Search results

The purpose of this paper is to analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants.

A representative plant-level panel survey merged with register data is used. Random effect regression Tobit models are estimated. The dependent variable is wage costs share of immigrants at the plant. The important explanatory variables are measures of new technologies and work practices.

The results show that workplaces where employees use personal computers intensively and have broad autonomy hire fewer non-western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway. The negative relationship is especially strong for low-skilled non-western immigrants.

The estimation framework for studying this topic is new. The paper also presents original evidence on the relationship between characteristics of the “new” economy and demand for immigrant workers.

Labour market assimilation of Danish first‐generation male immigrants is analysed based on two panel data sets covering the population of immigrants and 10 per cent of the Danish population during 1984‐1995. Wages and employment probabilities are estimated jointly in a random effects model which corrects for unobserved cohort and individual effects and panel selectivity due to missing wage information. The results show that immigrants assimilate partially to Danes, but the assimilation process differs between refugees and non‐refugees.

No current psychotherapeutic intervention is designed to enhance job retention in employees with moderate–severe recurrent depression. The aim of this study is to test the feasibility of a new, interdisciplinary work-focused relational group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) treatment programme for moderate–severe depression.

The programme was based on a theoretical integration of occupational stress, psychological, social/interpersonal and bio-medical theories. It consisted of up to four 1:1 psychotherapy sessions; 12 work-focused, full-day, weekly CBT sessions facilitated by a cognitive behavioural therapist and occupational therapist; and up to four optional 1:1 sessions with an occupational therapist. Depression severity (primary outcome) and a range of secondary outcomes were assessed before (first CBT session) and after (twelfth CBT session) therapy using validated instruments.

Eight women (26–49 years) with moderate–severe depression participated. Five were on antidepressant medication. While there was no statistically significant change in Hamilton Depression Rating Scale depression scores after therapy (n = 5; p = 0.313), Beck Depression Inventory-II depression scores significantly decreased after therapy (n = 8; –20.0 median change, p = 0.016; 6/8 responses, 7/8 minimal clinically important differences, two remissions). There were significant improvements in the secondary outcomes of overall psychological distress, coping self-efficacy, health-related quality of life and interpersonal difficulties after therapy. All clients in work at the start of therapy remained in work at the end of therapy. The intervention was safe and had 100% retention.

A major limitation was recruitment shortfall, resulting in a small sample of middle-aged women, which reduces representativeness and increases the possibility of methodological weaknesses in terms of the statistical analysis. A definitive trial would need much larger samples to improve statistical power and increase confidence in the findings. Another major limitation was that two of the authors were involved in delivering the intervention such that its generalisability is uncertain.

This novel programme was evaluated and implemented in the real world of clinical practice. It showed promising immediate positive outcomes in terms of depressive symptoms, interpersonal difficulties and job retention that warrant further exploration in a longer-term definitive study.

Empirical studies focused on enhancing job retention in employees with moderate–severe recurrent depression are lacking, so this study was highly relevant to a potentially marginalised community.

While limited by a recruitment shortfall, missing data and client heterogeneity, this study showed promising immediate positive outcomes for the new programme in terms of depressive symptoms, interpersonal difficulties and job retention that warrant exploration in a definitive study.

In this article, we examine the historical and cultural foundations of Nordic states’ strong contemporary social indicators to understand whether their successes can be replicated in other contexts.

We draw on a range of academic literature to frame a comparison of two regions’ cultural and theological roots, identifying contrasts to make arguments about prescriptions for contemporary welfare policy.

We find Nordic history contributes to a duty-based culture with strong cohesion and social trust. These cultural norms make palatable welfare policies with strong activation measures, while the US model prefers to avoid the latter because of its strong cultural orientation to rights and autonomy.

To mitigate differences between the Nordic states and other cultural contexts, policymakers seeking to replicate Nordic welfare successes should consider welfare programming that combines stronger activation policies with oversight and relational components that mitigate gaps in social cohesion.

We uniquely bring together the literature on comparative welfare policy and on religion and culture to understand the precursors of contemporary attitudes and their implications for welfare policy prescriptions.

The purpose of this paper is to check if the rate of employment dismissal in the Spanish labour market is higher for immigrants from countries of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) than for the native-born and the immigrants from other developing countries. It also analyses the impact on this rate of the lower endowment of human capital and the segregation in particular occupations and sectors of ENP immigrants.

The study exploits micro-data from the Labour Force Survey before and during the great depression in Spain. The authors define two groups of immigrants, one for those whose origin is an ENP country and another for those from the rest of the developing countries. Then the rate of job loss is computed for the natives and the two groups of immigrants based on the information for each individual in the sample for each of the years under analysis. An empirical model for the probability of employment dismissal is estimated to check if the immigrant-native gap vanishes when controlling for differences in human capital and occupational, sectoral, and territorial allocation of jobs. This traditional approach is complemented with a new proposal based on the decomposition of the gap using a method that does not impose the same response to the observed characteristics in the three demographic groups under analysis.

Immigrants from ENP face a higher rate of employment dismissal. The gap with respect to natives and even to other immigrants increased during the crisis. Most of the gap can be explained by the lower endowment of human capital of the ENP immigrants and, particularly, by their allocation in certain occupations, sectors, and territories.

Novelties in this paper include: first, the study of employment layoffs for natives and immigrants in a period of crisis in a country such as Spain that attracted massive migration during the booming period; second, the analysis of the origin of the higher rate of employment dismissal for immigrants from the ENP; and third, the proposal of a new approach to assess the contribution of human capital and segregation on the immigrant-native gap in the rate of job loss.