Labour market participation

Temaet for denne rapporten er usaklige hindringer for ikke-vestlige minoriteter på arbeidsmarkedet i Norge. Søkelyset settes spesielt på foreliggende kunnskap om omfanget av diskriminering, og hvor stort hinder denne formen for urettmessig forskjellsbehandling er for å øke i sysselsettingen. Selv om det er meningsfullt å sette søkelyset på omfanget av urettmessig forskjellsbehandling, er det likefullt problematisk. Hovedproblemet knytter seg til hvilke metoder det er mulig å benytte. En konklusjon i rapporten er at vi på bakgrunn av tilgjengelig kunnskap ikke kan gi et presist anslag over diskrimineringens omfang. Dels fordi det ikke finnes noen klar definisjon på diskriminering, dels som følge av at det ikke er utviklet en egnet metode for å fange inn diskrimineringens mange aspekter. Tematikken er ikke ny. ”Vi har ikke råd til å ha arbeidsgivere som diskriminerer”, sa tidligere NHO-direktør, Karl Glad midt på 1990-tallet. Siden den gang har arbeidsledigheten blant ikke-vestlige minoriteter ligget forholdsvis stabilt, på et nivå som er omlag tre til fire ganger så høyt som ledigheten blant majoritetsbefolkningen. Stabilitet er likevel bare én del av bildet. Fra 1991 til 2004 ble antall arbeidstakere med ikke-vestlig bakgrunn mer enn tredoblet, noe som innebærer at i dag er omlag 90 000 personer med ikke-vestlig bakgrunn i jobb. Arbeidsmarkedet er følgelig ikke stengt for arbeidssøkere med ikke-vestlig bakgrunn, tvert om. Likevel er det betydelig rom for forbedringer.De viktigste beslutningene for å endre denne situasjonen fattes av arbeidsgiverne i de enkelte bedriftene. Derfor er spørsmålet: Hva kan partene i arbeidslivet gjøre for å stimulere bedriftene i riktig retning? Et viktig element er selvsagt å videreutvikle bedrifter som får til å bygge gode flerkulturelle arbeidsmiljøer. For slike finnes det flere eksempler på, men de blir sjelden omtalt i media eller andre steder. Jeg tror at erfaringsoverføring mellom bedriftene blir en svært viktig del.I tillegg er det stor variasjon mellom gruppene. Noen har lyktes og har langt høyere sysselsetting enn andre. I stedet for bare å fokusere på dem som ikke får jobb og som ikke blir innkalt til intervju, burde man kanskje heller begynne å løfte fram minoriteter som har gjort en karriere. Vi vet svært lite om hva som kjennetegner dem som faktisk lykkes. Hva er betingelsene for suksess og karriere, og hvilke implikasjoner har det for dem.Rapporten foreligger ikke i trykket versjon.

“Multiplikatorinnen” explores potentials and limits regarding the implementation of peer concepts as a means to support labour market participation of migrant women in Austria. To date, the use of peers is primarily limited to the field of (youth) education. Therefore, the study aims to assess whether peer concepts could promote more sustainable labour market participation of migrant women, especially with view to the specificities of the Austrian labour market. An analysis of the micro-census first looks into the status quo of migrant women related to the Austrian labour market. Particular attention is paid to migrant women originating from countries of the Former Republic of Yugoslavia and Turkey. Despite fairly comparable educational backgrounds of women born in Austria and foreign-born women, the latter are even more underrepresented in leading positions. The analysis of a group discussion points to the intensity of biographical ruptures migrant women encounter subsequent to their arrival to Austria with regard to their career prospects and employment situation. The analysis points to severe structural impediments women are facing, which need to be addressed in future policy development. Finally, against this background, an assessment of the potentials and limits, as well as of the exact role of peers is discussed on the bases of expert interviews. Whereas some potential regarding the adoption of peer concepts could be identified, the experts repeatedly pointed to the necessity of structural change (e.g. with regard to the educational system, labour market institutions, consulting services of migrants,…) as a central means to tackle mechanisms of exclusion and deskilling at the labour market. Research outcomes: - literature report - final project report - recommendations for support and assistance policies

