Assimilation to a Welfare State: Labor Market Performance and Use of Social Benefits by Immigrants to Finland

Matti Sarvimäki ()

No 454, Discussion Papers from VATT Institute for Economic Research

Abstract: Abstract: I study the assimilation of immigrants to the Finnish labor market and welfare system. The initial immigrant-native earnings gaps are large. While longterm immigrants experience a rapid earnings growth, only men from OECD countries converge to natives' earnings. Among all immigrant groups earnings grow predominantly due to improving employment rates rather than wage growth. Earnings profiles for temporary immigrants are flat. Furthermore, direct study of the use of social benefits suggests that immigrants learn to use the welfare system gradually. In particular, non-OECD households substantially increase their use of social assistance during their first five years in the country despite simultaneously doubling their earnings. JEL classification: J61, J31, F22

Keywords: Immigrants; assimilation; welfare state; social benefits; Labour market; Työmarkkinat; Social security; Sosiaaliturva; Labor market and policies promoting economic growth; Työmarkkinat ja kasvua tukeva politiikka (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.doria.fi/handle/10024/148444

Related works:
Journal Article: Assimilation to a Welfare State: Labor Market Performance and Use of Social Benefits by Immigrants to Finland (2011)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fer:dpaper:454

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from VATT Institute for Economic Research Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Anita Niskanen ().