Conocimiento de Contenido didáctico (CCD) Categoría de análisis

Over the recent past many OECD countries have eased restrictions concerning spousal migration, making it easier for highly skilled labour migrants to come with their spouses and families and granting work rights to spouses upon arrival.14In practice, however, not all labour migrants arrive with their families, even when there are no restrictions, because their intended stay may not be a prolonged one; because they may prefer to leave their families in the country of origin, either entirely or until they have a clearer idea of the way of life in the destination country; or finally, because a family move may not be possible to organise before the start of employment in the destination country. Likewise humanitarian migrants who were at risk in their countries of origin may initially flee alone, with plans to bring in their families once their refugee status is recognised. Migrants who are regularised or who return to the origin country to marry are other situations which may result in potential family reunification some time after the arrival of the original migrant in the destination country.

Figure 1.8. Self-declared labour migrants who indicated they had found a job before arrival, by region of birth, 2008

% of total labour migrants

Source:European Union Labour force Survey – ad hoc module on the labour market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants, 2008 (Eurostat).

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OECD countries Non-OECD countries

Gree ce Aus tria Spai n Por tug al Italy Fran ce Aver age Norw ay Belg ium Nethe rlands Irela nd Swit zerla nd Uni ted K ingdom Swed en Luxemb our g

Because labour force surveys generally involve the interviewing of all members of a household selected into the sample, it is possible to identify situations in which an immigrant arrives before, after or the same year as his or her spouse. If one restricts oneself to situations in which the spouse who arrives later does so in the year in which the survey is conducted, then one can plausibly assume that for married migrants, the marriage took place before the arrival. At worse, it took place in the year of arrival. This reduces the possibility of distortions that could arise if one looked at the entire immigrant stock, because of the possibility that immigrants may meet in the country of residence and marry several years after arrival, which would not constitute family migration. We also restrict our attention to situations in which both spouses are foreign-born.

Generally, migrant spouses from non-EU countries arrive separately (77% on average) more often than they do together (Figure 1.9). For EU migrants, the situation is more balanced with almost half of immigrant couples on average arriving together. Whether this is attributable to restrictions on family migration for migrants from outside the EU is unclear. Most countries have relaxed rules regarding this, especially for highly skilled migrants, so there is noa priorireason why one would expect this result. The choice of coming alone or as a family may well be the decision of the immigrant, but it may be influenced by the perceived stability of the status of residence granted upon arrival.15

EU couples arrive together more than 60% of the time in the United Kingdom, Ireland, France and Austria. At the other extreme, non-EU couples arrive together less than 20% of the time in Italy, Spain, Austria and France.

For the United States, fully 40% of female married migrants arrived with their spouses, a surprising result, given the importance of family migration in the United States. However, green card statistics indicate that spouses and children of foreign citizens have accounted

Figure 1.9. Order of arrival of married immigrant women, compared to that of their spouses, 2006-10 entries

Percentages

Note:Samples for other countries were either too small to be usable or did not allow the identification of household members.

Sources: European Union Labour Force Survey (Eurostat); United States: American Community Survey, 2010.

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ITA ESP AUT FRA GRC PRT IRL GBR ITA ESP GBR IRL FRA AUT USA Arrived at same time Arrived after Arrived first

for only about 40% of total family migration on average over the five years ending in 2012. Other family migration categories involve parents, adult siblings and sons and daughters of American citizens, who are allowed to come in with their spouses and apparently seem to do so.

If one examines family reunification cases separately, then one sees that women arrive first on average about 26% of the time among non-EU couples and 22% of the time among EU couples (Figure 1.10). The values range from about 10 to 30%, with Ireland an outlier for non-EU couples. In the United States married women arrive first about 20% of the time. Although women in an origin country household may be the initial emigrants more often than was the case in the past, in OECD countries this appears to still remain very much a minority phenomenon. The male spouse thus continues to be the initial or principal migrant most of the time among married immigrants.

The nature of arrival of the immigrant family may be a matter of policy interest if it is associated with the educational or labour market outcomes of immigrants or their children. It is known, for example, that the later immigrant children arrive, the lower are their results on international student assessments such as PISA (OECD, 2012).16 Later arrival may make the integration of children more difficult because of language learning difficulties or entry into an educational system which may be more demanding than that in the origin country. This may in turn have effects on their eventual labour market outcomes. Empirical results on outcomes by mode of family arrival may have bearing on whether or not immigrants should be encouraged and/or provided incentives to migrate as families.