Temporary Extra Jobs for Immigrants: Merging Lane to Employment or Dead-End Road in Welfare?

Temporary Extra Jobs provide subsidized employment for welfare recipients and are the most frequently used welfare-to-work program in Germany. We evaluate the effects of participation in this program on the employment chances of immigrant welfare recipients and contrast the findings with program effects for natives. Our results reveal that Temporary Extra Jobs fail to achieve their objective. The estimated effects are more adverse for natives, but the program is ineffective for participating immigrants either. Therefore, the program is a dead-end road rather than a merging lane to regular employment both for natives and for immigrants.

Thomsen, Stephan Lothar and Thomas Walter (2010), Temporary Extra Jobs for Immigrants: Merging Lane to Employment or Dead-End Road in Welfare?, LABOUR: Review of Labour Economics and Industrial Relations 24, Issue Supplement s1 , 114-140