Raúl Ramos

Society prefers immigrants who are women, young, highly educated and in skilled employment – even though there is greater demand in the labour market for low-skilled workers – according to a meta-analysis that brings together data on more than 140,000 people from 36 countries. Respondents also expressed a preference for immigrants who do not come from Muslim countries and who migrate to escape violent situations rather than for economic reasons, according to the article published in Science Advances.

In Spain, immigrant employees earn 29% less than other workers, according to a study published in Nature. This gap is comparable to that observed in Canada, but greater than that of other European countries in the study, such as Germany, Norway and France (19-20%), and much higher than the gap observed in the United States (10%) and Sweden (7%). ‘The segregation of immigrant workers into lower-paid jobs accounts for approximately three-quarters of the overall wage differences between immigrants and natives,’ the study states.