Do Immigrants Displace Native Workers? The Austrian Experience

This paper studies the effect of increased immigration in Austria on the risk to natives of becoming unemployed. Austria experienced a dramatic rise in the share of alien workers as a result of the breakdown of the former communist regimes (especially that of the former Yugoslavia). We concentrate on entry into unemployment of young male workers who are thought to compete most with new immigrants. Our results indicate that the detrimental impact -- if it exists at all -- is only minor and is irrespective of the chosen proxy for competition (the share of foreign workers in an industry, in a region or at the firm level).