Labour market profiles of Albanian migrants in Italy: Evidence from Lombardy 2001–2015.

Albanian migration to Italy represents one of the most intense and iconic East‐West migration flows of recent decades and a paradigmatic case of intra‐Mediterranean migration. This paper uses a unique data set collected by the Lombardy region's Observatory of Integration and Multiethnicity in 15 annual cross‐sectional surveys over the period 2001–2015. Analysis of this data set enables us to address three questions: first, what are the main factors influencing the labour market performance of Albanian migrants in Lombardy compared with other migrants? Second, what were the differential effects of the post‐2008 economic crisis on migrants' employment stability? Third, were there any significant gender differences in labour market profiles and outcomes? Our main finding is that Albanian migrants have a lower probability of (long‐term)unemployment and irregular employment and higher probability of employment compared with other migrants, an effect that is partially attributable to the different structural composition of the Albanian migrant group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]