This paper examines the use of social networks and its impact on the qualitative labour marketintegration of young recent EU migrants from Central and Eastern European member states toEU15 countries as well as Switzerland and Norway. The literature points to both positive andnegative impacts of social networks on migrant workers’ outcomes. Social networks canfacilitate access to employers and information on labour regulation and rights and therebyimprove the quantitative and qualitative labour market outcomes of migrant workers. On theother hand, social networks can also contribute to locking migrant workers into sectors andoccupations with high shares of migrant workers, so-called niche employment. The latter canlead to suboptimal working conditions including a mismatch of skills and occupation (overqualification)and lower wages. The impact might be particularly negative for recent migrantsfrom Central and Eastern Europe as previous research on EU cross border labour mobility hasshown that they are comparatively high qualified and young. The latter might put them at adouble disadvantage given that youth have particular problems in entering (quality) employmentas they lack work experience which they could use to signal to employers directly and mighttherefor have to rely more on social networks of established migrant communities.
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