EUROPE AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS: IMPLICATIONS OF IMMIGRATION IN THE EUROPEAN LABOR MARKET

Abstract

This paper analyzes the effects of immigration, considering the current refugee crisis, in the labor market of the European Union. The paper surveys approaches and theories from different studies on economic impacts of immigration related to wages, unemployment, mobility, and workforce experience. Furthermore, the analysis considers two countries facing different economic realities within a set of variables, based on the approaches previously considered, to determine the impacts and effects immigration has brought to those specific economies. The results reveals that there is a negative effect of immigration on the short-run as public expenses increases, but in the long-run the economic impact will merely depend on the appropriate integration of immigrants and refugees into the labor market. In addition, we have that immigration had even more beneficial effects on wages of less educated workers in most developed countries. As a result, immigration reduced the wage differential between more and less educated natives