Job instability in the Italian labour market: is there an ethnic bias?

Abstract

By using a unique dataset (AD-SILC) merging the longitudinal microlevel data from the National Institute of Social Security (INPS) with data collected by the EU harmonised survey on “Income and Living Conditions (SILC)” carried out by the Italian Institute of Statistics (Istat), this contribution aims at investigating the existence of an “ethnic bias” in the Italian labour market. More specifically, the paper explores the existence of structural differences in the way immigrant and native workers participate in the labour market taking into account: a) the type of contract (permanent versus fixed term); b) the duration of the contracts; c) the patterns of transition among different contractual arrangements; the overall long term level of stability of the work history trajectories. The evidence presented shows that the work histories of immigrants when compared to natives’ ones, are characterized by a higher level of precariousness and fragility and in particular by a higher relevance of short-term contracts, a shorter average job duration, a higher difficulty of moving towards permanent and longlasting contracts.