The Impact of Immigration Policy on the Education-Occupation Mismatch in Austria

Natalia C. Malancu, Universitat Pompeu Fabra

Theoretical explanations of educational mismatch generally predict that immigrants, relative to natives, are more likely to be overeducated and less likely to be undereducated at arrival. However, little work has explored the role of immigration policy or duration of residence in shaping the educational matching processes for immigrants. I employ European Labor Force Survey (1998-2010) data to assess the role of Austria’s 2003 policy intervention that further restricted residence and labor market access for immigrants. As expected, I find that upon arrival immigrants are less likely to be undereducated, yet the risk of undereducation increases with years of residence for immigrants regardless of the policy period. However, in the case overeducation, I find evidence that policy plays a role in that the risk of overeducation decreases at a slightly steeper rate by years of residence in the post-2003 policy period.