In Italy, Spain, France and Germany immigrants make up a significant portion of population and pay a large part of taxes. Immigrants also create new jobs for the locals, helping alleviate the recession that has gripped Europe since 2009.
According to Eurostat, in Italy immigrants make up 9.5% of the population (5.8 millions), which is less then in Spain (13%), Germany (13%) and France (12%). Among these states, the majority of immigrants were born in a non-member country: 3.9 million in Italy and Spain, 6.2 in Germany and 5.7 in France.
The European statistics show that the foreign-born populations in Italy, Spain France and Germany are consistently poorer than their native-born counterparts. Migrant populations face a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion.
According to the European statistics, the income of an average immigrant household is lower than an income of an average local family, putting them at a higher risk of poverty than locals. The income inequality is not the same in different countries, but in Italy, France and Spain an average immigrant household makes about 5,500€ less every year than an average local household.
The lack of education among immigrant workers cannot explain the difference between them and the locals. High education does, indeed, improve chances to find a job both for locals and for the immigrants, but the chances of getting a job grow much faster for a local-born worker than they do for an immigrant. The result is that in order to have equal chances for a job with a local person, an immigrant has to have a higher level or education.
In Italy, an immigrant without a professional education has even higher chances of getting a job than a local person ‒ as they usually are a employed in lower-skilled jobs.
One possible reason for this situation is a bias that employers have against immigrants ‒ in some cases, just a foreign-sounding surname reduce your chances of landing a job: according to a study by the German team run in 2011, the candidates with German-sounding names got 28.6% more callbacks than those with Turkish-sounding ones.
[possible case study from Germany]
In Italy, the immigrants can contribute even more to the economy: currently, 35% of Italy’s migrant population between 15 and 29 years of age were not in employment, education, or training (so-called NEET).
The category of NEET is important, as it encompasses the young people who could make a significant contribution to the economy now or in the future. Education is important to immigrants wishing to integrate and enter their host country’s labour market ‒ a recent recommendation by OECD was quick to point out the importance of education for immigrants ‒ but the bias against immigrants still lowers their chances of getting good jobs and successfully integrating.
