Do Legal Immigrants and Natives Compete in the Labour Market? Evidence from Catalonia

Luis Diaz-Serrano ()

No 4693, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: The precondition for labour-market competition between immigrants and natives is that both are willing to accept jobs that do not differ in quality. To test this hypothesis, in this paper we compare the working conditions between immigrants and natives in Catalonia. Comparing immigrants' working conditions in relation to their native counterparts is not only a useful analysis for studying the extent to which immigrants and low-skilled native workers are direct competitors in the labour market, but also allows us to contribute to the literature on this issue by moving away from the conventional approach used in previous studies. Our results indicate that: i) natives and immigrants display a different taste for job (dis)amenities; ii) Catalan-born workers might be in direct competition with EU15 immigrants, while non-Catalan Spanish workers might be competing with Latin American immigrants, and; iii) African-born immigrants are the group in the Catalan workforce that by far face the worst working conditions.

Keywords: working conditions; job quality; job satisfaction; immigration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J28 J61 J81 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 42 pages
Date: 2010-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab, nep-mic and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published - published as 'Immigrants, Natives and Job Quality: Evidence from Spain' in: International Journal of Manpower, 2013, 34 (7), 753-775

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