The Overeducation of Immigrants in Europe

Angela Dalmonte (), Tommaso Frattini () and Sofia Giorgini

No 496, Development Working Papers from Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano

Abstract: This paper explores the overeducation of tertiary-educated migrants in European labour markets. Using data from the European Labour Force Survey (2012-2022), we show that immigrants, particularly those from non-EU countries, are significantly more likely to be overeducated than natives. Despite a general decline in overeducation levels for all groups over time, the immigrant-native gap remains, especially for foreign-educated migrants. Furthermore, the likelihood of overeducation for foreign-educated migrants increases until 15-19 years after migration, a pattern consistent across all areas of origin and migration cohorts. Importantly, differences in educational quality between origin and destination countries do not primarily account for these overeducation differentials. The findings underscore the need for policies that better align immigrants' skills with labour market demands in Europe to avoid the waste of valuable immigrants' skills, which are harmful not only to migrants but to the economies of receiving countries too.

Keywords: EU labour markets; immigration; Skill mismatch (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J15 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2024-10-18
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eec, nep-eur, nep-int, nep-lab, nep-mig and nep-ure
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:csl:devewp:496

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