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Rethinking Global Economic Governance in Light of the CrisisImmigrants in the labour marketOne reason why immigration slows down in a recession is that immigrants typicallydo badly in the labour market as unemployment increases. Table 1 shows thatunemployment rates among immigrants are typically much higher than for nationals.As unemployment increases, the ratio of unemployment rates of immigrants to nativesremains remarkably stable (except in Greece). This means that the difference inunemployment rates (and hence in employment probabilities) between immigrants andnatives increases.Table 1. Unemployment rates in western EuropeMale unemployment 2008 Male unemployment 2010Native Foreign F/N Native Foreign F/NAustria 2.9 3.8 1.3 7.3 8.8 1.2Belgium 5.3 6.7 1.3 14.3 17.5 1.2Germany 6.6 7.0 1.1 12.3 12.6 1.0Demark 2.7 7.7 2.8 6.4 15.1 2.4Spain 8.8 17.3 2.0 16.4 31.1 1.9Finland 5.9 9.2 1.6 12.4 18.9 1.5France 6.3 8.4 1.3 11.4 13.6 1.2Great Britain 6.1 8.8 1.4 6.8 9.2 1.4Greece 5.2 8.8 1.7 5.0 14.7 2.9Ireland 7.0 16.5 2.3 8.2 19.2 2.3Italy 5.6 7.3 1.3 5.9 9.7 1.6Netherlands 2.1 3.8 1.8 5.3 8.5 1.6Norway 2.4 3.5 1.4 6.0 9.8 1.6Portugal 6.8 10.2 1.5 7.8 12.7 1.6Sweden 5.1 7.4 1.4 11.5 15.9 1.4Source: OECD StatExtracts at http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspxThe impression from Table 1 is supported by detailed analysis. For the UK andGermany, Dustmann et al. (2010) find that unemployment is more strongly cyclical forimmigrants than for natives, and especially for immigrants from outside the OECD.Partly, this reflects differences in skill levels but even within skill groups, immigrants are146