Irena Kogan

Ex-Yugoslavs in the Austrian and Swedish labour markets: The significance of the period of migration and the effect of citizenship acquisition

This paper assesses the labour market integration of ex-Yugoslav immigrants in Austria and Sweden in terms of three relevant structural characteristics of the two societies: immigration policies, labour markets and welfare regulations. The Austrian 1996 micro-census and the Swedish 1997 labour force survey data are utilised to explore the labour market attainment of ex-Yugoslav citizens in Austria and Sweden in terms of four outcomes: labour force participation, unemployment, economic sector concen tration and occupational status. The labour market situations of pre-1973 immigrants in Sweden and Austria were found to be quite similar, while more recent immigrants to Sweden show distinctly lower activity rates and higher unemployment risks compared to natives than do their counterparts who went to Austria. If successful in finding a job, recent Yugoslav immigrants in Sweden managed to enter more prestigious occupations than their compatriots in Austria, but immigrants in both countries are disadvantaged if compared to the native-born. The study demonstrates that, when controlling for period of migration, citizenship per se does not influence labour market outcomes in Sweden. In Austria, in contrast, non-citizens have higher risks of employment in the non-tertiary sector and hold jobs of lower occupational status.

Transition from Educational System to Labour Market in the European Union A Comparison between New and Old Members

Theoretically, the central research question of this article pertains to the way in which national institutional arrangements, namely educational systems, and related modes of labour markets and welfare provisions, affect the aggregate effectiveness of youth labour market integration in the new EU member states in comparison to the old EU countries. The study utilizes the European Union Labour Force Survey 2004. Results of the cluster analysis provide substantial support for distinct patterns of labour market entry in terms of the stratification of labour market exclusion, downgrading risk and labour market mobility of LM entrants in different CEE countries. Furthermore, the article reveals also new aspects of labour market entry in the EU-15 countries while considering not only educational signalling but also the labour market flexibility dimension.

Transition from School to Work in Transition Economies

This paper explores school-to-work transitions in three new EU Member states, Hungary, Slovenia and Estonia, focusing on the effect of the level of education and social background on the timing of the first significant employment and the match between educational qualifications and occupation among school leavers. So-called cohort effects are a focal point as well, since transition process and outcomes seem to be largely influenced by the dynamics of economic and social changes in the transition economies. To explore the early career developments of job entrants in the three transition countries during the 1990s, the study utilizes the European Union Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on school-to-work transitions, which has been launched in Hungary, Slovenia in 2000 and in Estonia in 2002. Event history methods are applied to explore transition to first significant employment, while the match of educational qualification and occupational attainment is modelled using multinomial logistic regression techniques.

Differences in earnings assimilation of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union to Germany and Israel during 1994-2005: The interplay between context of reception, observed, and unobserved immigrants’ attributes

The present study considers the interplay between patterns of immigrants’ self-selection and the context of reception (i.e. migration policies and the operation of the labor market) at the host country on different economic assimilation patterns. We compare three groups of immigrants from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) who arrived in Israel and Germany during 1994—2005: Jewish immigrants who arrived in Israel, Jewish immigrants who arrived in Germany (JQR), and ethnic Germans who arrived in Germany (EG). Using the same questionnaire for the German and Israeli samples, we disentangle the impact of the two effects on immigrants’ earnings assimilation by applying the Juhn et al. (1991) method of decomposing the difference in the earnings differentials between natives and FSU immigrants in the two host countries. The results indicate that earnings gaps between FSU immigrants and natives are wider in Germany than in Israel and that the role of contexts of reception is significant in determining patterns of self-selection. We find that the less rigid market attracts the more motivated immigrants, as indicated by the comparison between Jewish immigrant men in Israel and Germany. Within contexts of immigrant reception, the operation of the labor market is more important than formal policies in enhancing economic assimilation of immigrants, as indicated by the comparisons between JQR and EG immigrants in Germany and between Jewish immigrant women in Israel and Germany.

