Migrants to the European Union achieve employment rates similar to those of native populations and contribute especially to sectors with labour shortages, while also facing significantly lower wages and job quality, new research from the EU-funded Project WeLaR finds.
Drawing on data from the 2021 European Labour Force Survey (EU-LFS), which includes information from EU member states, four EU candidate countries, and three non-EU EFTA members, the WeLaR study “Migration and Integration in European Labour Markets” offers insight into the challenges and barriers of the integration process. Despite those barriers, migrants achieve employment rates of 60-70%, comparable to those of native-born workers, the data shows.
“In the EU migrants remain disproportionately concentrated at the lower end of the income distribution,” says Sarah McNamara, co-author of the study and researcher at Germany’s ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research. “Skill mismatches, both in terms of working in fields unrelated to their qualifications and being employed below their skill level, remain a significant challenge. And migrants are also more likely to have temporary contracts with poorer working conditions and lower wages.”
However, researchers found no evidence of “welfare migration”, with recent arrivals less likely to rely on benefits than those who came in earlier waves. Moreover, those who are not in the labour force struggle to access any social assistance. Research also shows that migrants are more likely to work in shortage occupations.
The study found significant variations in migration experiences across the EU. In countries like Cyprus and Luxembourg, over 50% of the working-age population has a migration background, compared with less than 5% in Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania.
Longer searches
Migrants often rely on personal networks to find jobs and tend to return to work more quickly after career interruptions compared to native workers. The duration of job searches among migrants varies significantly across Europe, with countries like Germany, Spain, and Latvia experiencing longer average search periods compared to Lithuania, Poland, and Estonia.
“This disparity can be partly attributed to the local composition of migrant arrivals,” says co-author and ZEW researcher Martin Lange. “For instance, Germany hosts a relatively high number of asylum seekers who face restrictions on paid employment during their initial years, contributing to extended job search durations.”
The report highlights that asylum seekers encounter even greater challenges in finding employment than other migrants. Institutional barriers, especially in the 15 countries that have been EU members since 1995 or earlier, make it harder for them to secure work. One key challenge is the recognition of foreign qualifications, a process so complex it discourages many migrants from even attempting to have their credentials validated.
“The EU still lacks a comprehensive approach to managing migrants and asylum seekers and unlocking their economic potential,” says Sarah McNamara. “We need to rethink how we can remove the institutional barriers that prevent migrants from participating fully in the workforce. One of the first new policies should be the introduction of a continent-wide system for recognising foreign qualifications.”
The WeLaR research also examined the impact of migration on the wages of the native population, focusing on Germany after the EU’s eastern enlargement. Contrary to popular belief, the data reveals that migration has had an overall positive impact on wages. In particular, wages in the upper part of the income distribution grew, indicating a complementarity between high-skilled native workers and incoming migrants.
“This overall positive effect on native wages suggests that the German labour market has successfully integrated migrant workers without significantly impacting native workers’ earnings,” says Martin Lange. “However, paradoxically, the new waves of migration present challenges for earlier low-skilled migrants, who face a substitution effect and downward pressure on their earnings.”
Martin Lange, Sarah McNamara, Philipp Schmidt, César Barreto Sanchez, Katrin Sommerfeld, and Martin Streng (2024) Migration and Integration in European Labour Markets (Deliverable D5.5) Leuven: WeLaR project 101061388–HORIZON.
The paper is available here
