Are new work practices and new technologies biased against immigrant workers?

Abstract

Purpose – To analyse if introduction of new technologies and work practices are negatively related to the employment opportunities of immigrants. Design/methodology/approach – A representative plant level panel survey merged with register data is used. Random effect regression Tobit models are estimated. The dependent variable is wage costs share of immigrants at the plant. The important explanatory variables are measures of new technologies and work practices. Findings – The results show that workplaces where employees use personal computers (PCs) intensively and have broad autonomy hire fewer non-Western immigrants who have not been raised in Norway. The negative relationship is especially strong for low-skilled non-Western immigrants. Practical implications – Future work is desired to confirm the results obtained in our study. Access to data with reliable instrument variables for technology and new work practices would be especially helpful. Our results tend to favour integration policies, which provide immigrants with language training combined with general information about the receiving country Originality/value – The estimation framework for studying this topic is new. We also present original evidence on the relationship between characteristics of the “new” economy and demand for immigrant workers.