In the last few years, the number of immigrants in the world has increased significantly due to political, religious, and tribal clashes between different groups. Majority of the people who are forcibly displaced during these crashes tend to stay within their countries borders, or migrate to the neighboring countries, hence increasing the number of asylum applications substantially, with some of the most affected regions being the United Kingdom which has experienced 70% rise in asylum application in the last three years due to the Syria crisis (Clarence 2017). Once in the country, the asylums rely on the host government for protection, ways of ensuring they continue to remain in the country and ways of entering the labor market. The purpose of this paper is to describe the differences which occur in the labor market outcomes between the United Kingdom natives, and the migrants seeking asylum in the country, and those who migrate in the United Kingdom for other reasons including study, family, and employment. The paper will also describe the immigrant’s resources and strategies to over the additional challenges which they encounter in the process of trying to enter and succeed in the United Kingdom labor market (Gill 2016). Also, the paper will compare the labor market participation of male and female, and describe the discrimination which occurs to female as compared to the males and the native women.
The Main Differences in Labour Market Outcomes between Immigrants and Natives
Today, there is rich literature addressing the economic outcome of the United Kingdom immigrant’s situations, but few kinds of literature addressing the specific cases of immigrants in the region. According to Allsopp et al. (2014), there are several reasons that will make the refugees labor market in the United Kingdom to be much worse as compared to other immigrants in the region. some of the reason that the author provides include the fact that the refuges skills may be difficult to transfer from one country to another, while the primary reason of migrating from home country to united kingdom may have major factor on the individual motivation to look for job opportunities in the market hence making their outcomes different compared to other migrants and the natives. Also, a study conducted by Aydemir (2011)indicated that a significant number of immigrants seeking asylum in united kingdom experience traumatic events before leaving their home country, which result in both physical and mental issues, hence affecting their ability to do a job compared to natives hence contributing to poor outcomes in the labor market.
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Studies conducted since 2011 to understand the situation of the immigrants in the United Kingdom labor market has indicated that immigrant especially refugees have the worst labor market outcomes compared to natives and other immigrants.
A study conducted by Pieter Bevelander & Sandra Groeneveld (2012), indicated that among the immigrants who moved to the united kingdom with full claim of being asylum seekers, they are 20% points less to get employed in the UK labor market while for those who have managed to get jobs, their wages are they earn 28% lower than the natives and work 15% fewer hours than the natives. Some of the factors that contribute to such differences according to Banerjee, Chatterji, and Lahiri (2017), is the health status of the immigrants, with mental health being the main issue affecting the United Kingdom immigrants population, while proficiency in English and other languages may be considered other factors contributing to the huge difference between the outcomes of immigrants and natives in the united kingdom labor market. When considering the issue of labor market and immigrants, it is important to consider the element of immigrants sorting. For example, there are immigrants who came to the United Kingdom from the low tail of economic distribution in their home economy, but on arriving in the United Kingdom; they found themselves in the upper tail (Bevelander, and Pendakur 2016). Once in the United Kingdom, they find the life being better, hence they do not strive to look for employment, making their labor market outcomes worse compared to those of the natives who have been in the specific tail in income distribution, and they work hard every day to try changing their situation. Therefore, it is clear that there are various factors that can be associated with the differences between the labor market outcomes between the immigrants especially asylum seekers and natives, regardless of the increased incentives by the United Kingdom to ensure they have equal opportunities (Aydemir, 2011).
Immigrants' Resources and Strategies to Overcome the Additional Challenges They Face to Enter and Succeed In the Labour Market
Integrating immigrants in the United Kingdom is not a new idea, but it is becoming a major challenge due to the growing number of immigrants in the region. Due to the rising cost of living and many of the immigrants being breadwinners to their immediate family members in the United Kingdom and back home, immigrants have created different strategies and resources to ensure they overcome the additional challenges limiting their entry and success in the United Kingdom labor market (Verloo 2016). According to Osanami (2016), intermarriage is one of the strategies which are being employed by the immigrants in the United Kingdom to ensure they are assimilated into the labor market. Just like any other nation, marriage is among the elements that help immigrants become natives. According to Irastorza (2016), once the immigrants have managed to obtain their citizenship, they are more motivated to look for better jobs, with better pay hence reducing their worse outcomes in the labor market.
