Immigrants and Poverty

The Role of Labour Market and Welfare State Access

Inequality has been rising in advanced industrialised countries. At the same time, increased immigration has accentuated the ethnic diversity of those countries. Both developments have created challenges for advanced industrialised countries to integrate immigrants into the country.

Immigration and Poverty examines how advanced industrialised countries integrate immigrants into the labour market and welfare state and how this influences immigrant poverty. The main argument draws on insights from two research strands, the comparative welfare state and the migration literature. In brief, this book argues that a country’s labour market and welfare system does not directly influence immigrants’ poverty but is conditional on immigrants’ social rights, here understood as their labour market and welfare state access. Immigration and Poverty argues and shows that it is crucial to embed migration-specific policies within a country’s prevailing institutional setting to understand why immigrants fare better in some countries as compared to others.