The Labor Market Condition of Immigrants in Italy: The case of Lombardy

Abstract

This article intends to draw a comprehensive picture of the labor market condition of immigrants in Lombardy, one of the wealthiest Italian regions, which hosts a quarter of the total foreign population living in the country. In particular, by using data from a representative large-scale sample, provided by the Regional Observatory for Integration and Multi-ethnicity (ORIM), the article investigates, through descriptive analyses, immigrants’ employment patterns, in terms of activity, employment, self-employment and unemployment rates, share of irregular employment, occupation and earnings. Overall findings, which are interpreted against the existing theoretical framework, show that gender, nationality/country of origin, length of stay and legal status all contribute to explain the large variation that is found in the labor market situation of immigrants.

Keywords

• labor market
• Italy
• immigrants
• human capital
• net earnings
• gender inequalities