Skill mismatch among migrant workers: evidence from a large multi-country dataset

Visintin, Stefano; Tijdens, Kea; Klaveren, M. van

doi:10.1186/s40176-015-0040-0

Cited by 30 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(41 reference statements)

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“…The second connection involves the disruptive nature of both temporary and longterm labor migration vis-a-vis early life-course transitions into work and adult family roles in the origin community (Potančokoná et al 2008;Stankuniene and Jasilioniene 2008). The entry into foreign labor markets may involve migrants' initial under-placement with respect to their educational and skill levels, which can extend the time required to find jobs for which they are trained (Visintin, Tijdens and van Klaveren 2015;Villarreal 2016). Studies also indicate that returning international migrants often experience difficulty reinserting themselves into the home labor market after an extended absence (Lindstrom 2013).…”

Section: Migration and Nuptialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration, Family Formation and Fertility in the Americas

Lindstrom¹,

Hernandez-Jabalera

Saucedo

2020

International Migration Review

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In many low- and medium-income countries that are the traditional sources of international migrants, total fertility rates have dropped to levels at or near replacement. In this context of low fertility, we expect migration’s effects on fertility to operate primarily through marital timing and marital stability. We examine the effects of international migration on age at first marriage, union dissolution, timing of first birth, and completed fertility, using retrospective life-history data collected in Mexico and eight other Latin American countries by the Mexican Migration Project (MMP) and the Latin American Migration Project (LAMP). Using discrete-time hazards and Poisson regression models, we find clear evidence that early migration experience results in delayed marriage, delayed first birth, and a higher rate of marital dissolution. We also find evidence among women that cumulative international migration experience is associated with fewer births and that the estimated effects of migration experience are attenuated after taking into account age at union formation and husbands’ prior union experiences. As fertility levels in migrant origin and destination countries continue on their path toward convergence, migrant fertility below native fertility may become more common due to migration’s disruptive effects on marital timing and marital stability and the selection of divorced or separated adults into migration.

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Section: Migration and Nuptialitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Migration, Family Formation and Fertility in the Americas

Lindstrom¹,

Hernandez-Jabalera

Saucedo

2020

International Migration Review

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“…Language proficiency is one of the most widely cited barriers to both qualifications recognition and labour market entry (Cheng et al, 2013;Colic-Peisker, 2009a;Fuller & Martin, 2012;Grenier & Xue, 2011;Visintin et al, 2015;Waxman, 2001) and Hawthorn (2015) has found that the use of language tests acted to delay registration, a finding supported by the current study. This was a significant issue for a number of participants, particularly those on family reunion visas, who had not had to undergo pre-migration language testing.…”

Section: The Demonstration Of Competencesupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Earlier Australian research which compared migrant labour market outcomes based on country of birth found that qualified NESB immigrants experienced far greater levels of underemployment when compared with ESB migrants (Birrell & Hawthorne, 1996;C. Green, Kler, & Leeves, 2007;Hawthorne, 2002;Visintin, Tijdens, & van Klaveren, 2015). This suggests that the key determinants are socioeconomic and cultural distance between the country of origin and host country (Flatau et al, 1995, p. 44).…”

Section: Labour Market Performance Of Skilled Migrantsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Immigrant professionals in particular require high levels of English proficiency, and further study is often required to reach the necessary standard (Adamuti-Trache, 2013;Cheng et al, 2013). English fluency has been identified as being a key enabler in labour market participation (Constable et al, 2004;Waxman, 2001), particularly for appropriate skill utilisation (Kler, 2006;Visintin et al, 2015), although even where proficiency is high, a strong accent can be problematic in securing employment (Creese, 2010;MacDougall, 2007). While language proficiency may be regarded as a question of individual capacity in terms of skill utilisation, research has identified a lack of appropriate language training in host countries to assist in increasing English proficiency for the workplace.…”

Section: Language Proficiency and Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Overseas-qualified professionals: the search for professional re-entry and its perceived impact on settlement

