Job search networks and labour market outcomes of immigrants in Italy

The growing migratory pressure that many European countries have been experiencing is stressing the emergence of questions in terms of socio-economic inequalities that these demographic processes are able to generate. This work concentrates on immigrants’ behaviour in the labour market, as one of the spheres of their integration in the host country, and focuses on Italy, a country that for few decades has been experiencing a transition from emigration to immigration area. It is relevant, when labour market outcomes of immigrants are considered, to adopt a dynamic perspective, rather than a static one. Indeed, immigrants follow pathways, usually interrelated, that move forward in time: from migration decision to entrance into the destination country; from arrival to employment and then to further careers and occupational trajectories. One of the main approaches to this problem has explored the impact of immigrants’ human capital on their wages, that in a dynamic perspective has allowed the emergence of a theory of assimilation (Chiswick 1978). By contrast, a different approach considers immigrants not only as a function of their individual characteristics, but rather as belonging to a relational structure able to determine their economic outcomes and the characteristics of their incorporation in the host society (Portes 1995, Waldinger 2005). This relational structure can be directly related to the labour market: on the one hand it is possible that immigrants rely on very dense networks based on reciprocity principles that facilitate the flow of work-relevant information (Portes and Sensenbrenner 1993); on the other hand the same migratory networks, as being related to redundant information, can accelerate processes of employment concentration within specific occupational niches (Waldinger 1994). Following this research approach some studies have explored the issue of job search and finding methods of immigrants, emphasising how they are connected to resources that are not equally distributed in the labour market. However almost none of them investigates the difference between multiple informal methods, that allows to account for the quality of the contact person. On this respect it has been observed that immigrants who establish connections and relationships with the native population obtain higher wages and better occupations (Lancee 2012, 2015). This work analyses the relationship between job search networks and labour market outcomes and addresses three hypotheses: 1. Ethnic networks have a relevant impact on the transition to employment of new immigrants in Italy. Informal job finding methods based on contacts with relatives and other immigrants cut down on the duration between entrance in Italy and access to the first job. By contrast, those immigrants that rely mainly on formal methods or contacts with the native population experience a longer transition to employment. 2. Ethic networks also affect the quality of the transition to work. Especially, informal job finding methods based on contacts with immigrant acquaintances, on respect to contacts with the native population, are associated with a higher risk of access irregular and also lower qualified first jobs. 3. The relationship between ethnic job search networks and lower quality occupations is not constant over time, since ethnic contacts change and become more diversified. It is stronger when the first job is considered and less effective when subsequent jobs are observed. In order to analyse these aspects, data from the Italian survey “Condizione e Integrazione Sociale degli Stranieri in Italia” have been explored. It represents a recent survey conducted by Istat in 2011-2012, exclusively on the resident population without citizenship or born abroad. The individual data-set collects relevant retrospective information on working histories and migratory pathways of respondents. First, it records information on two points in time of their working experience: the first job and the current labour market condition. Second, it collects dates of these points and of immigrant’s arrival. Moreover the data contain extensive information on formal and informal job search and finding methods of individuals. Especially, the information allows to account for more than one informal method: the contact person can be identified as a relative, as a co-ethnic acquaintance, or as an Italian one. The transition to employment is modelled using event history analysis, in order to observe if the transition rate is affected by different job finding methods, given a set of socio-demographic characteristics. The possibility to arrive at different jobs is developed through competing risks models that account for multiple destinations. Finally the comparison between the quality of first and second jobs is carried out through discrete choice models produced for the first and for the second job. All the analyses differentiate male and female immigrants, since they are usually employed in different segments of the labour market. This is particularly true in Italy, where the largest majority of female immigrants are care and domestic workers. Moreover the study accounts for many groups of immigrants, both European and non-European.