The impact of labor market insecurity on mental health among immigrants in Europe

Abstract: The impact of labor market insecurity on immigrants’ mental health is understudied. This current study investigated whether labor market insecurity, as measured by different employment arrangements, has detrimental impact on immigrants’ depression, and if so, how it compares to the role of unemployment. Furthermore, this study investigated whether labor market insecurity had more detrimental impact on immigrants than non-immigrants. To do so, data from seventh wave of European Social Survey (2014/2015) was divided into three separate immigrant groups; first-generation immigrants, second-generation immigrants and non-immigrants. The results shows that labor market insecurity among immigrants had detrimental impact on mental health. The effects were not restricted to the first- generation immigrants’ mental health, they could also be observed in the second-generation immigrants and among non-immigrants. The results presented in this thesis show that not only unemployment, but also insecure employment arrangement have negative impact on mental health, both among immigrants and non-immigrants.