Abstract:
This paper explores the overeducation of tertiary-educated migrants in European labour markets. Using data from the European Labour Force Survey (2012–2022), we show that immigrants, particularly those from non-EU countries, are significantly more likely to be overeducated than natives. Despite a general decline in overeducation levels for all groups over time, the immigrant-native gap remains, especially for foreign-educated migrants. Furthermore, the likelihood of overeducation for foreign-educated migrants increases until 15–19 years after migration, a pattern consistent across all areas of origin and migration cohorts. Importantly, differences in educational quality between origin and destination countries do not primarily account for these overeducation differentials. The findings underscore the need for policies that better align immigrants’ skills with labour market demands in Europe to avoid the waste of valuable immigrants’ skills, which are harmful not only to migrants but to the economies of receiving countries too.
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Angela Dalmonte holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of Milan. In 2023-2024 she worked at the Migration Observatory of Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, investigating skill-mismatch in the labor market and the incidence and patterns of overeducation. She is currently pre-doctoral fellow at the Department of Economics at Sciences Po Paris. Her research interests include the Economics of Education, Labor Economics and Economics of Migration.
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Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods of the University of Milan. He is also a Research Fellow CEPR, at CReAM, the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration at University College London (UCL), at Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano (LdA) and at IZA. He received his PhD in Economics from University College London in 2010. His main research interests are in Applied Microeconomics, Labour Economics and the Economics of Migration. His work has been published in journals such as the Review of Economic Studies, the Journal of the European Eocnomic Association, the Economic Journal, the Journal of Economic Geography, and Economic Policy among others.
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