ABSTRACT
The paths of immigrants into urban labour markets are generally determined by three factors: legal regulations concerning access to the labour market, the structural conditions of the national and urban labour market and the networks of the individual migrant. Looking at the Austrian case, the first two conditions are rather unfavourable to migrant workers. Access to the labour market is strictly regulated and the ethnic segmentation of the labour market is still very high. Migrants from the traditional ‘guest worker’ countries – such as the former Yugoslavia and Turkey – have traditionally been channelled into special branches (niches) of the labour market that faced a labour shortage, most of all jobs in industry in the secondary sector.
