Immigration in a Segmented Labor Market: The Effects on Welfare

Using an OLG model with pension system and unemployment insurance, this paper analyses the effect of low-skilled immigration (regular and irregular) shocks on the well-being of the native people. We show that low-skilled immigration benefits the pensioners of the initial period and skilled native workers, and damages the low-skilled ones. Furthermore, we show that the unskilled immigration decreases the pension and unemployment benefits, and increases the unemployment rate. Additionally, the composition of immigration does not affect the unemployment rate in the long run. However, during the transition, the effects of immigration are increasing in the proportion of irregular immigrants.