Legal Status and Economic Integration of Senegalese Migrants in Europe

Erik Vickstrom, Princeton University and Institut National d'Études Démographiques (INED)
Amparo Gonzalez-Ferrer, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)

Most studies of links between migrants’ legal status and their integration into destination societies conceptualize legal status as a dichotomy and focus on economic outcomes such as employment and wages. This paper will broaden the investigation to include multiple legal domains and multiple indicators of economic integration across multiple contexts of reception. Using data from the MAFE-Senegal project, this study will include time-varying indicators of legal status in the domains of work and residence to predict employment, occupational prestige, and subjective assessments of both absolute and relative economic well-being. Preliminary results indicate that legal authorization to work and reside at destination are significantly associated with all four outcomes, but that these associations vary by context of reception. Not having a work permit is associated with lower probabilities of employment in Spain and Italy, while not having a residence permit is associated with higher probabilities of employment in all three destinations.