The price of being an outsider: Labour market flexibility and immigrants’ employment paths in Germany

This article attempts to answer the question to what extent recent reforms aimed at flexibilizing the German labour market affected immigrants and how this explains the (in)stability of their employment paths. Based on the 1996–1999 and 2001–2004 German micro-census panels, we focus not only on transitions from employment to unemployment and vice versa, but also on the type of employment, either open-ended or fixed-term. Dynamic random effects models explore the effects of the employment status in the preceding year on the employment status in the subsequent one for various groups of immigrants. Results confirm the more precarious nature of immigrant employment with a more frequent mobility in and out of unemployment, a more pronounced incidence of fixed-term employment and a higher instability of open-ended jobs.

The Role of Vocational Specificity of Educational Credentials for Labour Market Entry in Estonia and Slovenia

This article compares entry to their first stable employment among young people in Estonia and Slovenia after the fall of Communism, when the two countries opted for two different models with regard to the organization of their educational systems. Results show that in Slovenia with the passage of time after the start of reforms, education—job linkages among young school leavers have become stronger. Those with vocational credentials and tertiary education have been able to secure their first stable employment more quickly than the rest. Ultimate losers of the transformation in Slovenia appear to be school leavers without any vocational training, whose first job entry chances have significantly deteriorated. In Estonia, on the other hand, school leavers, irrespective of their educational qualifications, hardly differ regarding the speed of entry to their first significant employment. Neither those with vocational credentials at the lower-secondary level, nor university graduates have been able to secure their first stable employment more quickly than the least educated. The analyses are conducted on the basis of the Labour Force Survey ad hoc module on school-to-work transitions applying event history techniques.

The Role of Language Resources in Labour Market Entry: Comparing Estonia and Ukraine

This paper explores how language proficiency influences the dynamics of labour market entry among young Russians and the native populations in two former Soviet Republics—Estonia and Ukraine. We use data from the Estonian TIES survey and the Youth Transition Survey in Ukraine to compare the speed of finding any first job with that of entry to the first higher-status employment requiring good communication skills, thus revealing the role of language proficiency in the job-entry process. The results from event-history analyses show that proficiency in the official Estonian language plays a pivotal role for labour market entry in Estonia, particularly for higher-status employment. In Ukraine, on the other hand, monolingual Russian-speaking youth do not experience any difficulties in finding high-status first employment, even though the official language of the country is Ukrainian. We do not find any positive effect of bilingualism in either of these countries.

Individual Resources and Structural Constraints in Immigrants’ Labour Market Integration

Entering the labour market, gaining adequate employment and pursuing a successful occupational career are central events in the life course of each individual. Among immigrants such events might occur several times in various societal contexts, implying that opportunities and constraints of these specific social circumstances have to be taken into account. Migration in itself is interconnected with the above-mentioned life course events, so that understanding these interrelationships and figuring out how these might vary across various immigrant origins and socio-economic groups are important aims of the migration-related life course research.

Helpful friends? Personal contacts and job entry among youths in transformation societies

This article’s aim is to explore the role of personal contacts at the transition from school to work and compare these effects across countries with various levels of market development. Using data from school-leaver surveys for Ukraine and Croatia and applying propensity score matching, we focus on the probability of finding initial employment and the quality of this employment among those youths who adhered to personal contacts compared to those relying on formal methods of job searching. Our results reveal that personal connections yield greater economic benefits for job entry in transformation countries with more developed market structures.

Auf die „richtigen“ Kontakte kommt es an! Soziale Ressourcen und die Bildungsaspirationen der Mütter von Haupt-, Real- und Gesamtschülern in Deutschland

Bildungsabschlusse sind in modernen Gesellschaften zu einem wesentlichen Bestimmungsfaktor fur die Lebenschancen von Individuen geworden. Verschiedene Bildungswege schaffen ganz unterschiedliche Voraussetzungen fur zukunftige Statuspositionen und die damit verknupften Privilegien wie beispielsweise hoheres Einkommen, Prestige oder entsprechende Lebensqualitat. Fur einen erfolgreichen Ubergang in den Arbeitsmarkt stellen Schul- bzw. Ausbildungsabschlusse entscheidende biographische Weichenstellungen dar. Geringe bzw. fehlende Qualifikationen wirken sich dahingehend aus, dass der Zugang zu einem Grosteil der Berufe und die sich daraus ergebenden gesellschaftlichen Positionen verwehrt bleiben.