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!