The Impact of Unemployment on Temporary Workers. Why Foreigners Are Most Vulnerable during the Great Recession?

The current economic crisis is having a strong impact on the whole society in all developed countries, but especially on vulnerable groups such as immigrants. The case of Spain is unique and at the same time remarkable for three reasons. First, because of its high unemployment level, well above those of other countries in the OECD. Secondly, because of the strong incidence of the temporal rate, with levels close to 30% since the first Labor Reform in 1984, and third, for the extraordinary inflow of migrants in the first decade of the XXI century, representing a foreign population of 3,6% in 2000 to 14% only ten years later.

This paper aims to examine to what extent nationality influences the risk of job loss among the most precarious workers, in particular those with a temporary contract. This study seeks to test the assimilation thesis in a segmented labor market during a recessive economic period. To do this, panel data from the Spanish Labor Force Survey (2008-2010) are used. Analyses based on logistic regressions show that some differences in the socio-demographic profile contribute to understand the initial disadvantage of immigrants. However, controlling for education, time of residence in the host country and tenure does not fully explain the gap between groups. Only after taking into account professional status (occupational level and sector), we can understand their disadvantage since the collapse of the economy. The results of this study show that immigrants are harmed twice. First, by their greater propensity to hold fixed-term contracts; and second, and above all, because the nature of their temporal contracts is associated with activities related to low-skilled jobs and seasonal work, typical in sectors like construction, agriculture and tourism. It seems that the precariousness faced by foreigners is chronic rather than a step towards more stable jobs.