Other strategies and resources being used by the immigrants in the United Kingdom to overcome the additional challenge of entering and being successful in the labor market are obtaining education and improving their health status including physical and mental health. A study conducted by Bevelander and Pendakur (2014) indicated that although the United Kingdom is trying to make the standards minimal for the immigrants to qualify to enter in the labor market, those who have managed to acquired skills including joining English classes o improve their proficiency have better chances of getting better-paying jobs.
The Labour Market Participation of Immigrant Women and Discrimination against them, Relative to Immigrant Men and Native Women
The employment rate of immigrant women in the United Kingdom remains low by almost 18% compared to that of immigrant men and native women. According to Verloo (2016), the highly qualified immigrant women are more affected by the population, facing 28% lower compared to immigrant men and native women. This means that regardless of the issue of lack of skills and poor health that are believed to be creating the additional challenges, there are a lot of untapped qualifications among women which can be used appropriately to change the economy of the United Kingdom. Apart from the challenges of entering the labor market facing the United Kingdom immigrants, women immigrants are being faced with the issue of discrimination. According to a study conducted by the Geddes and Scholten in collaboration with the European Union in 2014 indicated that immigrant women often work in low paying occupations and industries such as caring and cleaning, without being given an equal opportunity to utilize their labor and potential to create a living in their new home. For example, immigrant women are paid 16% less than immigrant men are and 22% less than the native women are (Campbell 2014). These factors have contributed to more immigrant women being left behind in the efforts of acquiring education and better health status as compared to immigrant men and native women.
Conclusion
The growing number of the UK immigrant’s population is raising major questions on the possible integration of the immigrants on the labor market. From the various literature , it is clear that there are various factors contributing to the enormous difference between the immigrants and natives. Therefore, regardless of the strategies and resources being employed by the immigrants to address the differences in the outcomes, it might be challenging if effective strategies and resources will not be deployed by the United Kingdom to address the real issues facing the immigrants including health issues, English proficiency issues, tails of economic distribution among others. address such issues will eliminate the issue of discrimination against the immigrant women in the united kingdom labor market as compared to males and natives.
References
Allsopp, J., Sigona, N. and Phillimore, J., 2014. Poverty among refugees and asylum seekers in the UK: An evidence and policy review . The University of Birmingham, Institute for Research into Superdiversity.
Aydemir, A., 2011. Immigrant selection and short-term labor market outcomes by visa category. Journal of Population Economics , 24 (2), pp.451-475.
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Bevelander, P. and Groeneveld, S., 2012. How many hours do you have to work to be integrated? Full ‐ time and part ‐ time employment of native and ethnic minority women in the Netherlands. International Migration , 50 (s1).
Bevelander, P. and Pendakur, R., 2014. The labour market integration of refugee and family reunion immigrants: A comparison of outcomes in Canada and Sweden. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies , 40 (5), pp.689-709.
Campbell, S., 2014. Does it matter why immigrants came here? Original motives, the labour market, and national identity in the UK. Department of Quantitative Social Science, University of London, Working Paper , (14-14).
Irastorza, N., 2016. Sustainable marriages? Divorce patterns of binational couples in Europe versus North America. Ethnicities , 16 (4), pp.649-683.
Osanami Törngren, S., Irastorza, N. and Song, M., 2016. Toward building a conceptual framework on intermarriage. Ethnicities , 16 (4), pp.497-520.
Verloo, M., 2006. Multiple inequalities, intersectionality, and the European Union. European Journal of Women's Studies , 13 (3), pp.211-228.
