employed in some industries? How do wages and unions fare in foreign-owned firms? And are the media's claims about the number of illegal immigrants misleading? Prompted by the growing internationalization of the U.S. labor market since the 1970s, contributors to Immigration, Trade, and the Labor Market provide an innovative and comprehensive analysis of the labor market impact of the international movements of people, goods, and capital. Their provocative findings are brought into perspective by studies of two other major immigrant-recipient countries, Canada and Australia. The differing experiences of each nation stress the degree to which labor market institutions and economic policies can condition the effect of immigration and trade on economic outcomes Contributors trace the flow of immigrants by comparing the labor market and migration behavior of individual immigrants, explore the effects of immigration on wages and employment by comparing the composition of the work force in local labor markets, and analyze the impact of trade on labor markets in different industries. A unique data set was developed especially for this study—ranging from an effort to link exports/imports with wages and employment in manufacturing industries, to a survey of illegal Mexican immigrants in the San Diego area—which will prove enormously valuable for future research.