Migration is one of the core themes in the current political landscape, especially in Belgium. This is not surprising when you know that on 1 January 2024, first- and second-generation migrants accounted for no less than 18.4% and 16.9% of the population in Belgium. The debate would benefit from an overview of what the science says on the subject. Therefore, researchers from Ghent University, University of Antwerp, ULB and UMONS collaborated on a systematic literature review of all 35 articles published in Web of Science between 2010 and 2023 on the labour market outcomes of people with a migration background in our country.

Difficult labour market integration even among the second generation
Belgium is one of the weakest links within the EU when looking at the labour market integration of people with a migration background.

“Individuals with a migration background who are in employment also fare less well throughout academic research than their counterparts without a migration background: on average, they are paid less, more often have jobs below their education level and end up in precarious employment situations.”
Professor of labour economics Stijn Baert (Ghent University)

Striking: unlike in many other countries, for the second generation (the children born in Belgium to at least one migrant parent) there is hardly any improvement.

“Although second-generation migrants grow up in Belgium, attend school here and master the country's languages, they hardly have better job opportunities than their parents.”
PhD researcher in labour economics Louise Devos (Ghent University)

Additional disadvantages among women, non-EU nationals and when cultural distance is large
The scientific literature appears to have studied a lot of factors that make disadvantage greater or lesser.
“Because of their origin and gender, women from non-EU countries are doubly disadvantaged in terms of access to work, overeducation - in other words, being too highly trained for the work they do - and wages.”
Professor of labour economics François Rycx (ULB, UMONS, and UCLouvain)

A lot of evidence is found for one factor: gender. That is, women with a migration background are even more disadvantaged than their counterparts without a migration background than men. This is especially true for people from non-EU backgrounds. In general, they also do much worse in employment than those with an EU migration background.
Relatedly, when there is a greater (cultural) distance between the country of origin and Belgium, migrants more often do not possess the necessary or recognised knowledge for the Belgian labour market, which helps explain the worse outcomes for people with a non-EU background. This cultural distance also creates different gender patterns, with women with a large cultural distance even more often not active in the labour market.

Discrimination remains a key explanation …
The international Day against Racism and Discrimination falls annually on 21 March. Such day is still much needed in 2024. This is evident from the explanations behind the labour market outcomes of people with a migration background.
As many as 63% of the studies considered cite discrimination as an explanation for poorer labour market outcomes. Correspondence tests continue to provide direct evidence of ethnic discrimination.
This discrimination often seems to be related to employers believing that colleagues or clients will be reluctant to work with people from a migrant background. In this regard, policy encouragement of sufficient market competition seems appropriate:

“When companies compete more with each other, we often see them becoming more inclusive. This is shown by several studies in our review. At companies that are struggling to fill vacancies or have equal market leverage, migrants are more likely to get job interviews and receive better wages.”
Postdoctoral researcher in labour economics Louis Lippens (Ghent University)

… but there are two others
Two other key explanations that often recur in the academic literature are on the side of the employee: differences in knowledge and skills (34% of studies considered) and culture-specific preferences (26% of studies considered).
Again remarkably, second-generation migrants continue to perform worse in education than those without a migration background, with higher dropout rates, lower academic performance and higher concentration in vocational education.
In terms of culture-specific preferences, there seems to be a greater tendency to hold more strongly to traditional gender roles. This attachment may result in women taking on more domestic responsibilities, investing less in education and showing different labour market participation patterns than their male counterparts. Second-generation migrant women are also less likely than women without a migration background to use formal childcare and parental leave schemes.

Info
The full literature review can be consulted here and is part of the doctoral research of Louise Devos (Ghent University). The study was realised in collaboration with dr.Louis Lippens (Ghent University), dr. Dries Lens (University of Antwerp), prof. François Rycx (ULB, UMONS en UCLouvain), prof. Mélanie Volral (UMONS) and prof. Stijn Baert (Ghent University).