In Denmark immigration has been politically very salient, and since the mid-1990s immigration has been negatively associated with the rising numbers of Muslims in the population. Integration policies over the last fifteen years have become increasingly comprehensive and thickly textured, focusing not only on labour market participation and education, but also on the civic dimensions of social and political participation, liberal-democratic norms and substantial welfare-state egalitarianism, as well as identity and loyalty. Local municipalities are responsible for the implementation of most policies and generally adopt a pragmatic approach. Since 2011, when a social-democratic-led government came to power, integration policies have become less politicized. Various programs, hitherto collected in one designated Ministry of Integration have now been placed under different ministerial jurisdictions and are connected, more than previously, to existing programs that target vulnerable citizens.

"Theoretical background and objectives This project explores how policies regarding immigrant rights and welfare state regimes have affected the socio-economic integration of immigrants. Most of the literature on immigrant integration assumes that the granting of easy access of immigrants to citizenship rights and government recognition and support for cultural diversity promote the socio-economic integration of immigrants. At the same time, existing work (e.g., Borjas, van Tubergen) has shown that immigrants with low human capital resources tend to migrate preferably to countries with equal income distributions and extensive social security protection. This raises the question whether immigrant integration policies that grant easy access to citizenship rights, and thus also full access to welfare state rights, might have the unintended consequence that they produce a high rate of dependence of immigrants on welfare state arrangements and attendant socio-economic marginalisation in other domains. If integration policies in addition do not demand cultural assimilation (e.g., in the domain of language) the risk of lower-skilled immigrants to become dependent on welfare benefits may further increase. This hypothesis of an interaction effect between integration policies and welfare state regimes is confronted with cross-national data on labour market participation, residential segregation, and imprisonment of immigrants. Where possible, these comparisons are controlled for cross-national differences in the composition of immigrant populations by drawing on comparative data for particular ethnic groups. The analysis includes eight West European countries that have turned into immigration countries at roughly the same time in the 1960s and early 1970s, where institutions have therefore had several decades to affect integration outcomes. They vary both strongly regarding integration policies (including the highest, Sweden, and the second lowest scoring country, Austria, in the 2007 Migrant Integration Policy Index) and regarding welfare state regimes (with Sweden and the United Kingdom at the extremes). Research design, data and methodology The study relies on various indicators of immigrant rights, prevalent typologies and indicators of welfare state regimes, and data from the European Labour Force Survey, International Prison Statistics, as well as results from a large number of previous studies on immigrants' labour market participation, residential segregation and imprisonment. To control for composition effects, the labour market data refer to immigrants from non-EU countries, and for specific country contrasts specific ethnic groups (Turks and ex-Yugoslavs). Residential segregation data refer to a few dozen European cities, partly referring to specific ethnic groups (e.g., Turks, Maghrebians, Caribbeans, Pakistani) and partly to more general categories (Muslims, foreigners, immigrants). Findings Across the three domains of socio-economic integration a consistent cross-national patterns is found (with the exception of residential segregation in the United Kingdom) in which the gap or the degree of segregation between immigrants and the native population is largest in the countries that combine easy access to citizenship rights and a large degree of accommodation of cultural differences with a relatively encompassing and generous welfare state (Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium). Both the United Kingdom, which combines inclusive integration policies with low welfare state provision levels, and the three Germanophone countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), which combine restrictive policies with – at least in the German and Austrian cases – moderately strong welfare states, show relatively small gaps between immigrants and natives. These findings are confirmed for contrast comparisons for specific ethnic groups. For instance, compared to the native population, Turks in the Netherlands have much lower rates of labour market participation than German Turks, and similarly ex-Yugoslavs in Austria perform much better than those in Sweden. Because the results are mostly based on aggregate data – although some of the studies that are used do control for individual-level variables – they need to be further tested by taking individual and local context data more systematically into account. This will be one of the aims of the analyses in the context of project 6.3 further below."

