The article examines three aspects of the “modes of incorporation” (Portes) that immigrants suffer in the labor markets in the host countries and that are presented as if they were “iron laws” of the migration processes because they are repeated, with some geographical and historical variants, in all countries: a segmented labor assimilation, a concentration of immigrants in jobs that can be characterized as “D” (Dirty, Dangerous and Demanding), and the frequency of discriminatory acts against immigrants. The article provides information on recent developments of these ideas in academic literature, especially that referring to Spain.

. The lights is a better integration of immigrants in other countries of our environment; the shadows, of course, (general) that these assimilation processes take place in a differentiated segmented and between different groups. Lights and shadows that occur in the labour market.

One of themit is the reply of the traditional representation of the growing acculturation and the parallel integration into the white middle classes; );associated rapid economic progress a deliberate conservation of values and close solidarity in the immigrant community. This scheme segmented assimilation

Against the general laws of an easy and uniform labour and social assimilation of immigrants containing classical approaches, . The segmented “ assimilation ” means that different groups of people from immigrant backgrounds have “ modes of incorporation ”. The “ segments ” indicating Portes y Zhou in the above quote are just the outline of possible segments: what is important for the theory of segmented “ assimilation ” is that the assimilation of different groups of immigrants is produced in segments (sectoral/occupational geographic/social). No need to do in the number of segments and whatever its limits a matter of principle or general. For example, in cases such as the labour market in Spain, it would be interesting to distinguish, for example among the immigrants are integrated in the most common occupational among the indigenous population (in both the primary sector as in the secondary sector, according to the theory of segmentation in the labour market of Michael Piore, 1983 ); another area which is concentrated in occupations in the secondary segment; and another who took up positions in the “ infraclase ” and that has often suffered a downward “ assimilation ” in the migration process.

³ . These jobs, an important part of them in the shadow economy, are less “ desirable ” for national workers and this is in the “ gap ” of the labour market which is a key reason for Spain and other countries in southern europe in countries of immigration from the middle of the 1980s (Reyneri, 1996 ; Baganha and Reyneri, 2001 Cachón,; 2002 ).

it starts in the fact of their working status and is manifested in increased rates of unemployment, higher rates of temporality in employment, higher rates of accidentabilidad sectoral concentration, large, lower wages and poorer working conditions, greater presence in all kinds of seminars and special working hours, and a remarkable increase in the black economy.

The increased vulnerability of migrants, which is predicated on the “ sacred trinidad inequality ” (Massey, 2007 ): class, race and ethnicity, gender, and that leads to immigrants also suffer from a third “ iron law ”: greater discrimination on account of being immigrants and/or because of their racial or Ethnic and/or their gender and/or social origin and/or their religion and/or by their nationality. And for other reasons, but all of them very determined by the “ taint immigrant ”. Immigrants introduce greater variety on grounds of racial or ethnic origin, religion, and other factors that may be grounds for discrimination which joined the other general grounds which may lead to lead to discrimination: disability, sexual orientation or age, for example. What can (and often) lead to situations of “ multiple discrimination ” (Valleys, Cea and Domínguez, 2017 ; Cea and valleys, 2021 ) and underlines the need for in this field the approach of the “ Intersectionality ”, as set out for the first time by the African American feminist Crenshaw ( 1989 ) from within the framework of the Critical Race Theory, which is a widely accepted (theoretical) at present (The Barbera, 2016 ).

The study of this discrimination is a complex with actors (and more from the perspective of the “ intersectionality ”) because, as noted by the ILO ( 2007 : X): “ Discrimination is indeed an insidious and huidizo phenomenon that may prove difficult to quantify and, therefore, to address effectively ”, and that “ there is no single indicator to assess the existence or absence of progress in the elimination of discrimination and the promotion of equality at work. There is a need for many indicators, measuring different aspects but interlinked and inequalities in the outcome of the labour market, please indicate the existence of discrimination and policy failures ” (ibid.,: 15 ).

”), but also to the “ shadow ” (“

At the insufficient data demands, it is important to surveys (such as those mentioned above) and, above all, it is useful to the method of

conditions of workthat are imposed and that would later appear forms of discrimination in other moments of labour relations as wages, working hours, the promotions in the company, etc. (that would explain that industrialists discriminatory less than other sectors of activity in the investigation Colectivo ioé in 1995 for example).

But the problems of discrimination do not end at the level of actors, that is where we have moved so far in this explanation. As noted by the ilo in the reportEquality at work: tackling the challenges, “ discrimination is not a one-off event but a perversesystemic phenomenonoften, intrinsic to the guidelines of operation of the workplace and rooted in values and cultural and social norms. dominant interchangeably in the places of work of the formal and informal sector, but in the latter may take forms more evident, being outside the field or scope of the labour laws and their effective implementation ” (ilo, 2007 : 9 ; emphasis added). These phenomena are another systemic “ iron law ” of the processes of settlement of immigrants and relates to institutional and structural discrimination suffered (Crowley, 2022 ).

These “ laws of steel to dominate the field of the processes of integration of immigrants in the labour market (and in other areas of social life) does not mean that they should be accepted as inevitable. You can fight them from the field of politics and of the various actors committed to achieve a fairer integration of immigrants and other groups with include problems within our societies.

Discriminatory practices suffered by immigrants in all countries, whether because of their racial or ethnic origin, by their phenotype, by nationality and for other reasons, are the result of a series of cumulative iron laws governing its incorporation into their host societies. And to the extent that they want democratic societies, they must undertake policy interventions appropriate institutional and to combat discriminatory acts and ensure equal treatment and to combat the most profound processes of institutional and structural discrimination.

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