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This publication presents a comprehensive international comparison across all EU and OECD countries, as well as of selected other G20 countries, of the integration outcomes for immigrants and their children. It is the fruit of a co-operation between the European Commission (DG Migration and Home Affairs) and the OECD’s International Migration Division, as part of a regular monitoring of comparable indicators of integration across EU, OECD and G20 countries.
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Migration has reached record highs in recent years. However, new migrants settling in the EU and the OECD every year still represent less than 0.5% of the host-country populations on average, and the current focus on new arrivals should not neglect the longstanding presence of already settled migrants and their offspring.
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Permanent migration to EU and OECD countries has reached record highs in recent years, but this should not overshadow the longstanding presence of settled migrants, their children and their native-born descendants. Today, the OECD and the European Union are home to around 128 and 58 million immigrants, respectively, accounting for over 10% of their population. In the European Union, around two-thirds of immigrants are from non-EU countries. Over the last decade, the immigrant population has increased by 23% in the OECD and by 28% in the EU.
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The integration of immigrants and their children has been high on the policy agenda of EU and OECD countries for the last 20 years. It has gained further attention in the aftermath of the humanitarian refugee crisis that outburst in 2015. Between 2015 and 2017, OECD countries received 5.5 million applications for asylum, not taking into account the 3.4 million Syrians who have been granted temporary protection by Turkey. Not all of these will obtain protection, but many will stay and face specific integration challenges related to their forced migration. In most countries such recent refugees make up for a relatively small part of the overall foreign-born population, which faces itself many integration challenges. Indeed, immigrants who have been in the host-countries for many years often continue to experience poorer outcomes than their native-born peers. And some of this disadvantage is passed on to their native-born children.
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The societies of countries in the OECD and the European Union have been shaped by successive waves of immigration. Their scale and composition vary widely across countries. A number of socio-demographic factors drive integration outcomes. They include age, gender, family structure, living conditions, and geographical concentration. In addition to such factors, which also apply to the native-born, there are certain immigrant-specific determinants like category of entry, duration of stay, and region of origin. A grasp of how they differ from country to country and how immigrants compare to the native-born is a prerequisite for understanding integration outcomes.Reasons for emigrating have a particularly strong bearing on economic integration. Most labour migrants, for example, have a job waiting for them on arrival, which is generally not the case for family and humanitarian migrants. An immigrant’s country of origin also matters, as the standard of its education system and how its labour market operates may impact the integration outcome in the host country. Another important factor is how long immigrants have lived in the host country, since integration takes place over time. It takes time, for example, to learn the host-country language, to understand how the host country’s labour market and public services function, just as it takes time to build networks. This chapter starts by looking at the sizes of immigrant populations (Indicator 2.1) and their geographical concentration (Indicator ). It then considers their age- and gender-related composition (Indicator ) as well as differences in fertility and partnership practices by country of birth (Indicator ). The chapter then analyses the foreign-/ native-born balance of households (Indicator ) and their family make-up (Indicator ). The chapter then addresses key immigrant-specific factors, such as the composition of immigration flows by category of migration (Indicator ), length of stay, and the regions of origin of the immigrant population resident in the European Union (Indicator ).
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Immigrants’ skills and how they integrate into the labour market are fundamental to becoming part of the host country’s economic fabric. Although skills and qualifications are obviously decisive determinants in immigrants’ economic and social integration, they do not necessarily indicate how well immigrants actually integrate or fare in the labour market, but rather their ability to do so. Skills have indeed a strong bearing on career paths, and influence what kind of job they find.Employment is often considered to be the single most important indicator of integration. Jobs are immigrants’ chief source of income and also help them – though there is no guarantee – to take their place in society by, for example, finding decent accommodation, interacting with others in the workplace, and learning the host-country language. Work further confers social standing in the eyes of the immigrant’s family, particularly children, and with respect to the host-country population. However, while employment is important per se, so is its quality. This chapter begins by considering immigrants’ skills. It compares their levels of educational attainment with those of the native-born (Indicator ), assesses their proficiency in the host-country language (Indicator ) and their access to adult education and training (Indicator ). It then examines immigrants’ labour market outcomes, analysing their employment, participation and unemployment rates (Indicators and ) and looking at indicators on labour market exclusion – long-term unemployment and involuntary inactivity (Indicator ). The chapter goes on to look at the characteristics of the jobs that immigrants hold: types of contracts (Indicator ), working conditions (Indicator ) and the skill levels of jobs (Indicator ). It also considers the match between workers’ educational attainment and the requirements of their occupations (Indicator ). The chapter concludes with a look at the incidence of self-employment (Indicator ).
