How did Immigrants fare in the Irish Labour Market over the Great Recession?

Elish Kelly, Seamus McGuinness, Philip O’Connell, Alberto Gonzalez Pandiella and David Haugh
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Philip O’Connell: University College, Dublin
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Philip J. O'Connell

No 1284, OECD Economics Department Working Papers from OECD Publishing

Abstract: This paper identifies the labour market impact of the Great Recession on immigrants compared to natives and how this relationship has evolved since the downturn. We find that the employment penalty suffered by immigrant workers, relative to native workers, increased significantly over the Irish recession and persisted during the subsequent recovery. Differences in labour market outcomes between immigrants and natives were accentuated by the recession, when the employment penalty was the highest. Secondly we conclude that the more recent evolution of the employment penalty appears to be related to a composition effect, as many refugee immigrants with weak labour market attachment became naturalised citizens during the recession. This suggests that the difficulties that some immigrants experience in the labour market would be under-estimated without taking due account of naturalisation processes, as is done in this paper for the first time in Ireland. This working paper relates to the 2015 OECD Economic Survey of Ireland (http://www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-ireland.htm).

Comment les immigrants réussissent dans le marché du travail irlandais sur la Grande Récession ? Ce document identifie l'impact sur le marché du travail de la grande récession sur les immigrants par rapport aux autochtones et comment cette relation a évolué depuis la récession. Nous constatons que la pénalisation de l'emploi subie par les travailleurs immigrés, par rapport aux travailleurs indigènes, a considérablement augmenté au cours de la récession irlandaise et a persisté pendant la récupération ultérieure. Les différences de performance dans le marché du travail entre les immigrants et les autochtones ont été accentuées par la récession, lorsque la pénalisation de l'emploi était au plus haut. Deuxièmement, nous concluons que l'évolution récente de la pénalisation de l'emploi semble être liée à un effet de composition car de nombreux immigrants réfugiés faiblement attachés au marché du travail ont été naturalisés Irlandais pendant la récession. Cela laisse à penser que les difficultés rencontrées par certains immigrés sur le marché du travail seraient sous-estimées si le processus de naturalisation n’était pas pris en compte. Ce document prend en compte cet effet de composition pour la première fois en Irlande. Ce Document de travail se rapporte à l’Étude économique de l’OCDE de l'Irlande 2015 (http://www.oecd.org/fr/eco/etudes/etude-economique-irlande.htm).

Keywords: Grande récession; Great recession; immigration; immigration; Ireland; Irlande; labour market; marchés du travail; Naturalisation; Naturalisation; Refugees; Réfugiés (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E24 F22 J21 J61 J64 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016-04-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-mac and nep-mig
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: How did Immigrants Fare in the Irish Labour Market over the Great Recession? (2020)
Working Paper: How did Immigrants fare in the Irish Labour Market over the Great Recession? (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oec:ecoaaa:1284-en

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