The first part of the project analyses empirically how labor immigration affects labor market inequality through changes in the way firms organize work. First, we study how the increased immigration, following the eastward EU enlargement in 2004 affected Norwegian firms’ use of domestic outsourcing and alternative work arrangements. Second, we investigate if such (eventual) changes in the organization of work within and between firms have increased labor market inequalities, i.e., induced larger differences between groups of workers both when it comes to wage and work protection. Third, we investigate how higher availability of low-wage immigrant workers affects the firm’s investments in training own workers and by that Norway’s long-term dependency on labor immigrants to fill certain jobs. Finally, we analyze the impact of a large global shock (the Covid pandemic) that dramatically reduced labour migration, and potentially reversed some of the results for both outsourcing and human capital investments.
The second part of the project analyses legally and empirically the possibilities of regulation when low-wage labor immigration changes the organization of work and labor market inequality. We will explore how rights to equal pay for equal work extends to different kinds of workers, and the possibilities that governments have of pursuing the goal of equal pay. We will also explore the boundary of rights that apply to labor immigrants depending on their labor market attachment form and as citizens of the European Economic Area. We will evaluate some of the regulation that is already in place in empirical analyses, to see if they are effective in preventing some of the negative effects of low-wage labor immigration on the organization of work. They represent two ways of targeting inequalities; one is to implement rules that apply to whole business areas, regardless of employment form, the other is to target alternative work arrangements in particular.
