Evaluating Foreign Skills: Effects of Credential Assessment on Skilled Immigrants’ Labour Market Performance in Canada

2021 ◽  
pp. e2021014
Author(s):  
Rupa Banerjee ◽  
Feng Hou ◽  
Jeffrey G. Reitz ◽  
Tingting Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Selection Process ◽  
Skilled Worker ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Source Regions ◽  
Selection Systems ◽  
Educational Credential ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Immigrant Selection

Formal educational qualification is increasingly built into immigrant selection systems in many countries, but in a global context, the transferability and portability of such qualifications has been questioned. In 2013, Canada introduced the requirement for a formal assessment of educational credential equivalence for applicants in the skilled worker category. In this study, we use a Canadian national immigration database and difference-in-differences methodology to investigate whether requiring formal Educational Credential Assessment (ECA) as part of the selection process for skilled immigrants has improved labour market outcomes. Our results indicate that the ECA requirement is positively related to early employment rates and earnings for both men and women. However, this effect is limited to those with no previous employment experience in Canada. We also find that, even with the ECA requirement, significant differences in the earnings of immigrants from different source regions remain. Implications and recommendations are discussed.

scholarly journals Skilled Migrants in the Swedish Labour Market: An Analysis of Employment, Income and Occupational Status

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 3428
Author(s):  
Nahikari Irastorza ◽  
Pieter Bevelander
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Occupational Status ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Highly Educated ◽  
Highly Skilled Migrants ◽  
Highly Skilled ◽  
Integration Of Immigrants ◽  
Employment Rates

In a globalised world with an increasing division of labour, the competition for highly skilled individuals—regardless of their origin—is growing, as is the value of such individuals for national economies. Yet the majority of studies analysing the economic integration of immigrants shows that those who are highly skilled also have substantial hurdles to overcome: their employment rates and salaries are lower and they face a higher education-to-occupation mismatch compared to highly skilled natives. This paper contributes to the paucity of studies on the employment patterns of highly skilled immigrants to Sweden by providing an overview of the socio-demographic characteristics, labour-market participation and occupational mobility of highly educated migrants in Sweden. Based on a statistical analysis of register data, we compare their employment rates, salaries and occupational skill level and mobility to those of immigrants with lower education and with natives. The descriptive analysis of the data shows that, while highly skilled immigrants perform better than those with a lower educational level, they never catch up with their native counterparts. Our regression analyses confirm these patterns for highly skilled migrants. Furthermore, we find that reasons for migration matter for highly skilled migrants’ employment outcomes, with labour migrants having better employment rates, income and qualification-matched employment than family reunion migrants and refugees.

scholarly journals Pre-migration preparation and the labour market integration of skilled immigrants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes ◽  
Recent Attention

Canada has been attracting higher numbers of skilled immigrants in order to address labour shortages and fuel economic growth, yet the labour market outcomes of this group remain disappointingly poor. While a variety of initiatives have been introduced by the federal government to address the situation once skilled immigrants have arrived in Canada, recent attention has focused on preparing them for the labour market while they are still in their home country. These pre-migration preparation initiatives consist of the provision of information, referral and path-finding via online resources and in-person services. This paper will examine each initiative in order to evaluate its content and delivery system and to determine how effectively pre-migration initiatives allow skilled immigrants to prepare for the Canadian labour market and to what extent they contribute to the improvement of labour market integration. The paper also considers the key role played by the regulatory bodies and employers.

scholarly journals Pre-migration preparation and the labour market integration of skilled immigrants

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Robbins
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Federal Government ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Home Country ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Skilled Immigrants ◽  
Labour Market Integration ◽  
Regulatory Bodies ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes ◽  
Recent Attention

Canada has been attracting higher numbers of skilled immigrants in order to address labour shortages and fuel economic growth, yet the labour market outcomes of this group remain disappointingly poor. While a variety of initiatives have been introduced by the federal government to address the situation once skilled immigrants have arrived in Canada, recent attention has focused on preparing them for the labour market while they are still in their home country. These pre-migration preparation initiatives consist of the provision of information, referral and path-finding via online resources and in-person services. This paper will examine each initiative in order to evaluate its content and delivery system and to determine how effectively pre-migration initiatives allow skilled immigrants to prepare for the Canadian labour market and to what extent they contribute to the improvement of labour market integration. The paper also considers the key role played by the regulatory bodies and employers.

