Do informal Networks Increase Migrants’ Over-Education? Comparing Over-Education for Natives, Migrants and Second Generations in Italy and Assessing the Role of Networks in Generating It

Pierre Georges Van Wolleghem (), Marina De Angelis and Sergio Scicchitano ()
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Pierre Georges Van Wolleghem: University of Bergen
Marina De Angelis: INAPP, Italian National Institute for the Analysis of Public Policies, Corso d’Italia

Italian Economic Journal: A Continuation of Rivista Italiana degli Economisti and Giornale degli Economisti, 2023, vol. 9, issue 1, No 6, 175-197

Abstract: Abstract Whilst migration has become a structural feature of most European countries, the integration of foreigners in the labour market continues to raise concerns. Evidence across countries shows that migrants are more often over-educated than natives. Over the last few years, scholarship has intended to capture the effect of informal networks on migrants’ over-education. Interestingly, no study has looked into the Italian case, a country for which the effect of networks on education-occupation mismatch is well documented. This article has two objectives: it assesses the extent to which over-education affects migrants and it evaluates the role informal networks play in producing it. We find that migrants have a higher probability of being over-educated than natives and second-generation migrants. Likewise, we find little evidence of a differentiated effect of networks as they tend to increase migrants’ over-education whilst decreasing it for natives and second-generation migrants. Empirical evidence is drawn from the application of causal inference modelling to PLUS 2018—Participation, Labour, Unemployment Survey.

Keywords: Informal networks; Over-education; Migrants; Second-generation migrants; Labour market; Propensity score matching; Inverse probability weighting (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1007/s40797-022-00184-5

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