Integration policy is currently high on the policy agenda in many OECD countries for several reasons. Firstly, immigrants have been among the groups hardest hit by the difficult labour market situation in many countries following the economic downturn of 2008-09. This concerns in particular the many immigrants who have arrived in OECD countries over the past decade.

This publication was drafted by Thomas Liebig and Karolin Krause from the OECD Secretariat, with the editorial assistance of Sylviane Yvron and Marlène Mohier. The country studies would not have been possible without the support of the national authorities involved, in particular the respective country representatives in the OECD Working Party on Migration [at the time of writing: Sigrid Röhrich and Heinz-Peter Kutrowatz (Austria), Eva Haagensen (Norway) and Claire de Coulon and Kurt Rohner (Switzerland)].

The issues involved in the labour market integration of immigrants are broad and numerous, and so should also be the policy responses. The previous two publications of the “Jobs for Immigrants” series (OECD, 2007 and 2008a) have highlighted a broad range of challenges that need to be tackled in order to achieve the objective of integrating immigrants and their children into the labour markets of OECD countries. The resulting policy recommendations are summarised in Box 0.1, along with examples of good practices from the countries previously reviewed. While these issues are naturally also important for Austria, Norway and Switzerland, a number of additional findings emerged from the three most recent country studies, highlighting new issues and shedding new light on others. This introductory chapter summarises these new findings and their implications for policy.

With 17% of the working-age population in 2010 being foreign-born, Austria has one of the largest shares of working-age immigrants in the OECD. As in other European OECD countries, the migration landscape in Austria has been shaped by the recruitment of low-educated labour migrants prior to the first oil shock and subsequent family migration. Even more important were the fall of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980s and the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, which triggered large-scale migration movements to Austria. More than three quarters of all migrants of working-age currently residing in Austria have arrived since the former event, with most entering between 1988 and 1995.

In the context of longstanding and significant differences between the labour market outcomes of the native-born and immigrants, the labour market integration of immigrants has been a key policy issue in Norway. The differences are largely attributable to the prevalence of family and humanitarian migrants in the past, since these have outcomes that are not as good as those of labour migrants in most countries.

Switzerland is among the OECD countries with the largest immigrant populations – 27% of the working-age population are foreign-born – and the issue of immigration is high on both the policy agenda and in the public debate. Given the numerous debates around this issue in Switzerland, one could be tempted to think that immigrants are less well integrated than in other countries.

Until the mid-1980s, the share of migrants in Austria was relatively low in international comparison. With the fall of the Iron Curtain and the opportunities which it opened for East-West flows, migration to Austria increased rapidly. This chapter presents an overview of the key labour market outcomes of immigrants in Austria in international comparison, and their evolution over time. It analyses the framework for integration and provides a detailed picture of immigrants and their children in the labour market. It analyses the main integration policy instruments, the skills and qualifications of immigrants and their use in the labour market, and reviews the school-to-work transition of the children of immigrants as well as the evidence regarding discrimination.

The labour market integration of immigrants has been a longstanding issue on the policy agenda in Norway. It is seen as essential to ensuring social cohesion, and has gained importance in the context of the recent increase in immigration. This chapter presents an overview of the key labour market outcomes of immigrants in Norway in international comparison, and their evolution over time. It sets out the framework for integration and provides a detailed picture of migrants in the labour market. It analyses some of the key characteristics of the Norwegian labour market and their links with integration and the main integration policy instruments. The chapter also looks into the labour market integration of the children of immigrants, the integration programme, integration into the public sector and the evidence regarding discrimination.

Switzerland has – together with Australia and Luxemburg – one of the largest immigrant populations in relative terms in the OECD. This chapter provides an overview and assessment of the key labour market outcomes of immigrants in Switzerland in international comparison, and their evolution over time. It discusses the framework for integration and analyses some key issues in the labour market integration of immigrants and their children, including the use of immigrants’ skills in the labour market, naturalisation, discrimination, integration of recent arrivals and the school-to-work transition of the children of immigrants.