Third ISA Forum of Sociology (July 10-14, 2016)

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Obstacles to Immigrants’ Successful Labour Market Integration

RC19 Sociology of Poverty, Social Welfare and Social Policy (host committee)

Language: English

In post-industrial and globalized societies immigrants may face big hurdles when trying to integrate in a host society. In this session we focus on labour market integration, as one domain which heavily impacts a successful social and economic integration of immigrants. 
Thereby, we analyse different sources of disadvantage and the way they interact among each other. In particular, we study what kind of disadvantages become relevant for unemployed immigrants during the different stages of the job-search process. 
We identify three main areas in which contributions to the session could be embedded: disadvantages may originate from institutional setups, social practices, and individual behaviours. 

• Accordingly, we welcome papers dealing with questions inquiring, for instance, the effect of negative access biases to particular unemployment benefits or services (i.e. childcare facilities or activation measures – institutional perspective). 
• Other papers may focus on studying (involuntary) discriminatory practices exerted, for instance, by professionals at job centres or by employers (social practices). 
• Concerning individual behaviours, one could study the effect of particular normative frameworks which prevent women from relying on non-domestic childcare facilities and hence impede labour market access. Finally, individual traits such as the immigrants’ social background and education level, as well as possible deficits in job search behaviour, may induce disadvantage.

The aim of the session is to engage in a discussion about these different sources of disadvantage and their interplay, to give a more complete picture of the complex and interacting mechanisms which affect immigrants’ successful labour market integration in Western societies.

Posters: