Abstract
This paper builds upon previous research on ethnic penalties in European labour markets by studying unemployment among higher educated non-western immigrant labour market entrants. By doing so, we attempt to get a better understanding of the extent to which one of the most advantaged immigrant groups still faces significant barriers in their search for work. We discuss to what extent structural-, institutional-, and socio-cultural characteristics of countries are able to explain cross-national variation in these inequalities between natives and non-western immigrants. Drawing upon pooled cross-section data from the European Labour Force Surveys (2005-2011), we test our hypotheses using a two-step multilevel method. Our analyses demonstrate that, first of all, higher educated non-western immigrant labour market entrants are more likely to be unemployed than their native counterparts. Second, we find that a higher percentage of foreigners in a country is positively associated with higher inequalities between immigrants and natives. However, in contrast to our expectation, governmental attempts to stimulate the integration of non-western immigrants are related to larger inequalities between non-western immigrants and natives among higher educated labour market entrants. Finally, we find inconclusive effects with regard to a country’s immigration history.
