Unmet labour demand in Europe: chances for immigrants?

This paper examines the chances for immigrants on the European job market. The data represents a one percent sample of the German population of the Micro census for the years 1998, 2000 and 2003 and Eurostat Labour Force Survey data. The issue addressed is how the academic and occupational level of education (participation in education), labour participation, professional status, unemployment rate, income, female labour participation and atypical occupation (structure of employment) of the foreigners differ from the native population. We find that foreigners in EU countries are more likely to be unemployed and are often in lower segments of the labour market. European comparisons of the labour market situation shows that the acknowledgment of foreign degrees, discrimination, supporting measures and the labour market policy have to be taken into account, as well as the (country-specific) human capital, language skills and the immigrants’ participation in education.