Asian Lite News Archive

Immigrant workers get less pay

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Immigrant workers earn less than the native workers across the world…reports Asian Lite News

factory worker A new report by economist Kathryn Anderson said there is a large wage gap between immigrant and native workers. This wage gap lessens over time (a number of decades), but never closes for many immigrant groups. The report was  published by IZA World of Labor.

“Closing the wage gap will benefit the economy, society, and immigrant workers because they fill labour shortages ensuring a productive national workforce,” said Anderson .” With the world’s populations ageing, countries need to make themselves appealing for migrant workers to fill labour shortages, and less pay disparity would be a step in the right direction.

“Society benefits most if immigrants become productive, integrated residents so policies which improve training and employment prospects for immigrants, remove barriers to jobs, and provide a pathway to citizenship are win-win.”

The research shows that:

  • Immigrants boost the economy of the host country but earn far less than native workers
  • Migrants from ethnic groups most dissimilar to native workers receive lowest wages of all
  • Immigrant wage assimilation is affected by year of entry, immigrant skill, ethnicity, and gender

Anderson said: “My research shows that policies can facilitate assimilation of immigrant workers if they provide early support for education, training, and language development. Some of the most effective assimilation policies reduce legal barriers to entry into jobs, assess and validate job skills, and provide a pathway to citizenship.”

Anderson suggests three major steps to speed up assimilation of immigrant workers and developing their skills. This will increase employment opportunities besides creating a low-cost pathway to citizenship.

Workers lay pipes in the construciton of the South-to-North Water Diversion project in Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, Nov. 14, 2014. About 911 kilometers of water pipes or 94.2 percent of the total lenght for the South-to-North Water Diversion project in Henan Province have been laid. The future two months will see the operation of 18 water plants, which are designed to receive the water pumped by the South-to-North Water Diversion project. With an estimated investment of 500 billion yuan (81 billion U.S. dollars), the south-to-north water diversion project has east, middle and west routes, transferring water to north China from the lower, middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River, the longest in the country.

First, language training that is coordinated with employment and skill documentation, such as Denmark’s Competency Card, is an effective skill-enhancement policy. Global credentialing breaks barriers to entry that skilled immigrants face in the labor market.

Second, the most effective policies for employment assimilation are wage subsidies. Immigrants gain access to better jobs and are trained on the job. These programs hold promise for increasing wages.

Third, temporary guest-worker programs segment immigrants in the labor market. In contrast, naturalization encourages immigrant investment and job mobility. Assimilation is faster if there is less segmentation and a low-cost pathway to citizenship.

Homepage of IZA World of Labor: http://wol.iza.org

Kathryn Anderson’s Full Article : http://wol.iza.org/articles/can-immigrants-ever-earn-as-much-as-native-workers