The labour market insertion of immigrants into Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom: similarities and differences and the Southern European model of migration

Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom represent three of the EU Member States with the largest net immigration in the last decade and the main poles of attraction of labour migrants. The presence of immigrants in such contexts is distinguished by immigrant origins and demographic characteristics. In addition, Italy and Spain are included among the countries characterized by the South-European model of immigration. We aim to analyze the evolution of the differential characteristics of migration flows in the three countries and to test how these differences impact upon the access to the labour market and the occupational conditions of immigrants. In particular, after considering employment propensity, we focus on the mismatch between the professional and educational levels of workers. The results confirm the different patterns existing between Mediterranean countries and the UK. Extremely high employment outcomes are found in all countries, but especially in Italy and Spain. In contrast to the UK, the over-education of migrants is much more evident in Italy and Spain; more often migrant women occupy disadvantaged occupational positions.