The international transferability of immigrants' human capital skills

Arbeitspapier

This paper uses the approach in the under/over education literature to analyze the extent of matching of educational level to occupational attainment among adult native born and foreign born men in the U.S., using the 2000 Census. Overeducation is found to be more common among recent labor market entrants, while undereducation is more likely among older workers. Married men, veterans and those living in metropolitan areas are also more likely to be overeducated. Among immigrants, greater pre-immigration labor market experience is associated with poorer job matches, presumably due to the less than perfect international transferability of skills. A longer duration in the U.S., however, is associated with a lower probability of being overeducated and a greater probability of being undereducated. This is consistent with immigrants being favorably selected for occupational advancement but this effect becomes realized only after overcoming the disadvantages of the less than perfect international transferability of their pre-immigration skills.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 2670

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft
• Subject: Migranten ; Humankapital ; Qualifikation ; Beruf ; Matching ; Überqualifikation ; Ungelernte Arbeitskräfte ; USA

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Chiswick, Barry R. ; Miller, Paul W.
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2007

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/34611
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2008041550
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET