Does she lose more than he does? Gender, job quality and Polish migration to Western Europe

Presenter: Gillian Kingston, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

Author: Gillian Kingston

While previous research has highlighted occupational downgrading immediately following migration, skilled migration, and labour market integration have slipped by as a largely genderless immigration story. Utilising a unique, harmonised data source, we ask whether there are gender differentials in recent Polish migrants’ occupational transitions in Germany, the Netherlands, Ireland and the UK. Other work has found that migrant females are more likely to experience downward mobility than men. Previous research indicates occupational position on arrival is associated with prior human capital, investments and motives for migration, and these may differ between men and women. The comparison of outcomes of the same migrant group across countries, which represent different migration histories, policy arrangements and labour market structures, permits the analysis of country variations in migrant male and female outcomes.

Changes in occupation are measured by comparing migrants’ occupational status held in Poland, with those in the destination country. Results demonstrate that gender differences in occupational change vary across countries, linked in part to variation in the characteristics of the migrant groups in terms of their educational profile, previous job, marital/family status, migration motives and human capital investments. We find gender differences in the returns to human capital across countries. We suggest that outstanding country differences may be linked to differences between the receiving country labour markets, in terms of the accessibility of certain occupations to new migrants and the gendered nature of occupations, and work-family policies.