Are immigrants and descendants with ill health more prone to unemployment? Evidence from 18 European countries
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Accepted version
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Date
2016-10-21Metadata
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Abstract
Objective:
Previous research has established that both ill health
and minority status are associated with unemployment. Less is
known, however, about the interplay between having ill health
and being from minority background. The present study
examines whether immigrants and descendants with ill health
are particularly prone to unemployment during an economic
downturn in Europe.
Design:
The European Union Statistics on Income and Living
Conditions (EU-SILC) cross-sectional data material is utilized, and
linear probability models are estimated. The analysis is run for
countries in which the two minority samples are acceptably
large (
N
≥
100), resulting in 18 included European countries. The
year 2011 is chosen because it is possible to identify both
immigrants and descendants in EU-SILC due to a module on
intergenerational transfer of disadvantages.
Results:
The results indicate
–
as expected
–
that both ill health
and minority status are independently related to higher
unemployment likelihood. Immigrants and descendants with ill
health, however, are not particularly likely to be unemployed.
This finding is robust to a number of sensitivity tests, and the
empirical pattern is very similar across the 18 included countries.
Conclusion:
Both minority status and ill health are associated with
high unemployment probability in Europe. However, there does
not seem to exist a
‘
double disadvantage
’
for immigrants and
descendants with ill health, which is in line with a human
capital perspective on how employers evaluate potential
employees. Both a non-native-sounding name and bad health
status are interpreted as a risk factor, but there is no reason to
expect ill health to lower the productivity level more if the
applicant is a descendant or immigrant.