Labour market profiles of Albanian migrants in Italy: Evidence from Lombardy 2001–2015

Albanian migration to Italy represents one of the most intense and iconic East-West migration flows of recent decades and a paradigmatic case of intra-Mediterranean migration. This paper uses a unique data set collected by the Lombardy region’s Observatory of Integration and Multiethnicity in 15 annual cross-sectional surveys over the period 2001–2015. Analysis of this data set enables us to address three questions: first, what are the main factors influencing the labour market performance of Albanian migrants in Lombardy compared with other migrants? Second, what were the differential effects of the post-2008 economic crisis on migrants’ employment stability? Third, were there any significant gender differences in labour market profiles and outcomes? Our main finding is that Albanian migrants have a lower probability of (long-term)unemployment and irregular employment and higher probability of employment compared with other migrants, an effect that is partially attributable to the different structural composition of the Albanian migrant group.