Hoe staat het met de structurele en sociaal-culturele integratie van asielmigranten die zich eind jaren ’90 in Nederland gevestigd hebben? Deze vraag lag ten grondslag aan voorliggend cohortonderzoek. Integratie is op een viertal terreinen onderzocht, te weten: onderwijs, arbeidsmarktparticipatie, sociale contacten en geregistreerde criminaliteit. De onderzoekspopulatie bestaat uit alle asielmigranten die tussen 1995 en 1999 zijn ingeschreven in het bevolkingsregister en hun familieleden die zich uiterlijk een jaar na de initiële asielmigratie bij deze migrant hebben gevoegd. We richten ons enkel op asielmigranten die in 2012, dus zo’n 15 jaar na de initiële migratie, nog in Nederland wonen. In het onderwijshoofdstuk worden ook de kinde_ren van asielmigranten meegenomen. Per deelterrein wordt (voor zover mogelijk) bekeken hoe het staat met de integratie van deze groep asielmigranten, hoe hun integratie verlopen is vanaf het moment van vestiging, en welke belemmerende dan wel bevorderende factoren daarbij zijn aan te wijzen. Waar mogelijk wordt de groep asielmigranten vergeleken met andere groepen migranten en de autochtone bevol_king. Zie ook: infographic 'integratie asielmigranten' en de WRR-policy brief Geen tijd te verliezen (2015)

Since 2015, more than 3 million people have sought humanitarian refuge in Germany. Although the country has traditionally been a country of immigration, the integration of refugees has posed a challenge to its society and policy-makers. Given the disadvantageous position of refugees in terms of resources and legal status, the first years after arrival may shape their social and economic participation in the long run. Yet, only scarce empirical evidence exists on the early biographical trajectories of refugees in Germany. Based on the first representative survey of refugees in Germany, the IAB-BAMF-SOEP survey with more than 7,000 respondents, this paper seeks to shed light on the trajectories of refugees in the first years after their arrival. We apply sequence analysis and cluster typical trajectories of different refugee groups in Germany. As main events, we consider posing an asylum application, receiving the asylum result, picking up education, starting a job and having a baby. How many individuals in fact follow the “ideal” path starting with the asylum process, followed by education and, ultimately, labor market participation? Which groups deviate most from this pattern? The obtained groups of typical post-migration biographies will provide the basis for future inferential analyses on the effects of the early trajectories on latter integration. At the same time, the main drivers of recurring structures in the sequences (such as legal security, human capital or the family context) can be explored. Projektmethode - sequence analyses - cluster analyses Projektziel - identification of typical Integration patterns of refugees and their determinants

