The Impact of Youth Immigration on Unemployment: Macro and Micro Evidence from Europe

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential impact of youth migration on labour markets in order to promote evidence-based debates and discourse.To generate reliable results, we chose a two-stage complementary analysis at the aggregate (country) and individual levels.In the first stage, macroeconometric panel data modelling is used to investigate the potential systemic effects of young asylum seekers on the labour market in 28 European countries between 2010 and 2018.Second, we use microdata from 24 European countries between 2002 and 2018, as well as a counterfactual approach, to delve deeper into individual determinants of participation.The aggregate analysis found that asylum-seeking youth had no effect on youth unemployment rates.In line with this, the counterfactual analysis shows no difference in labour market integration between young migrants and similar young natives.