Debora Pricila Birgier from the Department of Economic History at the University of Gothenburg presents her research on the intersection of educational-occupational mismatch amongst migrants and gender
Detta seminarium hålls på engelska
Immigrants were found to suffer from educational occupational mismatch (henceforward EOM), i.e., difficulty to obtain occupational status that corresponds with their educational level. However, most existing studies on this topic focus on male immigrants or use pooled samples of men and women, ignoring gender-specific aspects that might shape female employment status and occupational attainment. In addition, over-education among immigrants varies substantially across countries. To fill these two lacunas in the literature I examine the factors that shape gender differences in EOM among migrants and the extent to which migrant women suffer from double disadvantage in terms of occupational mismatch using a comparative approach. I use the EU Labor Force Survey (EULFS) data for the years 2015-2017 and compare the levels of gender differences in EOM of immigrants across 26 European countries. I focus on vertical EOM, using the Realized Matches approach, which defines over/under-education based on the actual educational levels of workers in each occupation. The preliminary results indicate that in 21 out of the 23 countries studied, migrants have higher levels of EOM, while, contrary to our expectations in most countries migrants women do not suffer from a double disadvantage. Nonetheless, a considerable variation exists within countries regarding both the levels of over-education of migrants and the occurrence of double disadvantage of migrant women. The results suggest that in countries with more traditional gender roles such as Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, France, Greece, Luxemburg, and Italy migrant women suffer from a double disadvantage, while the opposite is true about Sweden, Denmark, and the UK. This might indicate that family-work balances policies and gender roles shape the integration of migrant women into the labor market. Overall, our preliminary findings provide evidence on the social embeddedness of women's EOM, looking at how women's migration penalties change according to host-countries institutions.