Dieses Projekt verfolgt das Ziel, Umfang und Charakteristiken der Beschäftigung Älterer umfangreich zu analysieren. Im ersten Projektteil benutzen wir zwei umfangreiche administrative Datensätze, um die Charakteristiken der letzten Beschäftigungsphase vor der Verrentung, das Übergangsmuster zwischen Beschäftigung und Verrentung, sowie eine Beschäftigung nach der Verrentung zu analysieren. Hierbei werden die Charakteristiken der Beschäftigten, ihrer Arbeitsmarkthistorien, ihrer Arbeitgeber sowie das ökonomische Umfeld in die Analyse einbezogen. Zudem werden die Zusammenhänge zwischen den einzelnen Aspekten der Beschäftigung Älterer analysiert. Im zweiten Projektteil werden die Determinanten der Beschäftigung Älterer zunächst theoretisch abgeleitet und anschließend empirisch auf der Basis der gleichen Datensätze untersucht. Mit einem Focus auf ökonomisch motivierten Entscheidungen werden wieder individuelle und betriebliche Charakteristiken sowie das ökonomische Umfeld in die Analyse einbezogen. Der letzte Projektteil analysiert wieder auf der Basis von theoretischen Hypothesen mit Hilfe eines dritten verknüpften Arbeitgeber-Arbeitnehmerpaneldatensatzes, ob Personalmaßnahmen einen Einfluss auf die Charakteristiken der Beschäftigung Älterer haben. Dieses Projekt geht somit deutlich über die geringe und verstreute Evidenz zum Thema Beschäftigung Älterer in Deutschland hinaus. Es gibt zum ersten Mal eine vollständige Übersicht über die Charakteristiken und Determinanten der Beschäftigung Älterer. Es schließt nicht nur die ökonomischen Überlegungen der Betroffenen, sondern auch deren Arbeitgeber und des ökonomischen Umfelds mit ein. Politik- und Managementimplikationen dieses Projekts können die Identifizierung von Potenzialen einer Erhöhung der Beschäftigung Älterer sein sowie deren Gründe und Hindernisse. Eine umfangreiche Analyse von Personalmaßnahmen gibt uns zusätzliche Einsichten über die Möglichkeiten von Arbeitgebern, die Beschäftigung Älterer zu erhöhen.

The RuMiT (Rural Migration in Tunisia) research addresses the determinants of migration and mobility, the patterns and types of rural youth outmigration and the impact of rural youth migration on rural livelihoods and societies in origin regions in Tunisia. The research used a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative and qualitative methods, providing comparative insights into: international and internal migrants and non-migrants; pre- and post-2011 migrants; households with and without migrants. Main results show that migrants from rural areas are increasingly highly educated and leaving to pursue their studies abroad. This particularly applies to women, who also register a decrease in marriage-related migration. Migration proves to be rewarding for both internal and international migrants, in terms of occupational and social security outcomes. In particular, migrant women have higher labour market participation and employment rates than non-migrants. As a direct consequence of an emigration which is still male dominated, households with migrants are increasingly feminized, i.e. with a higher share of women, who are more likely to be active compared with women in nonmigrant households. Migrant households were also found to have higher access to social security. While incomes from remittances tend not to be invested in productive activities, evidence shows that one internal migrant out of four and one international migrant out of three has an economic activity in the areas of origin, which in most of the cases is connected with agricultural or animal production. The Rural Migration in Tunisia (RuMiT) research project was undertaken in the framework of the FAO project “Youth mobility, food security and rural poverty reduction: Fostering rural diversification through enhanced youth employment and better mobility” (GCP/INT/240/ITA) – in brief, the Rural Youth Migration (RYM) project – implemented in Tunisia and Ethiopia between 2015 and 2017, and funded by the Italian Development Cooperation.

'The first new target for the Europe 2020 Strategy is an employment rate of 75%. The focus is on increasing labour market participation of women, young, older workers and legal migrants. This ambitious political objective must be read in conjunction with a very powerful legal instrument: EU equality law. It for example prohibits discrimination between male and female workers. EU equality law is a most useful tool to increase the competitiveness of European labour markets while reducing inequalities. EU equality law is therefore developing very rapidly, too quickly. The prohibition to discriminate prevents decision-makers from freely making strategic choices: for example the prohibition of age discrimination prevents employers from having a recruitment policy focused on 'young' applicants. Equality law limits individual (economic) freedoms. These negative effects of EU Equality law have not been sufficiently explored and considered by policy makers. This proposal fills this gap: it will suggest safeguards to ensure that the rapid expansion of EU equality law is complemented with adequate protection of individual freedoms. The research will identify the constitutional checks and balances normally required in the rule of law for intervention by a supra-national entity (such as the EU) in individual freedoms. It will then identify the areas of EU equality law that are most restrictive of individual freedoms. Finally, it will draw conclusions on the exact additional institutional guarantees needed to compensate for the limitations placed on individual freedoms by EU Equality law. This will result in suggestions for legislative reform and coherent judicial policy, they are necessary before any further development of EU equality law. The applicant wishes to become an internationally recognised expert on EU equality and constitutional law and to gain access to Dutch Academia. Maastricht Law Faculty will provide expert supervision and excellent career perspectives.'

