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Immigrant Performance and Selective Immigration Policy: A European Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2020

Amelie Constant  and
Klaus F. Zimmermann
Amelie Constant
Affiliation:
IZA, Bonn
Klaus F. Zimmermann*
Affiliation:
Bonn University, IZA Bonn and DIW Berlin
*
e-mail: Zimmermann@iza.org
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Abstract

The European Union aims at a stronger participation by its population in work to foster growth and welfare. There are concerns about the attachment of immigrants to the labour force, and discussions about the necessary policy responses. Integrated labour and migration policies are needed. The employment chances of the low-skilled are limited. Whereas Europe could benefit from a substantive immigration policy that imposes selection criteria that are more in line with economic needs, the substantial immigration into the European Union follows largely non-economic motives. This paper discusses the economic rationale of a selective immigration policy and provides empirical evidence about the adverse effects of current selection mechanisms.

Keywords

Migration policyethnicitymigrant workersasylum seekersfamily reunificationF22J15J31J61J68J82
Type
Articles
Information
National Institute Economic Review , Volume 194 , October 2005 , pp. 94 - 105
Copyright
Copyright © 2005 National Institute of Economic and Social Research

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Footnotes

∗

Financial support from Volkswagen Foundation for the IZA project on ‘The economics and persistence of migrant ethnicity’ is gratefully acknowledged. We wish to thank the Rockwool Foundation Research Unit, especially Claus Larsen, Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen, Niels-Kenneth Nielsen and Torben Tranaes, and Statistics Denmark in Copenhagen for valuable help with the Danish part of the data set used in this study during research visits in May and June 2005. We also thank John Ermisch and a referee for helpful comments on an earlier draft.

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