How do NMS immigrants fare within the enlarged EU labour market? The case of Ireland

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between occupational downgrading and the wages of NMS immigrants to Ireland by taking advantage of two data sources, the Irish Census and the Survey on Income and Living Conditions. The study identifies biases in SILC that dampen the estimated earnings disadvantage of NMS immigrants. Correcting population weights that match SILC against the Census are suggested. These have a significant impact on results for NMS immigrants, increasing both the size of their wage penalty and the extent to which their wage gap can be explained by occupational downgrading. The corrected wage penalties identified for Ireland are comparable to recently published results for the UK.