Education and employment are crucial factors concerning social and economic integration into Austrian society. However, recent studies have shown that women with a migration background are disadvantaged with regard to employment and education when compared to men with a migration background as well as to women without such a migration background. The reasons for these disadvantages are manifold and comprise factors such as inadequate qualifications, low educational profiles, but also discrimination, difficulties in acknowledging foreign qualifications or the need to prove German language skills on a very high level. Furthermore, factors that are not easy to measure, such as benefits of family and social networks or attitudes regarding family or work, may indirectly impact on the employment situation and educational profiles of women with a migration background. Moreover, factors unrelated to migration, such as lack of positions that offer work-life balance, weaken the position of women with a migration background on the labour market. This said, the employment and education situation of women with a migration background is in fact very heterogeneous. In particular, first generation migrants and women coming from countries outside of the EU show lower labour market participation rates and face higher unemployment than other groups. However, to date, systematic analysis examining the combination of factors explaining the employment and education situations of women with migration history are scarce. Moreover, there is a need to combine existing statistical data on socio-demographic characteristics, educational attainment, de-skilling, discrimination, and “soft” factors, such as attitudes to work, family and education to better understand individual decision-making processes and structural disadvantages. Objectives of the project • Analyse the employment and education situation of young migrant women with specific regard to social and family contexts. • Identify factors that shape labour market and educational outcomes. • Identify good practices to promote the labour market performance of women with a migration background • Formulate policy recommendations. To reach these aims, the study applies multiple methods including desk research, secondary statistical analysis, and qualitative interviews with experts, practitioners and young women themselves.

The MAFE project is a major research initiative focused on migration between Sud-saharan Africa and Europe. It aimed at collecting unique data on the characteristics and behavior of migrants from Sud-saharan countries to Europe. The key notion underpinning the project was that migration must not only be seen as a one-way flow from Africa to Europe. The argument was that return migration, circulation and transnational practices are significant and must be understood in order to design better migration policy. The MAFE project focused on migration flows between Europe (Belgium, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK) and Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ghana, which together accounted for over a quarter of all African migration to the EU at the time of the survey. In each of these "migration systems", the survey was designed to document four key areas: - Patterns of migration : a) the socio-demographic characteristics of migrants, b) the routes of migration from Africa to Europe, and c) the patterns of return migration and circulation. - Determinants of migration: looking at departure, but also return and circulation and taking into account the whole set of possible destinations. - Migration and Development: MAFE documents some of the socio-economic changes driven by international migration, looking as often as possible at both ends of the Afro-European migration system, at the individual level. - Migrations and Families: the data collected by the MAFE project can be used to study all sorts of interactions between family formation and international migration. Although the survey was primarily designed to study international migration, it can also be used to study other phenomena, especially in Africa: domestic mobility, labor market participation, family formation, etc. Comparable data was collected in both 3 sending and 6 destination countries, i.e. in sub-Saharan Africa and in Europe. The data are longitudinal - including retrospective migration, education, work and family histories for individuals - and multi-level - (with data collected at the individual and household levels, in addition of macro-contextual data).

