The labour market position of foreign workers in (western) Germany and Austria

Abstract

"The article compares the occupational position of labour migrants from Turkey and former Yugoslavia in Germany and Austria. In both states labour migrants from Turkey and former Yugoslavia constitute the majority of the foreign workers, and the two states are comparable with regard both to their social and economic structure and to their labour market structure. The differing degree of integration of foreign workers in the German and Austrian employment systems can therefore not be attributed to general factors, but requires explanations specific to the particular country. The analyses show that labour migrants in Austria are far more heavily concentrated in subordinate positions of the labour market hierarchy than is the case in Germany. This is true when taking into consideration the education and training as well as the length of stay in the particular country. In 1994, for example, 51% of the foreign nationals in Germany who came from former Yugoslavia were employed as unskilled or semi-skilled workers, whereas it was 75% in Austria. In comparison with (western) Germany, Austria's labour market structures show a higher degree of segregation and a lower permeability. The far lower occupational and spatial mobility in Austria is just as much an indicator for this as the large share taken up by the public sector (national administration, schools and institutions of higher education, almost all health services) as well as the nationalised or formerly nationalised industry and other sectors run entirely or partially by the state (railways, postal services, telecommunications, national airlines, local transport companies, electronic media, food production, banks and insurance companies, mineral oil production, the gas and electricity industry , the tobacco industry), which form a 'protected' segment of the labour market which is predominantly reserved for Austrian nationals. There is also the fact that foreigners in Austria are more rarely employed in large enterprises than is the case in Germany, and therefore career opportunities within a company remain closed to foreign workers to a far greater extent than in Germany. In contrast to this, the 'protected' segment of the labour market in Germany is less pronounced. Here both the public service is smaller in relation to the size of the population and the exposed part of industry and market-orientated services is larger." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Fassmann, H., Münz, R. & Seifert, W. (1997): Die Arbeitsmarktposition ausländischer Arbeitskräfte in Deutschland (West) und Österreich. In: Mitteilungen aus der Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, Vol. 30, No. 4, p. 732-745.