DETERMINANTS OF SEGMENTED OCCUPATIONAL MOBILITY OF NON-EUROPEAN UNION IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN

The determinants of immigrants' occupational mobility have been studied for the general labor market in both transitions, from home to the country of destination as the subsequent economic assimilation process. Our paper analyzes the determinants of a segmented occupational pattern and examines which determinants are significant in each of the primary and secondary segments at both transitions. It uses data from the National Immigrant Survey 2007 (Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes 2007) in Spain and includes multivariate regression models that explain the variations in occupational mobility. The results show that the most important determinants for the general model play a different role in the two segments of the labor market, both in the upward and downward mobility that occurs within the segments as in the limited mobility that occurs between them.