Immigration, Labor Market Integration and Departures of Primary and Secondary Migrants from Piigs to Belgium before and after the 2008 Economic Crisis. A Longitudinal Analysis with Linked Administrative Data.

Mireille Le Guen , Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques
Bruno D. Schoumaker, Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL)

In this paper, we test whether the late 2000s great recession influenced migration flows from PIIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) to Belgium, and if the crisis had a stronger effect on migration to Belgium by non-natives (Secondary migrants – SM) than by natives (Primary Migrants – PM) of these countries. We also focus on the insertion of PM and SM on the Belgian labor market before and after the crisis, and on the influence of their participation to the labor market on their length of stay. We use linked administrative data from the Belgian National register and the Data Warehouse Labour Market and Social Protection database. We show that migration from PIIGS countries increased strongly after the crisis, especially among secondary migrants. Migrants who arrived after the crisis tend to stay sorter than before the crises, but secondary migrants – especially those born in North Africa – stay longer. Finally, we show that having a job is also a strong deterrent to staying in the country, suggesting that employment is a key issue in these migrations and in the decision to further move or stay.

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 Presented in Session 68. Out-Migration: Measures, Causes and Consequences