RESUMO
This study aims to verify if and how migrant penalty in the labor market is associated with sub-national characteristics, exploring the relevance of the regional occupational structure. We expect that a greater relevance of the share of low-status jobs at the regional level reduces the migrant penalty in terms of the probability of being employed, but increases the gap with natives in terms of job quality. We investigate this trade-off by estimating a set of hierarchical models on the EU-LFS data (2009-2015) for 19 countries and 189 regions. Results suggest a pattern consistent with the trade-off hypothesis, nuanced by heterogeneity at the individual level: in regions where the share of low-status jobs is higher, mid-high educated immigrants from less developed countries are less (or not) penalized compared to natives in terms of employment, while they face a stronger penalty in terms of job quality. What is more, the trade-off is not observed when considering low-educated migrants or those from high-income countries.
RESUMO
This study assesses how the implementation and lifting of non-pharmaceutical policy interventions (NPIs), deployed by most governments, to curb the COVID-19 pandemic, were associated with individuals' mental well-being (MWB) across 28 European countries. This is done both for the general population and across key-groups. We analyze longitudinal data for 15,147 respondents from three waves of the Eurofound-"Living, Working and COVID-19" survey, covering the period April 2020-March 2021. MWB is measured by the WHO-5 index. Our evidence suggests that restriction on international travel, private gatherings, and contact tracing (workplace closures) were negatively (positively) associated with MWB by about, respectively, -0.63 [95% CI: -0.79 to -0.47], -0.24 [95% CI: -0.38 to -0.10], and -0.22 [95% CI: -0.36 to -0.08] (0.29 [95% CI: 0.11 to 0.48]) points. These results correspond to -3.9%, -1.5%, and -1.4% (+1.8%) changes compared to pre-pandemic levels. However, these findings mask important group-differences. Women compared to men fared worse under stay-at-home requirements, internal movement restrictions, private gatherings restrictions, public events cancellation, school closures, and workplace closures. Those residing with children below 12, compared to those who do not, fared worse under public events cancellation, school closures and workplace closures. Conversely, those living with children 12-17, compared to those who do not, fared better under internal movement restrictions and public events cancelling. Western-Europeans vis-à-vis Eastern-Europeans fared better under NPIs limiting their mobility and easing their debts, whereas they fared worse under health-related NPIs. This study provides timely evidence of the rise in inequalities during the COVID-19 pandemic and offers strategies for mitigating them.
