April 2020

IZA Policy Paper No. 155: Immigrant Key Workers: Their Contribution to Europe's COVID-19 Response

Francesco Fasani, Jacopo Mazza

This note describes the contribution of migrant workers to the ongoing effort to keep basic services running in the Union during the COVID-19 epidemic. We quantify the prevalence of migrant workers in the so called "key professions" that the Commission and Member States have identified using the most recent wave of the EU Labour Force Survey. Our results show that migrant "key workers" are essential for critical functions in European societies.