Skill Composition and Occupational Incorporation of Early and Recent Immigrants in Switzerland: the case of Italians and Spaniards
| Author | Elena Vidal‐Coso,Enrique Ortega‐Rivera |
| Published date | 01 December 2017 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12320 |
Skill Composition and Occupational
Incorporation of Early and Recent Immigrants
in Switzerland: the case of Italians and
Spaniards
Elena Vidal-Coso* and Enrique Ortega-Rivera**
ABSTRACT
Using the 1980 Census and 2010-2011 Structural Survey, we compare the socio-demographic
profile and the occupational incorporation of Italian and Spanish immigrants arriving in
Switzerland between 1976 and 1980 with those arriving during the second half of the 2000s.
We find evidence that the traditional over-representation of Italian and Spanish immigrants
among the lower strata of the occupational hierarchy at the end of the guest worker period is
explained by their negative selection in terms of education and host language proficiency, cor-
roborating the human capital hypothesis. However, the results also show the persistence of
occupational disadvantages for these immigrants after controlling for human capital character-
istics, indicating the existence of segmentation dynamics in the Swiss labour market. In con-
trast, recent cohorts of immigrants from Italy and Spain have definitively joined the collective
of highly skilled foreign workers correctly matched in the Swiss labour market in accordance
with their positive skill-selectivity.
INTRODUCTION
The uneven effects of the financial and economic crisis that started in 2007 have changed intra-
European migration, giving shape to new patterns and forms of mobility. The substantial decline in
east-west mobility and the rise of return and circular migration have coincided with a second wave
of labour migration from Southern to Northern Europe driven by countries, such as Spain, Italy,
Portugal, and Greece, that have been severely affected by the recession and austerity (Benton and
Petrovic, 2013). As the latest available data show, outflows of nationals from Mediterranean coun-
tries have been increasing since the onset of the crisis as a consequence of high unemployment and
job insecurity, especially among the younger cohorts, and the worsening of living conditions
(OECD, 2015). Early studies on intra-European mobility documented heterogeneous migration pro-
cesses driven by economic and non-economic factors and different profiles among European
migrants, including traditional low- and medium-skilled workers, highly educated professionals,
lifestyle migrants, and students (Favell, 2011; Recchi and Favell, 2009; Verwiebe, 2014). Recent
research, mostly qualitative, has observed some elements of path dependency in the features and
dynamics of new emigration from Southern Europe, but it is apparent that a specific set of pull
* University of Geneva
** Autonomous University of Barcelona
doi: 10.1111/imig.12320
©2017 The Authors
International Migration ©2017 IOM
International Migration Vol. 55 (S1) 2017
ISS N 00 20- 7985 Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
factors has gained prominence as driver of migration, particularly political and institutional environ-
ments (Bygnes, 2015; Triandafyllidou and Gropas, 2014; Triandafyllidou and Isaakyan, 2015).
Although the emerging pattern of south-north mobility has attracted considerable media and pol-
icy attention, little is known about its demographic and socio-economic dimensions. This article
attempts to fill this gap by providing a comparison of the socio-demographic profile and the occu-
pational incorporation of Italian and Spanish immigrants arriving in Switzerland between 1976 and
1980 versus those arriving during the second half of the 2000s, from 2006 onwards. First, to anal-
yse differentials by nationality in terms of labour market inclusion in 1980 and 2010-11, we fitted
two-step Heckman probit selection models and calculated access to employment for those who par-
ticipated in the labour market. Second, using multinomial logistic models, our aim is to examine
whether the traditional over-representation of Italian and Spanish immigrants among the lower
strata of the occupational hierarchy at the end of the guest worker period is explained by their neg-
ative selection in terms of human capital or by segmentation dynamics in the labour market based
on the worker’s origin. In addition, we investigate whether the Italians and Spaniards arriving in
Switzerland in recent years have experienced occupational progress in their insertion into the Swiss
labour market compared with their predecessors and consistent with their educational improvement.
Alternatively, in contrast, we consider whether the occupational disadvantage of these groups of
workers persists once human capital characteristics are controlled for. Some authors (e.g. Borjas,
1994) focus on the changing national origin composition of immigrant flows, if skill levels vary
across countries, to explain evolution in the occupational attainment of successive cohorts. Our
analysis, on the contrary, places the focus of the intra-group variation in skill levels over time on
the occupational structure at the destination. The comparison of two different cohorts of immigrants
allows us to examine selection patterns over time and, in addition, to disentangle how the changing
structural and institutional characteristics of the host country affect the labour market integration of
recently arriving immigrants in terms of occupational attainment.
Switzerland constitutes an ideal case study for our research questions because of its unique struc-
tural and institutional characteristics. As will be discussed later, Swiss economic development has
been based on the high flexibility and segmentation of the labour market. Since the end of the Sec-
ond World War, the changing needs of the labour force have attracted different waves of migration,
which have been regulated until recently by a “guest worker”policy (Haug, 2005). In an increas-
ingly globalized scenario, the European integration process fostered the reorientation of Swiss
migration policy towards a more selective model focused on highly skilled European citizens. Ana-
lytically, the comparison of Italians and Spaniards is relevant for various reasons. First, Italian and
Spanish immigrants made Switzerland one of their preferred destinations during the guest worker
period, to the point that these groups together accounted for more than half of all foreign nationals
in the late 1970s (Wanner et al., 2009). Second, these sending-countries have experienced impres-
sive advancement in their socio-economic condition since the 1980s, with a rapid increase in the
percentage of the population holding university degrees, especially among the younger cohorts.
Third, the onset of the global economic crisis in 2008 has halted career advancement prospects for
many skilled professionals from these source countries; these professionals instead search for new
labour opportunities abroad, with Switzerland being a prime destination once again. Fourth, as EU
citizens, Italians and Spaniards currently possess a privileged legal status in Switzerland, thanks to
new immigration policy and labour demand for highly skilled professionals. Indeed, the dialectic
relationship between these parallel processes –i.e., the progression of the socio-economic condi-
tions at the origin, the evolution of labour demand, and changing migration policies –explains the
improvement of the skills composition in the successive cohorts of Italians and Spaniards and, as a
consequence, the transformation in their occupational attainment in Switzerland.
In policy terms, it is clear that a better understanding of the changing profile of Southern Euro-
pean immigrants and their labour market situation is needed. This is especially appropriate given a
context of policy change and growing concerns about the effects of intra-European mobility on the
Early and Recent Immigrants in Switzerland 87
©2017 The Authors. International Migration ©2017 IOM
To continue reading
Request your trial