Ni is a dummy variable that takes the value one if a worker used networks of relatives, friends, or acquaintances, and zero if s/he used any other method. The raw averages show that migrants are significantly more likely than native workers to use networks to find a job; on average, 40 percent of migrants used this network, compared to 30 percent of native-born workers. To see how this fact translates into occupational risk exposure, we estimate the multinomial logit model with the three types of occupations (safe, at health-risk and at income-risk) displayed in equation (1). We add two variables based on the networks for each of the migration categories (migrants and natives) so we can assess whether the impact of networks on job safety differs between those two groups. We show that both natives and migrants who used networks to find a job are about 6 percent less likely to have a safe job and that they are more likely to have jobs with either higher income risks or higher health risks (Tables 1-3, Column 7). The use of such networks is mostly associated with higher health risks among migrant workers; by contrast, among native workers, the use of networks increases the probability of having a job with greater income risks. Furthermore, the average migrant-native gap in the probability of having a safe job is reduced in half for migrants from NMS13 and Latin America, and becomes insignificant for migrants from Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia or MENA. Therefore, while networks (in general of co-nationals) are a key source for finding employment for many migrants, the use of such networks can translate into an occupational concentration in certain jobs; the jobs in which migrants who used these networks tended to concentrate proved to be more vulnerable to both health and income risks related to the COVID19 pandemic.

# 6.4. Migrants’ Responsiveness to Labor Demand

Prior studies show that the effects of local labor-demand conditions on immigrants’ labor market outcomes are stronger than those for natives (Azlor et al., 2020). Importantly, immigrants are more responsive to changes in local labor-demand conditions, choosing locations with more available jobs and filling labor shortages more rapidly (Cadena and Kovak, 2016). The responsiveness of migrants to labor demand occurs not only geographically, but also occupationally, where migrants are found to be significantly more mobile than natives in changing jobs (Green, 1999). Occupations with labor shortages or openings that attract migrants are typically also characterized by poorer and riskier working conditions (Orrenius and Zavodny, 2009), more manual work (Peri and Sparber, 2009), and lower skill requirements (Dustmann and Frattini, 2013). All of these factors make those jobs less attractive to natives who may prefer to stay unemployed, depending on the welfare system (Constant, 2014). These more precarious occupations could, in turn, be more exposed to the negative shocks that surfaced during the pandemic.

To assess the role of labor demand by occupation, we follow a recent study by the European Commission (2015); we proxy for labor demand by using the share of new hires in total employment in each ISCO-08 occupation.<sup>17</sup> The EU-LFS provides information on whether a

> 17 We acknowledge that this measure captures not only changes in demand in an occupation (because increases in demand are associated with larger share of new hires), but also other characteristics such as differences in turnover

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