L’émigration algérienne se caractérise à travers une feuille de route de destination de plus en plus diversifiée, bien que la France demeure le principal pays d’accueil. Le regroupement familial représente l’une des raisons principales sous-jacente les flux d’admission vers la France, alors que la migration professionnelle revêt un caractère désormais marginal. La reconnaissance implicite de la double nationalité et l’entrée en vigueur du nouveau Code de la nationalité algérien concourent à la massification de la diaspora algérienne résidant à l’étranger, alors même que celle-ci reste difficile à appréhender d’un point de vue statistique. L’évolution des taux du chômage et les variations ressortant de la participation au marché du travail au sein du pays d’accueil démarquent une intégration plus rapide parmi les femmes d’origine algérienne par comparaison avec les hommes, expliquée dans une large mesure au regard d’une situation économique initiale déséquilibrée au détriment des femmes. Il ressort de l’observation courant sur la période récente que les mesures adoptées par les autorités algériennes attestent d’une volonté manifeste d’impulser une nouvelle politique migratoire tournée vers la promotion de l’impact de la communauté algérienne résidant à l’étranger sur le développement économique de l’Algérie. A noter dans le même temps que les phénomènes de l’émigration et de l’immigration illégales font l’objet de mesures législatives civiles et pénales soutenues et renforcées par le gouvernement algérien. Algerian emigration has seen a gradual diversification in terms of destinations, though France remains the preferred option. Family reunification is today the main motivation pushing Algerians to France, while labor migration has only a marginal role. Both the implicit recognition of dual citizenship and the new Code on Algerian Nationality have tended to increase the size of the expat Algerian community, though this is not evident in the statistics. In terms of economic integration, the evolution of unemployment and of labor market participation in the destination country reflects the faster integration of Algerian women than of Algerian men, probably because of the large initial gap between the two sexes. The recent measures put in place by the Algerian authorities may show the start of a new policy attitude towards migration which gives more relevance to the contribution of the expat Algerian community in terms of economic development at home. Meanwhile, Algerian policies for the fight against undocumented outward and inward migration have been strengthened by the adoption of new civil and penal law arrangements.

Despite the polarization in public and policy debates generated by the post-2014 fluxes of refugees, asylum applicants and migrants, European countries need to work out an evidence-based way to deal with migration and asylum rather than a prejudice-based one. The proposed project, SIRIUS, builds on a multi-dimensional conceptual framework in which host country or political-institutional, societal and individual-related conditions function either as enablers or as barriers to migrants’, refugees’ and asylum seekers’ integration via the labour market. SIRIUS has three main objectives: A descriptive objective: To provide systematic evidence on post-2014 migrants, refugees and asylum applicants especially women and young people and their potential for labour market employment and, more broadly, social integration. An explanatory objective: To advance knowledge on the complexity of labour market integration for post-2014 migrants, refugees and asylum applicants, and to explore their integration potential by looking into their spatial distribution (in relation to the distribution of labour demand across the labour market), while taking into account labour market characteristics and needs in different country and socio-economic contexts. A prescriptive objective: To advance a theoretical framework for an inclusive integration agenda, outlining an optimal mix of policy pathways for labour market integration including concrete steps that Member States and other European countries along with the EU can take to ensure that migrant-integration policies and the broader system of workforce-development, training, and employment programmes support new arrivals’ access to decent work opportunities and working conditions. SIRIUS has a mixed methods approach and innovative dissemination plan involving online priority action networks, film essays, festival, job fair and an applied game along with scientific and policy dialogue workshops and conferences.

This 2016 Economic and Social Innovation (EaSI) Call aims at funding projects to test and implement innovative policy schemes and delivery mechanisms that will ensure and facilitate a swift labour market integration of asylum seekers, refugees and their family members (with a particular focus on labour market integration of women). The available budget is EUR 14.2 mln. The Call was open from 21 December 2016 to 30 March 2017. The call for proposals aims at funding innovative transnational projects to test and implement innovative policy schemes and delivery mechanisms that will ensure and facilitate a swift labour market integration of the specific target groups of third country nationals listed below. Proposals could also include the replication of successful innovative initiatives already implemented in other(s) country(ies). Only applications targeting specifically the support to the following groups of third country nationals will be considered eligible for further evaluation: • asylum seekers, • refugees and their family members. Specific measures targeting the labour market integration of migrant women will be considered favourably.

