The institutional framework of ethnic employment disadvantage: A comparison of Germany and Canada

Abstract

Foreigners in Germany differ from immigrants in Canada in the patterns, more than the overall extent, of employment disadvantage. Conventional earnings decomposition analysis is extended cross-nationally to highlight differences in ethnic disadvantages within labour markets, and also differences in effects of the structure of educational and labour market institutions themselves, using the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) first wave for 1984, and the 1986 Canadian Census. German education and labour market institutions benefit low-skill migrants, but generate less earnings assimilation. Such assimilation in Canada is greater but varies more by ethnic and racial origins. Migrant women in Germany receive a boost from the lower educational levels of mainstream German women, and from greater German labour market equity. These cross-national differences support some of the expectations based on characterisations of 'immigrant societies', or differences in national policies of citizenship, equity or culture, but depart from others.

Keywords

Author Keywords

Not provided

Index Keywords

Employment Germany Canada institutional framework International comparison ethnicity

Author Affiliations

Centre for Industrial Relations, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany

German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin, Germany, Department of Economics, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder), Frankfurt/Oder, Brandenburg, Germany, Institute on the Future of Work, Bonn, Germany

Funding & Acknowledgements

National Institute on Aging, NIA

An earlier draft of the paper on which this article is based was presented at the 1998 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, 21-25 August. The research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by the Syracuse University Center for Policy Research under a grant from the National Institute on Aging, and generous additional assistance from the German Institute for Economic Research [Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung - DIW] in Berlin.

Syracuse University, SU

An earlier draft of the paper on which this article is based was presented at the 1998 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, 21-25 August. The research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by the Syracuse University Center for Policy Research under a grant from the National Institute on Aging, and generous additional assistance from the German Institute for Economic Research [Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung - DIW] in Berlin.

Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, SSHRC

An earlier draft of the paper on which this article is based was presented at the 1998 Annual Meetings of the American Sociological Association, San Francisco, 21-25 August. The research was supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, by the Syracuse University Center for Policy Research under a grant from the National Institute on Aging, and generous additional assistance from the German Institute for Economic Research [Deutsches Institut fur Wirtschaftsforschung - DIW] in Berlin.

References 10 References

1 Kolner Zeitschrift Fur Soziologie Und Sozialpsychologie, (1994)

2 Income Distribution in OECD Countries, (1995)

3 Migration Past Migration Future Germany and the United States, (1997)

4 Transition and Structural Change in the North American Labour Market, (1997)

5 International and Comparative Employment Relations, (2025)

6 Bauer, Thomas K., Unemployment and wages of ethnic Germans, Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, 37, SUPPL. 1, pp. 361-377, (1997)

7 Importing Foreign Workers A Comparison of German and American Policy, (1990)

8 Blossfeld, Hans Peter, Entry into the labor market and occupational career in the Federal Republic: A comparison with American studies, Comparative Studies of Social Structure: Recent Research on France, the United States, and the Federal Republic of Germany, pp. 86-115, (2019)

9 Guestworkers or Immigrants A Demographic Analysis of the Status of Migrants in West Germany, (1984)

10 Friends or Strangers the Impact of Immigrants on the U S Economy, (1990)

The institutional framework of ethnic employment disadvantage: A comparison of Germany and Canada

How to Cite