Assessing the interrelationship between atypical work and net migration in the EU: Evidence from 17 Countries (2004–2019)
Laurène Thil and Stella Sophie Zilian
wiiw Working Paper No. 263, June 2025
46 pages including 12 Table and 14 Figures
This paper studies how atypical work, alongside other labour market conditions, affect intra-EU migration and vice versa in 17 EU countries from 2004 to 2019. Relative increases of part-time and self-employment shares in sending countries increase net migration, whereas relative increases in short fixed-term shares reduce net migration. Net migration shocks persistently reduce part-time share differentials, initially reduce self-employment share differentials and increase short fixed-term share differentials. Atypical work explains about one-fifth of net migration fluctuations five and ten years after a shock. The findings highlight the trade-off between internal (employment flexibility) and external (migration) labour market adjustments.
Keywords: atypical employment, intra-EU mobility, pVAR, labour market adjustment
JEL classification: C33, F22, J21
Countries covered: Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
Research Areas: Labour, Migration and Income Distribution