Scull¹

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Gaining recognition of overseas qualifications represents a major barrier for skilled migrants in Australia and is a primary cause of underemployment. While recent immigration policy initiatives have had some positive impacts on labour market outcomes among skilled migrants, the challenges posed by qualifications recognition remain and skill under-utilisation is a significant issue, particularly for migrants from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. The recent Australian literature on skilled migrants focuses predominantly on broader labour market trends and there is little qualitative research that has explored the labour market experiences of these migrants, or the perceived impact of their experiences on settlement.This exploratory study aims to address this gap by focusing on the subjective experiences of overseas-qualified professionals seeking professional re-entry in Australia. Specifically the research focuses on their search for qualifications recognition and skill utilisation, and the perceived impact of this search on settlement. Adopting a qualitative methodology, the study targeted migrants with qualifications and work experience in legally-regulated professions. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 CALD overseas-qualified professionals in southeast Queensland. These interviews elicited an in-depth account of their search for professional re-entry, together with their perceptions of how these experiences had affected their settlement. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data, which was guided by a conceptual framework that draws together aspects of recognition theory, cultural and social capital.The findings suggest that regardless of outcome, the majority of participants perceived that their search for professional re-entry had been to some extent negative. The search for registration was often characterised by the need for participants to make significant investments of time, money and effort. Despite such investments, many participants perceived that the design and implementation of the qualifications recognition process restricted their ability to demonstrate their linguistic and professional competence. Over half the participants had managed to gain registration, an outcome that represented formal recognition of their professional status. Registration itself, however, did not ensure skill utilisation, and professional re-entry was dependent upon gaining informal recognition in the labour market. In response to challenges encountered in the search for work, participants described a range of strategies they used to develop their employability. Despite these efforts, only six of the 20 participants had achieved professional re-entry at the time of interview.iii Participants' perceptions of how their search for professional re-entry had affected their settlement were inextricably linked with their understandings of settlement. Participants understood settlement as a sense of security and belonging, which could be facilitated by meaningful work. Those ...

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“… 5. Recent examples of published research papers include studies on skill mismatch among migrant workers (Visintin, Tijdens, and van Klaveren 2015), subjective well-being of workers using social indicators connected with job and life satisfaction (Guzi and De Pedraza 2015), research of impact of working time and wages on health (Steinmetz, de Vries, and Tijdens 2014), job insecurity (De Bustillo and De Pedraza 2010), or decent work (Oz 2008). …”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Cautionary Note on the Reliability of the Online Survey Data: The Case of Wage Indicator

Smyk

Tyrowicz

Velde

2018

Sociological Methods & Research

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We investigate the reliability of data from the Wage Indicator (WI), the largest online survey on earnings and working conditions. Comparing WI to nationally representative data sources for 17 countries reveals that participants of WI are not likely to have been representatively drawn from the respective populations. Previous literature has proposed to utilize weights based on inverse propensity scores, but this procedure was shown to leave reweighted WI samples different from the benchmark nationally representative data. We propose a novel procedure, building on covariate balancing propensity score, which achieves complete reweighting of the WI data, making it able to replicate the structure of nationally representative samples on observable characteristics. While rebalancing assures the match between WI and representative benchmark data sources, we show that the wage schedules remain different for a large group of countries. Using the example of a Mincerian wage regression, we find that in more than a third of the cases, our proposed novel reweighting assures that estimates obtained on WI data are not biased relative to nationally representative data. However, in the remaining 60 percent of the analyzed 95 data sets, systematic differences in the estimated coefficients of the Mincerian wage regression between WI and nationally representative data persist even after reweighting. We provide some intuition about the reasons behind these biases. Notably, objective factors such as access to the Internet or richness appear to matter, but self-selection (on unobservable characteristics) among WI participants appears to constitute an important source of bias.

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Skill mismatch among migrant workers: evidence from a large multi-country dataset

Cited by 30 publications

References 37 publications

Migration, Family Formation and Fertility in the Americas

Migration, Family Formation and Fertility in the Americas

Overseas-qualified professionals: the search for professional re-entry and its perceived impact on settlement

A Cautionary Note on the Reliability of the Online Survey Data: The Case of Wage Indicator

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