The Economic Contribution of Indian Migrants to the European Union: Two Sector Case Studies

Abstract We examine the drivers and impacts of Indian immigration to the European Union (EU) in two countries and sectors: the information and communication technology (ICT) sector in The Netherlands, and the agricultural sector in Italy. We find that Dutch migration policy for skilled migrants promotes labour market flexibility and means that—in contrast to more restrictive schemes where skilled migrants may be tied to one particular job—migration may have spill over benefits beyond the company where the migrant is first employed to the wider sector. In Italy, regularisation and family reunification allowed migrants who would otherwise have remained in at best insecure and precarious conditions (and would mostly have been unaccompanied men) to establish themselves and their families and to be become gradually more integrated in the Italian economy and labour market. This has also allowed upward occupational and sectoral mobility.