Going Back Home? Analyzing the Role of Overqualification in Shaping Immigrant Mobility

Fatima de Arriba Moreno , Lund University

The mismatch between skills and the job requirements, a phenomenon known as overqualification, has been extensively studied for the migrant population, but less is known about its effect on emigration decisions, either to a third country or back to the country origin. This paper fills this gap in the literature by using Swedish register data from 2001-2016, which allows us to identify different types of emigration, as well as information on occcupation. The results, obtained using logistic and multinomial logistic models, suggest that individuals who are overqualified do not show higher propensities to emigrate, compared to those in a well-matched job. On the contrary, unemployment seems to be the main driver of emigration, fostering return migration for those who do not acquire Swedish citizenship. The study tentatively shows that, for overqualified individuals, the cost of emigrating may be higher than to stay in a mismatched job.

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 Presented in Session P4. Migration, Migrants, and Mobility