Soziologie

As part of the Lecture Series of the DFG Research Training Group “Cross-Border Labor Markets: Transnational market makers, infrastructures, institutions” (RTG2951), Dr. Hannah Illing (University of Bonn) gives a lecture based on her publication on „The Labour Market Costs of Job Displacement by Migrant Status“, which she wrote with Mária Balgová.

This paper examines the differential impact of job displacement on migrants and natives. Using administrative data for Germany from 1997-2016, we identify mass layoffs and estimate the trajectory of earnings and employment of observationally similar migrants and natives displaced from the same establishment. Despite similar pre-layoff careers, migrants lose an additional 9% of their earnings in the first 5 years after displacement. This gap arises from both lower re-employment probabilities and post-layoff wages and is not driven by selective return migration. Key mechanisms include sorting into lower-quality firms and depending on lower-quality coworker networks during job search.

The lecture will take place on December 15, 2025, 16:00 in the Horst-Schimanski-Saal, Centre for Global Cooperation Research, Schifferstraße 44, University Duisburg-Essen. All interested parties are warmly invited.