Labor market impact of migration: Employment structures and the case of Greece

The impact of migration on the labor markets of host countries has fueled research and policy debates. While the impact of migration on the employment opportunities and wages of natives has come under extensive focus, another dimension of labor market impact of migration apparent in the case of Greece, the relations under which work is performed, has attracted less attention. The prevalence of family-based forms of production and the relatively limited extent of waged employment have long made Greece an outlier with respect to European employment structures. However, much of the work previously carried out within the framework of the family is now undertaken by migrants for wages. This substitution of unpaid family labor by migrant wage-labor is contributing to the convergence of Greek employment structures with those of other countries of the European Union.