examples
One indicator of labour market inequality which has been quoted each year in EUMC Annual Reports is the rate of unemployment of immigrants or minorities. In 2006, as in previous years, in most Member States their rate of unemployment was significantly higher than for the majority population. Whilst most Member States do not record ethnic or national origin in their official statistics, almost two-thirds of them provide statistics from which the rates of unemployment of ‘citizens of countries from outside the EU’ can be compared to those of ‘citizens of Member States’. Figure 3.1. shows the ratio of unemployment rates of citizens of countries outside the EU-25 to those of citizens for 16 EU Member States for the second quarter of 2006.
As can be seen from Figure 3.1, non-citizens from outside the EU were in most cases significantly more likely to be unemployed than citizens. However, while these figures seem to provide an initial basis for comparison of labour market integration between Member States, this comparison would be of limited value. That is because the statistics are affected by many distorting factors, such as the differing levels of skill and qualification of recent immigrants, and the different requirements for obtaining citizenship between Member States.
3.1.1. The limitations of comparison
For example, in a country where citizenship is easier for immigrants to gain, the unemployed ‘non-citizens’ group will contain proportionately more recent arrivals, whilst in a country where it takes much longer to acquire citizenship, the ‘non-citizens’ group will contain more longer-term residents. Thus in a country where the non-citizen group contains a higher proportion of more recent arrivals, the unemployment rate of immigrants is likely to be higher, but this will not necessarily reflect a higher level of discrimination. (It should be noted that there is a wide variety between EU Member States regarding the minimum periods of legal residence required to obtain citizenship – for example it varies between three years in Belgium and ten years in Spain, Greece, Austria and Portugal.)
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In only two countries, the Czech Republic and Greece, do the statistics in Figure 3.1 indicate that non-citizens are less likely to be unemployed than citizens. However, a lower rate does not necessarily mean less discrimination in the labour market. In the case of these two countries it has been suggested that these lower unemployment rates may be explained by the significantly tightened eligibility
conditions for obtaining a work or residence permit in the Czech Republic, and
the fact that the majority of immigrants in Greece are undocumented immigrants
who are not registered in official statistics.90 Also, in those countries where being
unemployed can lead to loss of residence permit, there is greater pressure for immigrants to take any job regardless of suitability. In countries where third- country nationals’ insecurity leads them to accept jobs for lower pay and worse conditions than nationals, there can be a kind of ‘positive discrimination’ in seeking to employ such workers. Under these circumstances, the unemployment rate of non-nationals is correspondingly lower (see section 3.4), and such immigrants may well be employed in jobs below their education and skill levels.
Figure 3.1: The ratio of the unemployment rate of citizens of countries outside the EU-25 to the unemployment rate of citizens in 16 Member States, 2nd quarter 2006
0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5 5.0 Belg ium Luxemb ourg* Estoni a* Denmar k* Spain Portug al Cypr us* Cze ch Re public* Gre ece Finl and Nether land s Swe den Austr ia Franc e Ger man y Unite d Kingdom
* Data on the unemployment rate of citizens of countries outside the EU-25 may be unreliable or uncertain for these countries. Level ‘.0’ on the vertical axis denotes the level of unemployment of citizens of the Member State. Data source: EUROSTAT.
EUROSTAT data on the unemployment rates of immigrants from outside the EU-25 were unavailable for Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Malta,
Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia.91
This imperfect comparison of unemployment rates illustrates the need for improved data in this area. Statistics on citizenship alone are of limited value for examining issues of discrimination, whereas data which identify ethnic and national origin would produce a much clearer picture (see section 3.6). A more meaningful comparison of integration in the labour market would be to focus on the unemployment rates of second-generation immigrants who were born in the country and who have citizenship, or at least have the same legal rights to employment as nationals, and taking into account their educational levels.
Some individual Member States have unemployment statistics which can be broken down by ethnic or national group and these can show striking differences
between groups within one country. In Belgium the highest unemployment rates
amongst all groups are those for Turkish and Moroccan nationals (45 per cent for males, 56 per cent for females) compared to the unemployment rates for Belgian
nationals of 10 per cent. 92 In the Netherlands, of all the non-Western immigrant
groups, unemployment among Moroccans was the highest at 20 per cent. For ‘new’
immigrant groups, most of whom are from refugee backgrounds,93 unemployment
figures are considerably higher than for the ‘traditional’ immigrant groups.94
In many Member States the group with the highest unemployment rates of all are the Roma. These are not visible in statistics of ‘citizens/non-citizens’, but in some countries are identified in the census as a national minority. Evidence on
Roma also comes from specific research or from NGO figures. In Bulgaria general
household surveys showed that the unemployment rate for Roma in 2006 was 53.2
per cent, for Turks was 34.4 per cent, and for majority Bulgarians was 9.2 per cent.95
In the Czech Republic the level of Roma unemployment was estimated to be 70
per cent,96 compared to an overall unemployment level in 2006 of 7.9 per cent.97
In Poland a report from 200598 identified several voivodships (provinces) where
Roma unemployment levels were more than 90 per cent compared to a general
9 Details of the full dataset can be found at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1073,46870091&_ dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=LFSQ_URGAN (05.06.2007).
92 Source: NIS – see: Algemene Directie Werkgelegenheid en Arbeidsmarkt/Direction générale Emploi et Marché du Travail (2006) De Immigratie in België: Aantallen, Stromen en Arbeidsmarkt – Rapport 2006/L’immigration en Belgique: Effectifs, Mouvements et Marché du Travai – Rapport 2006 Brussel/Bruxelles, p. 36, available at: http://meta.fgov.be/pdf/pd/nldf47.pdf (6.0.2006).
93 See: V. Van den Maagdenburg (2004) ‘Arbeid en Inkomen’, in: Instituut voor Sociologisch-Economisch Onder- zoek Jaarrapport Integratie 2004.
94 J. Klaver, A. Odé (2005) ‘Een weg vol obstakels: de moeizame integratie van vluchtelingen op de Nederlandse arbeidsmarkt’, in: Migrantenstudies, 2005-2, pp. 02-.
95 http://www.vitosha-research.com/index_en.php (.09.2006).
96 Analysis of Socially Excluded Roma Localities and Absorption Capacity of Surrounding Subjects, carried out by GAC Ltd. for the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, 2006.
97 Source: the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
9 Poland/Ministry of Interior and Administration (2006) Sprawozdanie z realizacji Programu na rzecz społeczności romskiej w Polsce w 2005 roku, available at: http://www.mswia.gov.pl/index.php?dzial=183&id=3957 (6.0.2006).
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unemployment rate in Poland in 2005 of between 17.3 and 19.4 per cent.99 In
Romania the 2002 census100 identified the Roma population as the most affected by
unemployment,101 and an unofficial analysis from 2006 found that of the total Roma
population employed, only 34 per cent had a regular income (compared to 71 per
cent in the case of Romanians and 79 per cent in the case of ethnic Hungarians).102
In Slovenia a survey conducted in five regions in 2005-2006 involving 49 per cent of Roma between 15 and 45 years of age showed that only 7 per cent of respondents were currently employed (5 per cent of women and 8 per cent of men), 26 per cent had been in employment in the past, but were currently unemployed, and 67 per cent of Roma had never been in employment at all (a striking 78 per cent of Roma
women had never been employed).103