Gender Gap in Non-Economic Migrants’ Employment Trajectories: The Role of Differences in Entering and Exiting (First) Employment

Julie Maes , University of Antwerp
Jonas Wood, University of Antwerp
Karel Neels, University of Antwerp

In most European countries, family and humanitarian migrants (i.e. non-economic migrants) exhibit lower employment levels compared to the majority population and economic migrants. While research consistently indicates that female non-economic migrants display lower employment rates compared to their male counterparts, the underlying labour market transitions leading to these gender differences remain largely unexplored. Therefore, this study uses longitudinal microdata for Flanders (Belgium) and applies innovative multistate hazard and microsimulation models to quantify the extent to which gender differences in non-economic migrants’ early employment are shaped by differences in the probability of (I) specifically entering a first job, (II) entering subsequent employment spells or (III) exiting employment. Our results indicate a clear gender gap in employment levels among family and humanitarian migrants. While female humanitarian migrants display a lower labour market participation than female family migrants, the gender gap is overall larger among family migrants and particularly pronounced among Turkish and Moroccan origin groups. Moreover, our results highlight that the lower probability of entering first employment among female non-economic migrants compared to their male counterparts fully explains gender differences in early employment trajectories. Hence, particularly reducing barriers to women’s first employment entry could substantially narrow the gender gap in non-economic migrants’ labour market integration. However, more research is needed to identify the specific mechanisms behind the gender gap in first employment entry among different groups of family and humanitarian migrants, as well as the relative importance of these mechanisms.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility