DOI: 10.1093/ej/ueag131 ISSN: 0013-0133
Professional Networks and the Labour Market Assimilation of Immigrants
Olof Åslund, Mattias Engdahl, Sébastien WillisAbstract
We examine how professional networks shape immigrants’ job search and labour market assimilation. Analysing displaced workers in Sweden, we show that connections to firms through conationals are especially important for immigrants’ job finding. As networks expand to include more natives, the value of such connections rises towards that seen for displaced natives. Origin homophily also predicts whether a connection provides a referral—increasing earnings and lowering turnover—rather than vacancy information. Networks account for 20 per cent of the growth in immigrants’ re-employment over their first decade after arrival; immigrants’ networks are as productive as natives’ after fifteen years.