Immigrant Key Workers: Their Contribution to Europe's COVID-19 Response

Francesco Fasani and Jacopo Mazza

No 16884, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: This paper contributes to the literature on the Covid-19 effects on workers and labor markets by focusing on the experience of migrant key workers in EU countries. Our analysis, based on survey data on more than 3 million workers, explores three main aspects. First, we document the over-representation of migrant workers in key occupations, particularly in low-qualified roles. Second, we examine the selection into key occupations. According to our estimates, women are more likely to be key workers, the relationship with education is V-shaped, and EU and Extra EU migrants are, respectively, 12 and 15 percent more likely to be key workers than comparable natives. Finally, we estimate the impact of Covid-19 on the labor market, showing that migrant key workers had to extend their working hours during the pandemic and, nevertheless, faced a 2-3 times higher probability of being laid off relative to natives. Our findings imply that migrant workers played a crucial role in the response to the pandemic, but endured a harsher fate than native workers.

Keywords: migrant workers; COVID-19; essential occupations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 K37 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39 pages
Date: 2024-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-eur, nep-int, nep-lab and nep-mac
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Working Paper: Immigrant Key Workers: Their Contribution to Europe's COVID-19 Response (2020)
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