Lifting Barriers to Skill Transferability: Immigrant Integration through Occupational Recognition

  • While Western countries worry about labor shortages, their institutional barriers to skill transferability prevent immigrants from fully utilizing foreign qualifications. Combining administrative and survey data in a difference-in-differences design, we show that a German reform, which lifted these barriers for non-EU immigrants, led to a 15 percent increase in the share of immigrants with a recognized foreign qualification. Consequently, non-EU immigrants’ employment and wages in licensed occupations (e.g., doctors) increased respectively by 18.6 and 4 percent, narrowing the gaps with EU immigrants. Despite the inflow of non-EU immigrants in these occupations, we find no evidence of crowding out or downward wage pressure for natives.

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Metadaten
Author:Silke Anger, Jacopo Bassetto, Malte SandnerORCiD
URL / DOI:https://docs.iza.org/dp17444.pdf
ISSN:2365-9793
Parent Title (English):IZA : Discussion Paper Series
Document Type:Working Paper
Language:English
Date of first Publication:2024/11/01
Creating Corporation:IZA : Institute of Labor Economics
Release Date:2026/01/13
Issue:17444
institutes:Fakultät Betriebswirtschaft
Research Themes:Soziale & ökonomische Transformation
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