ABSTRACT
This chapter explores variation in the labour market position of immigrants in the 20 countries under study in this book, using the Varieties of Capitalism typology as a heuristic tool for this endeavour. It begins by comparing the characteristics of immigrant populations in each country. Liberal market economies tend to have higher proportions of immigrants with characteristics that make them more likely to find a footing in the host economy than coordinated and Mediterranean market economies. This pattern of variation partially reflects variation in the underlying political economy, including the role of the political system in facilitating or limiting trade union’s power over the policy-making process. However, there are a number of factors that have very little to do with the underlying political economy that also feed into this variation. In turn, even when controlling for human capital differences, unemployment disparities between natives and immigrants are higher in coordinated market economies than in the other two types – an outcome previous literature suggests is linked to the small size of the low-wage market, and strictness of employment protection in these types of economies. Together, the results suggest that the mechanisms by which native labour market insiders are incorporated in coordinated market economies are not extended to immigrants and may in fact make it more difficult for the latter to find work. By contrast, in liberal market and Mediterranean economies, where greater swathes of the native populations work in low-wage, precarious labour markets, the differences between immigrants and natives are less acute.
