Immigrant Overeducation Evidence From Denmark

Anecdotes abound in the Danish public debate about well-educated immigrants that are in jobs they are formally overqualified for. Using a 1995-2002 panel data set based on Danish registers, this study attempts to find out how large a problem immigrant overeducation is in the context of the Danish la...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Nielsen, Chantal Pohl
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Washington, D.C The World Bank 2007
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: World Bank E-Library Archive - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 02873nmm a2200421 u 4500
001 EB002097836
003 EBX01000000000000001237926
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 221013 ||| eng
100 1 |a Nielsen, Chantal Pohl 
245 0 0 |a Immigrant Overeducation  |h Elektronische Ressource  |b Evidence From Denmark  |c Nielsen, Chantal Pohl 
260 |a Washington, D.C  |b The World Bank  |c 2007 
300 |a 54 p. 
653 |a Labor market experience 
653 |a Effective Schools and Teachers 
653 |a Labour 
653 |a Human capital 
653 |a Educational attainment 
653 |a Health, Nutrition and Population 
653 |a Occupation 
653 |a Social Protections and Labor 
653 |a Labour market 
653 |a Jobs 
653 |a Vocational education 
653 |a Labor Markets 
653 |a Education 
653 |a Labor market 
653 |a Access and Equity in Basic Education 
653 |a Population Policies 
653 |a Worker 
653 |a Education for All 
700 1 |a Nielsen, Chantal Pohl 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b WOBA  |a World Bank E-Library Archive 
856 4 0 |u http://elibrary.worldbank.org/content/workingpaper/10.1596/1813-9450-4234  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a Anecdotes abound in the Danish public debate about well-educated immigrants that are in jobs they are formally overqualified for. Using a 1995-2002 panel data set based on Danish registers, this study attempts to find out how large a problem immigrant overeducation is in the context of the Danish labor market. More specifically, three questions are posed: First, to what extent are immigrants overeducated and are they more likely to be so than native Danes? Second, why are some immigrants more likely to become overeducated than others? And finally, what are the consequences of overeducation for individual wages? The authors find that among wage earners with at least a vocational education or higher, 25 percent of male non-Western immigrants are overeducated. The same applies for 15 percent of native Danes. Particularly immigrants with a foreign-acquired education risk becoming overeducated - here the share is 30 percent among those with a vocational education or higher. The authors find that Danish labor market experience is extremely important in reducing the likelihood of becoming overeducated. Years spent in the country without accumulating labor market experience do not improve an individual's chances of an appropriate job-to-education match. In terms of earnings consequences, the study concludes that years of overeducation do increase wages for immigrants, but much less so than years of adequate education. This is also true for native Danes, but the relative penalty for overeducation is much larger for immigrants than for Danes