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Immigrants are not integrated solely through the labour market or the education system. Integration also has economic, spatial and social facets. Immigrants’ ability to generate sufficient income and to meet such essential needs as decent housing and healthcare is crucial if they are to take their place in the host society. Employment status and job quality largely shape living conditions in the OECD and EU, as earnings account for the bulk of family incomes and higher income is associated with better health and housing conditions. Moreover, decent living conditions can, in turn, trigger a virtuous circle leading to improved general well-being, which includes brighter employment prospects.This chapter focuses on three major determinants of living conditions: income, housing, and health. Income is a decisive factor in many socio-economic outcomes. Poverty adversely affects the well-being of immigrants in the host society in a number of ways, such as poor housing and inhibited skills development. Beyond poverty itself, the inequitable distribution of income can lead to marginalisation and damage social cohesion. Housing is also a key factor in well-being. The economic situation of some immigrants and their poor knowledge of the rental market may restrict their choice of accommodation. They may also be prone to discrimination from property owners. Lastly, health is integral to well-being, affecting the degree and manner of engagement with society as a whole. Healthier immigrants are able to work and earn more, and to build broader social networks. This chapter looks first at disposable household income (Indicator ) and the overall risk of poverty (Indicator ). It then considers housing indicators: the incidence of overcrowding (Indicator ), and general housing conditions (Indicator ). Finally, it analyses self-reported health (Indicator ) and the lack of medical treatment (Indicator ).
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Becoming actively involved in the host-country society is a key element in immigrant integration and has strong implications for immigrant well-being. By making their voices heard, taking an interest in how their host society works, and participating in the decisions that shape its future, immigrants become an integral part of their new country, this being the very objective of integration. The nature of the relationship between a host society and its immigrant population is also a critical factor in integration: if social cohesion is strong, it will promote integration whereas if it is weak, immigrants will find it harder to fit in. This chapter starts by looking at two fundamental elements of immigrants’ civic engagement: acquisition of nationality (Indicator ) and voter participation (Indicator ). Although it does not necessarily mark the end of the integration process, obtaining host-country nationality certainly represents a key step in that process. From the viewpoint of the host country, conferring nationality on an immigrant is also a way of welcoming him or her into the community of citizens. One fundamental right of citizens is the right to vote. Participating in elections is a sign of integration – a desire to influence society by getting involved in the selection of those who govern it.The chapter continues by exploring key aspects of social cohesion, represented by the five following indicators: host-country degree of acceptance of immigration (Indicators and ); attitudes of immigrants – compared to those of the native-born – towards gender equality (Indicator ); the extent to which immigrants feel part of the host society or their resultant sense of belonging (Indicator ); the perceived incidence of discrimination against immigrants on the grounds of ethnicity, race or nationality (Indicator ); and, finally, overall life satisfaction (Indicator ) or the extent to which immigrants are satisfied with their life in the host society.
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Comparative analysis of migrant women and men’s outcomes – and of immigrants and natives – can yield insights into integration challenges and support tailored solutions. Migrants’ past, often gendered, experience may interplay differently with host communities and so impact integration outcomes. What is more, immigrant women are less likely than men to be labour migrants. They have disproportionately often migrated for family reasons, which can reinforce gender disparities in employment and social outcomes.However, gender gaps also exist among the native-born. Disparities between male and female immigrants do not, therefore, necessarily suggest more or less successful integration, but can also reflect persisting gender bias in the host-country labour market and society itself, as well as different choices by women and men. This chapter examines key integration indicators to gauge whether and how outcomes differ between men and women. It begins with an overview on the size of the female immigrant population (Indicator ) and a comparison of education levels (Indicator ). It then turns to differences in labour market outcomes: employment, participation and unemployment rates (Indicators and ), followed by levels of involuntary inactivity (Indicator ). The next section looks at the kind of work that immigrants do. It first addresses working hours with a particular focus on part-time work – a gender-specific issue in itself in many countries (Indicator ) – then the skills levels of immigrants’ jobs (Indicator ). The chapter next goes on to consider how well qualifications and levels of education match formal job requirements (Indicator ). The last section goes beyond the workplace to examine gendered experiences of discrimination on the grounds of ethnicity, race or nationality (Indicator ).
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How well they integrate children with foreign-born parents can be considered a yardstick of host countries’ success in integration. Because they were schooled in their parents’ host country, the children of immigrants – both those who are native-born and those who arrived at a very young age – should not, in theory, encounter the same difficulties as adults who arrive from a foreign country. Ultimately, their outcomes should be much the same as those of young people with no migrant background. Yet that is not what happens in many host countries, particularly in Europe.The chapter begins by considering some basic demographic and immigrant-specific pointers that help situate young people with a migrant background (Indicators and ). It then describes their access to early childhood education and care (), and to what extent they are concentrated in some schools (). It then goes on to analyse their educational outcomes: their school performance ( and ), their sense of belonging and well-being (), their levels of education (), and their drop-out rates (). The chapter then looks at labour market integration, considering the proportions of immigrant offspring who are NEETs (), their labour market outcomes ( and ) and the quality of the jobs they hold ( and ). The last area of focus, social inclusion and civic engagement, examines child poverty (), voter participation () and, finally, perceived discrimination ().
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This chapter considers the full set of “Zaragoza indicators” for third-country nationals (TCN) in the European Union, comparing their outcomes with those of host-country nationals and EU nationals. The chapter looks first at the size and composition of third-country national populations (). It then goes on to consider their countries of citizenship and length of residence (), before analysing outcomes in employment and activity (), unemployment (), self-employment (), over-qualification (), levels of education (), income (), poverty (), housing tenure status (), perceived health status (), long-term resident status (), participation in voting (), the acquisition of nationality (), and perceived discrimination ().
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