Im Jahr 2015 kamen laut Bundesamt für Migration und Flüchtlinge (BAMF) 890.000 Flüchtlinge nach Deutschland, im Jahr 2016 weitere 290.000. Die aktuellsten Zahlen zeigen, dass 2015 insgesamt 442.000 neue Asylanträge gestellt wurden und 2016 weitere 722.000 (BAMF, 2016a). Einen Flüchtlingszustrom dieses Ausmaßes hat es in Deutschland seit dem Zweiten Weltkrieg nicht mehr gegeben; dies gilt auch für die anderen EU-Mitgliedstaaten und andere OECD-Industrieländer. In diesem Projekt werden zwei Aspekte des Flüchtlingszustroms untersucht: Zum einen werden wir analysieren, wie die Integration von Flüchtlingen verläuft - insbesondere in Hinblick auf die Erlangung von Humankapital, das spezifisch ist für das aufnehmende Land - und welche Bedeutung bei dieser Humankapitalbildung ethnische Enklaven spielen. Zum anderen untersuchen wir, wie sich der Flüchtlingszustrom auf den Arbeitsmarkt der einheimischen Bevölkerung auswirkt. Die empirischen Analysen werden hauptsächlich auf zwei Datenquellen beruhen: (i) auf der IAB-BAMF-SOEP Flüchtlingsstichprobe, die die einzige repräsentative und umfassende Informationsquelle zum aktuellen Flüchtlingszustrom nach Deutschland darstellt; (ii) auf administrativen Monatsdaten von der Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA), die sowohl Informationen über Beschäftigung, Arbeitslosigkeit und Leistungsempfang nach Nationalität erfasst, wodurch auch die Hauptherkunftsländer der Flüchtlinge abgedeckt werden. Methodisch werden wir die Verteilungsregeln des BAMF und der Bundesländer zur Identifikation nutzen.

The Labour Market Integration of the Children of immigrants

"Theoretical background and objectives Economic participation of migrants has been a major problem in many European countries for the last decades. There is overwhelming statistical evidence for the problematic labour market status of migrants, but data also show that not all migrant groups are affected to the same extent. Previous studies have revealed that differences in socio-economic integration are strongly related to ethnic origin. However, this research does not allow us to firmly establish to what extent cultural and religious factors are responsible for the differential socio-economic position of ethnic groups. Therefore, we investigate the effects of host-country orientation and cultural difference of migrants on their socio-economic integration in Germany, analysing unemployment and employment durations of male and female migrants, as well as transitions from domestic work to employment for female migrants from Turkey, Former Yugoslavia, Greece, Spain and Italy. Given the large gap in unemployment and employment rates not only between natives and migrants, but also between groups of migrants, we look at several economic, human capital and cultural factors in order to test whether migrant-specific characteristics can help to explain ethnic group differences in labour market outcomes. The migrant-specific cultural variables we investigate include host-country language proficiency, interethnic contacts, host-country media consumption, and religiosity. In the case of married female migrants, the analysis moreover takes relevant characteristics of their husbands into account, which have not received attention in earlier studies. Research design and methodology The German Socio-Economic Panel provides reliable longitudinal data, allowing us to conduct analyses over a period of nearly 20 years (1988-2006). We use duration data to analyse the hazard of labour market status transitions by estimating Cox regression models with a random frailty term to account for unobserved heterogeneity. Individual longitudinal data on employment trajectories of migrants have been combined with labour market context data and relevant human capital and cultural factors. A longitudinal approach is crucial for addressing this research question, since the relationship between socio-cultural factors such as host-country language proficiency and interethnic contacts and labour market integration is likely to be recursive. Our samples cover not only persons born outside Germany, but also their 2nd generation offspring. Findings The results indicate that although labour market transitions of migrants strongly depend on the labour market context, host-country orientation and religiosity also have a certain impact on the labour market integration of individual migrants, especially on transitions into employment of male migrants and married migrant housewives. However, while for most of our cultural variables we find significant effects on the individual level, these factors do not help to clarify the differences among the different migrant groups, which persist at a similar level even after controlling for labour market, general human capital, as well as cultural variables."