Economics lecturer awarded prestigious research fellowship

Dr Ezgi Kaya, Senior Lecturer in Economics at Cardiff Business School, has been awarded a Research Fellowship by ADR UK to explore the nexus between immigration, integration and labour market outcomes.

The fellowship is funded by Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK), an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) investment (part of UK Research and Innovation). [Grant number: ES/Y001001/1]

Dr Kaya’s project aims to provide new and high-quality evidence on the labour market performance and integration of immigrant workers in England and Wales​. The research will contribute to public value grand challenges such as ‘decent work’ and ‘fair and sustainable economies.’

Dr Kaya said: “Migration flows and the share of the foreign-born population have increased significantly in recent decades across several countries, including the UK. The increasing diversity of the population has brought questions surrounding the labour market performance and integration of immigrants to the forefront of political and public debate.

She added:

The project aims to explore the following research questions:

• How do labour market outcomes including pay, hours of work, occupational skill level and type of employment contract differ between UK-born and immigrant (non-UK-born) employees? ​
• What are the main drivers of any differences in labour market outcomes; and what is the influence of other personal and work-related characteristics, or the role played by individual employers?​
• Does the labour market performance of immigrants vary by factors related to immigration and integration (language proficiency, years of residence in the UK, year of arrival, holding a UK passport or self-defined national identity)?​
• How do labour market outcomes of immigrant employees progress over time; and how do the labour market dynamics of immigrants compare to those born in the UK?

To conduct the research, Dr Kaya will use the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE) linked to the 2011 Census – England and Wales, a flagship dataset. This dataset allows for insight into the dynamics of wage and employment issues, and how characteristics such as gender, disability, and ethnicity influence these.

The project will run until November 2024.

For more information: Research Fellows using ADR England flagship datasets - ADR UK