The economic integration of migrants is now universally considered imperative in major immigrant societies around the world and a major factor in their social and political stability. Despite the ever growing literature that addresses the variation in labour market outcomes of different migrant groups and considers their main motivation for migration (Cangiano, 2015; Cortes, 2004; Fasani et al., 2018; Zwysen, 2018, Zwysen and Demireva 2020, Kanas and Steinmetz 2020), further research is needed to ascertain the extent to which these differences are shaped by individual factors such as host country human capital or by the context in the receiving societies (Guzi et al., 2021; Kanas & Steinmetz, 2021). Labour market integration patterns vary substantially over countries (Reyneri & Fullin, 2011) and the extent of observed disadvantage is likely to depend partially on individual characteristics of different migrants but also on a range of migration policies and context specific opportunities that will influence the extent to which different migrant groups according to their motivations avail of different opportunities (Cangiano, 2015; Guzi et al., 2021; Kanas & Steinmetz, 2021).
This study contributes to the literature in several ways. Using the 2008, 2014, and 2021 ad-hoc modules on migration of EU-LFS, we build a comprehensive picture of several employment and occupational gaps: between the native-born and economic migrants and the native-born and non-economic migrants on one hand; and within migrant groups between economic to family and refugee migrants on the other. Overall, this paper provides evidence that underscores that the importance of encouraging and facilitating host country human capital acquisitions among non-economic migrants, both in terms of short-term gains such as increased employment opportunities and long-term ones such as reducing occupational deskilling – it is these two groups that primarily benefit from host country human capital compared to economic migrants. We also re-affirm that contextual factors matter – favourable labour market and family policies may help to reduce the gap between economic and non-economic migrants, while higher unemployment rate upon arrival results in worsened occupational standing prospects of all groups.
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