Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/237675 
Year of Publication: 
2020
Series/Report no.: 
Policy Notes and Reports No. 41
Publisher: 
The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies (wiiw), Vienna
Abstract: 
wiiw publishes a detailed study on occupational mobility and job-skills mismatch of the recent wave of refugees from the Middle East (predominantly from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Iran) in the Austrian labour market. The study is based on two waves of an extensive survey of refugees conducted between December 2017 and May 2019, comprising 1,600 and 2,400 respondents respectively. The following are the key findings: (i) Occupational mobility analysis suggests a steep decline in 'occupational status' when comparing the last job in the home country and the first job attained in Austria, and a slight recovery afterwards-a 'mirror J' pattern. (ii) The initial decline is particularly strong for persons with tertiary degrees, and for those who worked as professionals, senior officials and managers before leaving their home countries. (iii) Occupational trajectories of female refugees differ from those of their male counterparts in that they experience a steeper occupational downgrade between their last job in the home country and first job in Austria and there is little evidence of an occupational recovery after the initial drop. (iv) In both waves of the survey, about 60% of the respondents regard themselves as 'overqualified' in their current employment; a higher share of males than of females in this self-assessment think of themselves as 'overqualified'. The share of those who think they are 'overqualified' jumps to 70-74% among those with higher educational attainment levels.
Subjects: 
Refugees
occupational trajectories
job-skills mismatch
Austria
refugees from MiddleEast
migrants' job-market integration
JEL: 
J15
J24
J61
J62
Document Type: 
Research Report

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