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Immigrant Over- and Under-education: The Role of Home Country Labour Market Experience

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  • Matloob Piracha
  • Massimiliano Tani
  • Florin Vadean

Abstract

Literature on the immigrant labour market mismatch has not explored the signal provided by the quality of home country work experience, particularly that of education-occupation mismatch prior to migration. We show that type of work experience in the home country plays a significant role in explaining immigrant mismatch in the destination country’s labour market. We use the Longitudinal Survey of Immigrants to Australia and find that having been over-educated in the last job held in the home country increases the likelihood of being over-educated in Australia by about 45 percent. Whereas having been under-educated in the home country has an even stronger impact, as it increases the probability to be similarly mismatched in Australia by 61 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Matloob Piracha & Massimiliano Tani & Florin Vadean, 2011. "Immigrant Over- and Under-education: The Role of Home Country Labour Market Experience," Studies in Economics 1105, School of Economics, University of Kent.
    • Handle: RePEc:ukc:ukcedp:1105
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; education-occupation mismatch; sample selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C34 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Multiple or Simultaneous Equation Models; Multiple Variables - - - Truncated and Censored Models; Switching Regression Models
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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