What is the educational and labour market performance of second generation immigrants in the European Union (EU)? How do the native-born decendants of immigrants perform in contrast to their counterparts with native-born parents? How do they develop compared with first generation immigrants? Does the origin of their foreign-born parents influence their performance? The answers to these questions and many more can be found in the series of Statistics Explained articles on second generation immigrants that have just been published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union. A larger range of data is available in the Eurostat database.

In 2014, 82.4% (or 251.7 million individuals) of the EU population aged 15-64 were native born with native background, 11.5% (36.5 million) were foreign-born and 6.1% (18.4 million) were considered as second generation immigrants, as 4.4% (13.3 million) had at least one parent born in the EU and 1.7% (5.1 million) had both parents born outside the EU.

Among the EU Member States for which data are available the highest proportions of second generation immigrants in the total resident population were registered in Estonia (21.4%), Latvia (19.1%), Luxembourg (16.2%), France (14.3%), Sweden (11.2%), Belgium (11.0%), Slovenia (10.6%) and Croatia (10.3%).

Better educational outcomes at EU level for second generation immigrants…

In 2014, in the EU as a whole, second generation immigrants aged 25-54 with both an EU background and a non- EU background had higher tertiary educational attainment rates (38.5% and 36.2% respectively) than their peers with a native background, for whom the share was 30.9%. Second generation immigrants also had higher shares than first generation immigrants either born in another EU Member State (33.3%) or a non-EU country (29.4%).

…but contrasting picture between Member States

However, the pattern at EU level masks important differences at Member State level, where the size and direction of gaps differ significantly. Thus, in Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, Hungary, the United Kingdom and Italy the proportions of highly educated second generation immigrants were 5 or more percentage points higher than for persons with a native background. In contrast, in Belgium, Luxembourg, Latvia, the Czech Republic and Finland, the proportion of tertiary educated second generation immigrants was at least 5 percentage points lower than their counterparts with a native background.

When comparing the shares of tertiary educated second generation immigrants aged 25-54 with the shares of tertiary educated first generation immigrants, the largest differences (10 percentage points or more in favour of second generation immigrants) were observed in Cyprus, Slovenia, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy. In contrast, the proportion of tertiary educated second generation immigrants was at least 10 percentage points lower than first generation immigrants in Luxembourg, Poland and the Czech Republic.

Employment rate of second generation immigrants in the EU similar to native-born with a native background

In 2014, in the EU as a whole, 81.1% of second generation immigrants aged 25-54 with at least one parent born in the EU were employed. This rate was slightly above that for the native-born with a native background (78.6%, 2.5 pp difference) and 7.1 pp higher than for second generation immigrants having two parents born outside the EU (74.0%). Second generation immigrants with EU background also had higher employment rates than first generation immigrants born in another EU Member State (4.0 pp difference) or in a non-EU country (15.6 pp).

Employment rates of second generation immigrants higher than for the native-born with native background in Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Portugal and Hungary

In 2014, in Member States for which data is available, second generation immigrants had similar or even higher employment rate than persons with a native background in Bulgaria, Luxembourg, Portugal, Hungary, Finland and Poland. In contrast, the employment rates of second generation immigrants were at least 5 percentage points lower than their counterparts with a native background in Belgium, Croatia, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Austria and Germany.

Comparing the employment rates of second generation immigrants aged 25-54 with the employment rates of first generation immigrants, the largest differences in shares (10 percentage points or more in favour of second generation immigrants) were observed in France, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria and Austria. In contrast, the employment rates of second generation immigrants were at least 5 percentage points lower than first generation immigrants in Latvia and Lithuania.