Legal Status and Occupational Trajectory: The Role of Previous Irregular Histories in Italy and France

Rocco Molinari, University of Bologna
Cris Beauchemin, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Ariane Pailhé, Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)

We study the relationship between legal status and occupational outcomes among non-EU international immigrants, offering a unique comparison between Italy and France. Using harmonized survey data on immigrant populations (SCIF, for Italy, and TeO2, for France) including retrospective information on the legal status trajectory of respondents, we investigate how undocumented experience shapes immigrants’ occupational trajectories. First, we define previous irregular experience, distinguishing among continuously legal and previously undocumented immigrants and measuring duration of irregular spells. Second, we study the relationship between previous irregular status (irrespectively from the duration of irregularity) and occupational qualification of the first job after migration. Third, we explore the relationship between duration in irregular status and occupational trajectory over time: we identify patterns of upward, downward, and no mobility between the first and current jobs and we model the risk of having different trajectories though discrete choice modelling, including previous irregular experience as a main independent variable. Preliminary results show that having experienced an irregular spell is more widespread in Italy than in France. However, in both countries having a previous irregular experience is associated with a higher probability of accessing elementary occupations, revealing the role of legal status as a factor of occupational precariousness.

Keywords: International Migration, Comparative methods , Population Policies

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