Migration and natives' inequality

Giuseppina Gianfreda (Tuscia)
Giovanna Vallanti (Luiss Guido Carli)

Abstract

Using individual data from the Labour Force Survey, we analyse the impact of migrants on two indexes of natives inequality at the household level, i.e. the Gini Index and percentile ratio (p90 / p10), at the local level, i.e. within Labour Market Areas (LMA) from 2004 to 2018. We exploit heterogeneity in the degree of similarity between migrants and natives across LAMs and show that migration reduces natives’ inequalities more in those LMAs where assimilation is higher. We also find evidence of a reduction in natives occupation rate in no/low qualification occupation classes (versus higher qualification classes) and of an increase in natives’ average earning in same occupation classes.

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