Understanding the Incorporation of Immigrants in European Labour Markets

This chapter explores the different perspectives used to explain the 'incorporation' of immigrants in European labour markets. Incorpora-tion refers to their outcomes in terms of employment, unemployment and social mobility. Understanding such incorporation is a challeng-ing task since the processes involved are so wide ranging. 'Human capital theory' (HCT) remains the dominant explanation for immi-grant outcomes in European labour markets, but an alternative to HCT is offered by another set of labour market perspectives (e.g., labour market segmentation theory and network approaches). This chapter reviews some HCT studies, as well as a range of alternative arguments that attempt to show how and why the bulk of those who migrate are confined to low-wage jobs in European countries, and why even those who migrate with professional qualifications from their home coun-try are commonly reduced to low-wage work, or to owning relatively small, poorly capitalised businesses.