scholarly journals Gendered integration? How recently arrived male and female refugees fare on the German labour market

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zerrin Salikutluk ◽  
Katrin Menke
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Market Integration ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Labour Force Participation ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Refugee Women ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
Using Data

Objective: This paper examines gender differences in the labour market integration of newly arrived refugees in Germany. In particular, we focus on the heterogeneity in employment rates among female refugees. Background: Previous research has demonstrated that refugee women are disadvantaged on the labour market not only compared to their male counterparts, but also compared to other immigrant women. So far, however, little is known about the mechanisms that underlie the specific disadvantages of refugee women. Method: Using data from the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees, we analyse the labour market participation of refugees who migrated to Germany between 2013 and 2017. To test our theoretical assumptions, we apply logistic regressions. Results: Our results show that compositional differences in qualifications, family structure, institutional support, and networks can partly explain the gender gap in labour force participation that disadvantage refugee women. We find substantial variation in the importance of different determinants for the labour market outcomes of men and women. Conclusion: As the gender gaps in labour supply could be fully attributed to the theoretical mechanisms offered in the literature, further research is needed to disentangle female refugees' employment behaviour.

scholarly journals Labour Market Impact of Syrian Refugees in Turkey: The View of Employers in Informal Textile Sector in Istanbul

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (5) ◽  
pp. 583-595
Author(s):  
Aysegul Kayaoglu
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Formal Employment ◽  
Southern Border ◽  
Employment Rates ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Empirical Analysis ◽  
Textile Sector

In less than a decade, Turkey has become home to some 4 million Syrians due to the bloody conflict across much of its southern border. That only a fraction of those refugees live in designated camps with the overwhelming majority spread about the country has led to hostile sentiments among some natives who blame Syrians for taking away their jobs. Still, research about the impact of Syrians on Turkish labour market outcomes is too limited. Empirical findings analysing micro-level data find either no impact or just abysmall changes to natives’ formal employment rates but rather declines in rates of informal employment. This paper presents the findings of a three-month fieldwork in Istanbul’s informal textile sector. Looking at the issue from the view of employers, it shows that “on average” country-level findings of the empirical analysis might be quite simplifying and sometimes inconsistent depending on the context. By just looking at the issue in a specific/neighbourhood setting, namely informal textile sector in a rather homogenous urban neighbourhood where the main competition in jobs are between Kurds and Syrians, this study shows that employment rates of natives declined in that specific field due to other factors independent of the Syrians. 

scholarly journals Labour Market Outcomes for Immigrants in New Zealand

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Stillman ◽  
David C. Mare
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Host Country ◽  
Market Performance ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Relative Improvement ◽  
Wage Rates ◽  
Synthetic Cohort ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes ◽  
Employment Rates

This paper uses data from the 1997-2007 New Zealand Income Survey to examine the labour market performance of immigrants in New Zealand. Specifically, we use a synthetic cohort approach to examine how employment rates and hourly wages for immigrants compare to those for the New Zealand-born. Extending previous work, we examine how outcomes for immigrants change with years spent in New Zealand in a semi-parametric manner that makes no assumptions about how labour market outcomes evolve as more host country experience is acquired. The pattern of entry disadvantage followed by subsequent relative improvement is more pronounced for employment rates than for wage rates.

Exploring gender digital divide and its effect on women's labour market outcomes in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 85-108
Author(s):  
Kehinde Oluwaseun Omotoso ◽  
Jimi Adesina ◽  
Ololade G. Adewole
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Labour Market ◽  
Married Women ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
Market Participation ◽  
Market Outcomes ◽  
Broadband Internet ◽  
Variable Approach ◽  
Labour Market Participation ◽  
Labour Market Outcomes

Technology plays a significant role in bridging gender gap in labour market outcomes. This paper investigates gender differential in broadband Internet usage and its effects on women‘s labour market participation. Employing an instrumental variable approach, findings suggest that exogenously determined high-speed broadband internet usage leads to increases of about 14.1 and 10.6 percentage points in labour market participation for single women and married women with some level of education, respectively. Moreover, further analyses suggest that married women are generally less likely to use the Internet to search for job opportunities and this could partly explains their low labour market participation rate. The findings suggest that more policy effort is required to bridge gender differentials in digital technologies and employment opportunities in South Africa.

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