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Little is known about the labour market integration of immigrants who arrived in Spain at an early age. Using longitudinal data from the Spanish LFS (2008–2016) we find that other things being equal the occupational attainment of Latin American, Eastern European and African 1.5-generation immigrants is similar to that of natives both for men and women. First-generation immigrants, however, suffer a persistent disadvantage even after controlling for sociodemographic factors and, importantly, time in the labour market. We also find that social class position does not protect equally against job loss, with a larger immigrant penalty at the bottom of the occupational structure. We find two different explanations for this depending on migration status. For the 1.5 generation, the higher risk of job loss across occupational groups is explained by compositional differences; while for the first generation, particularly men, it is explained by structural factors such as its persistent concentration over time in more vulnerable economic sectors and fixed-term contracts. Our findings confirm, in line with assimilation theory, that the 1.5 generation achieves better outcomes than the first in the Spanish labour market, likely due to their more favourable entry conditions into employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we explore the impact that the current economic crisis is having on the extent to which education protects migrants and natives from unemployment in Spain. To do so, we use random constant models on a pooled sample of respondents to the Labour Force Survey (LFS) from 2003 to 2012. Specifically, we analyse the market value of the educational credentials held by African, Latin American and East European migrants compared with Spanish males aged 16–50. Our conclusions indicate that inequality in the returns provided by education to migrants and natives has been growing fast in recent years. In other words, migrants have been less able to grant themselves an employment through their education than natives since 2008 when the Spanish economy started to contract and that this process has also been speeding up since. We also identify important differences within the migrant category: while the potential to prevent unemployment among better-educated migrants from Eastern Europe decreased during the economic recession, it is Africans and Latin Americans who are worse off. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]