Migration and Immigrants Two Years after the Financial Collapse: Where Do We Stand?
Two years after the 2008 global financial collapse, immigrants faced steeper job losses and squeezed integration budgets. But countries saw little large-scale return.
Immigrants, particularly men and youth, have been disproportionately hit by the global economic crisis that began in fall 2008 and now confront a reality of dwindling budgets for public services and immigrant integration programs, this report prepared for the BBC World Service reveals. The report, which has a particular focus on five North Atlantic countries—Germany, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, and United States—finds that the unemployment gap between immigrant and native workers has widened in many places. It offers analysis of a number of trends, including the fact that some immigrant-destination countries that historically have been countries of emigration such as Ireland, Greece, and Portugal, may be reverting to earlier trends.
Overall immigration to developed countries has slowed sharply as a result of the economic crisis, bringing to a virtual halt the rapid growth in foreign-born populations over the past three decades. The number of foreign workers caught attempting to enter illegally at EU maritime borders fell by over 40 percent from 2008, 2009, and 2010, while apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border since 2007 have declined by almost the same magnitude.
Table of Contents
I. The Headlines: Two Years after the Collapse
II. Introduction: Changing Economies and Uneven Fortunes in the Labor Market
A. From Boom to Bust: A Dramatic and Unexpected Economic Crisis
B. Uneven Fortunes
C. Immigrants and the Labor Market in the Recent Economic Crisis
D. Immigration Policy Challenges for the Postcrisis Period
E. The Economic Recovery and the State of Public Finances
F. The Impact of the Recession in Five North Atlantic Economies
THE CASE STUDIES
Immigrants and the U.S. Economic Crisis: From Recession to Recovery
Foreign Workers and Immigrant Integration: Emerging from Recession in the United Kingdom
Migration, Integration, and the Labor Market after the Recession in Germany
Migrants and Migration in Ireland: Adjusting to a New Reality?
Migration and Migrants in Spain: After the Bust
About the Global Program
The Global Program bridges policy advice, research, and candid dialogue to design effective migration policies, drawing on global evidence and anticipating the forces reshaping how people move.
Labor Markets Initiative
This concluded initiative, active from 2009-2013, produced detailed recommendations on ways to make U.S. immigration policy a more effective tool for economic growth.
