October 24-25, 2019: Integrating Low-Skilled Migrants: European and US Experience

October 24-25, 2019
Andrews Conference Room 2203 SSH, UC-Davis

This transatlantic conference explores the pathways followed by low-skilled foreign-born workers, those with a secondary school education or less, into employment. Most European countries have pre-employment policies that provide language and training to low-skilled migrants to make them more attractive to employers. US policies, by contrast, encourage workers to get into jobs quickly, and help some to climb the job ladder with additional training and on-the-job experience.

Some 20 percent of workers in Austria, 16 percent in Germany, and 17 percent of US workers were born abroad. In Austria and Germany, foreign-born residents have lower labor force participation rates (LFPRs) and higher unemployment rates than natives. For example, in Austria in 2017, the LFPR of foreigners at 73 percent was less than the 77 percent rate of natives, while unemployment for foreigners was 11 percent versus four percent for natives. In Germany, foreign LFPR was 73 percent versus 80 percent for natives, and foreign unemployment was six percent versus three percent for natives. In the US, the LFPR of foreign-born men, 78 percent in 2017, was higher than the LFPR of the native born, 63 percent, and the unemployment rate of the foreign born, 4.1 percent in 2017, was lower than the rate for US born, 4.4 percent.

There is no charge to participate, but please click here to register so we have meal information.

We are grateful to the Austrian Marshallplan and UCD’s Gifford Center for Population Studies and the UCD Migration Research Cluster for their support of this conference.

Agenda

Thursday, October 24, 2019

9:00 AM: Welcome and Introductions

• Gudrun Biffl, Danube University Krems
• Philip Martin, University of California Davis (UCD)
• Markus Schweiger, Marshallplan

9:15 AM: Changing Jobs and Workers

• Europe: Jean Christophe Dumont, OECD: presentation
• US: Michael Bernick, Duane Morris (ex-Employment Development Department): presentation

10:30 AM: Break

10:45 AM: Low-skilled Migrants and Jobs

• Austria: Eduard Staudecker, Ministry of Education and Science: presentation
• Germany: Herbert Brücker, IAB & University of Bamberg: presentation
• US: Jennifer Hernandez, Employment Development Department: presentation
  and Javier Romero, CA Community Colleges, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development Division: presentation

12:15 PM: Lunch

1:15 PM: Mobility in Low-skilled Labor Markets

• Europe: Gudrun Biffl, Danube University Krems: presentation | paper
• US: Giovanni Peri and Zach Rutledge, UCD: presentation | paper

2:30 PM: Break

2:45 PM: Policies Toward Low-skilled Migrant Workers

• Europe: Christiane Kuptsch, ILO
• US: Philip Martin, UCD: presentation | paper

4 PM: Concluding Discussion

5 PM: Adjourn