The effect of migration on unionization in Austria

We analyze how native employees’ union membership rates change in response to foreign employees using Austrian administrative data for the period 2002 to 2012. Using an instrumental variables approach, our results indicate a negative effect of immigrant employees on native employees’ unionization rates at the firm level. The negative effect is the result of a greater—mostly voluntary—turnover of unionized native employees in firms with a larger share of migrants, but it is not caused by native employees leaving unions or firms’ reduced hiring of native union members.