Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe

This paper investigates the economic and health risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic for migrant workers in the European Union. It first assesses migrants’ economic and health vulnerabilities using ex ante measures based on both supply and demand shocks. The analysis finds that immigrants were m...

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Main Authors:	Bossavie, Laurent, Garrote Sanchez, Daniel, Makovec, Mattia, Ozden, Caglar
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2021
Subjects:	MIGRANT MIGRANT WORKER CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LABOR MARKET VULNERABILITY OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/692831638797417505/Occupational-Hazards-Why-Migrants-Faced-Greater-Economic-and-Health-Risks-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36692

id	okr-10986-36692
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-366922022-04-18T17:07:15Z Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe Bossavie, Laurent Garrote Sanchez, Daniel Makovec, Mattia Ozden, Caglar MIGRANT MIGRANT WORKER CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LABOR MARKET VULNERABILITY OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY This paper investigates the economic and health risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic for migrant workers in the European Union. It first assesses migrants’ economic and health vulnerabilities using ex ante measures based on both supply and demand shocks. The analysis finds that immigrants were more vulnerable than native-born workers to both income- and health-related risks, and that this greater exposure stems from the occupations in which migrant workers are concentrated. Migrants work to a greater degree than native-born citizens in occupations that are less amenable to teleworking arrangements, and in economic sectors that experienced greater reductions in demand during the pandemic. This has led to an increase in both their income and employment risks. The paper shows that individual characteristics, such as educational attainment, age, and geographical location, fail to explain the native-migrant gap in exposure to economic and health risks posed by the pandemic. Limited language ability, the concentration of migrants in jobs with labor shortages among native-born workers, and a reliance on immigrant networks to find jobs all appear to play significant roles in migrants’ exposure to pandemic-related risks. Finally, the paper finds that actual job losses in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, are highly correlated with ex-ante vulnerabilities: immigrant workers experienced significantly higher rates of job losses, which partly originates from their greater concentration in non-teleworkable jobs. Ex-ante vulnerabilities, however, only explain part of the migrant-native gap in job losses that followed the pandemic and being an immigrant still imposes additional risks. 2021-12-09T13:21:14Z 2021-12-09T13:21:14Z 2021-12 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/692831638797417505/Occupational-Hazards-Why-Migrants-Faced-Greater-Economic-and-Health-Risks-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36692 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9873 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	MIGRANT MIGRANT WORKER CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LABOR MARKET VULNERABILITY OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY
spellingShingle	MIGRANT MIGRANT WORKER CORONAVIRUS COVID-19 PANDEMIC IMPACT LABOR MARKET VULNERABILITY OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH AND SAFETY Bossavie, Laurent Garrote Sanchez, Daniel Makovec, Mattia Ozden, Caglar Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9873
description	This paper investigates the economic and health risks arising from the COVID-19 pandemic for migrant workers in the European Union. It first assesses migrants’ economic and health vulnerabilities using ex ante measures based on both supply and demand shocks. The analysis finds that immigrants were more vulnerable than native-born workers to both income- and health-related risks, and that this greater exposure stems from the occupations in which migrant workers are concentrated. Migrants work to a greater degree than native-born citizens in occupations that are less amenable to teleworking arrangements, and in economic sectors that experienced greater reductions in demand during the pandemic. This has led to an increase in both their income and employment risks. The paper shows that individual characteristics, such as educational attainment, age, and geographical location, fail to explain the native-migrant gap in exposure to economic and health risks posed by the pandemic. Limited language ability, the concentration of migrants in jobs with labor shortages among native-born workers, and a reliance on immigrant networks to find jobs all appear to play significant roles in migrants’ exposure to pandemic-related risks. Finally, the paper finds that actual job losses in 2020, the first year of the pandemic, are highly correlated with ex-ante vulnerabilities: immigrant workers experienced significantly higher rates of job losses, which partly originates from their greater concentration in non-teleworkable jobs. Ex-ante vulnerabilities, however, only explain part of the migrant-native gap in job losses that followed the pandemic and being an immigrant still imposes additional risks.
format	Working Paper
author	Bossavie, Laurent Garrote Sanchez, Daniel Makovec, Mattia Ozden, Caglar
author_facet	Bossavie, Laurent Garrote Sanchez, Daniel Makovec, Mattia Ozden, Caglar
author_sort	Bossavie, Laurent
title	Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
title_short	Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
title_full	Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
title_fullStr	Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
title_full_unstemmed	Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe
title_sort	occupational hazards : migrants and the economic and health risks of covid-19 in western europe
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2021
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/undefined/692831638797417505/Occupational-Hazards-Why-Migrants-Faced-Greater-Economic-and-Health-Risks-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36692
_version_	1764485737616506880

Occupational Hazards : Migrants and the Economic and Health Risks of COVID-19 in Western Europe

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