Descriptive Summary:

Testing the Automation–Migration Interface

This working paper introduces the Automation–Migration Interface Approach, a mechanism-based synthesis that updates dual labour market theory for the age of automation and artificial intelligence. Drawing on an LLM-assisted systematic literature review with human validation, the paper traces how automation and AI adoption reshape tasks, drive occupational restructuring, influence migrant sorting and matching, and ultimately affect wages, stability, mobility, segregation, and skill utilisation.

Focusing on the EU, with comparative reference to the U.S., China, and OECD evidence, the findings suggest that automation reinforces labour-market polarisation: expanding high-skill demand (including AI- and green-transition roles) while sustaining parts of the low-skill service economy and contracting routine middle-skill work. Migrants—often concentrated in secondary segments—face heightened exposure to displacement, credential-recognition barriers, limited training access, and algorithmic gatekeeping in hiring and workplace management.

The paper concludes with policy implications for inclusive labour-market governance and sets out a research agenda with testable propositions on institutional moderators and migrant-specific exposure measures.