Labour Market Entry Inequalities Among European Youth : A Comparative Analysis of Migration Background and Institutional Contexts

Sammanfattning

This thesis uses cross-sectional data from the European Social Survey (ESS) to improve knowledge of inequalities in labour-market entry in Europe. Survival analysis is applied to examine how the timing of entry into stable employment (I) differs between youth from the native-majority population and youth with a foreign background in Europe, and (II) varies across different European institutional contexts. Following Pohl and Walther’s typology, these institutional contexts include the universalistic, liberal, employment-centred, sub-protective, and post-socialist youth transition regimes. Additional attention is given to (III) membership in a group perceived to face discrimination, and (IV) socioeconomic family background. The main findings indicate slight differences in the timing of entry into stable employment between native-majority and foreign-background youth in four out of the five institutional contexts examined. In the universalistic, liberal and employment-centred regimes, foreign-background youth enter stable employment later than native-majority youth. In contrast, the opposite pattern is observed in the sub-protective regime. Although the magnitude of this migration-related disadvantage varied across institutional contexts, it was not moderated by socioeconomic family background. Furthermore, no statistically significant associations were found between perceived discrimination and entry into stable employment. However, these findings should be interpreted with caution due to limitations in sample size and representativeness. Future research would benefit from larger and more balanced samples.