%0 Report
        %A Anger, Silke
%A Bassetto, Jacopo
%A Sandner, Malte
        %T Lifting Barriers to Skill Transferability: Immigrant Integration through Occupational Recognition
        %D 2024
        %8 2024 Nov
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 17444
        %U https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17444
        %X While Western countries worry about labor shortages, their institutional barriers to skill transferability prevent immigrants from fully utilizing foreign qualifications. Combining administrative and survey data in a difference-in-differences design, we show that a German reform, which lifted these barriers for non-EU immigrants, led to a 15 percent increase in the share of immigrants with a recognized foreign qualification. Consequently, non-EU immigrants' employment and wages in licensed occupations (e.g., doctors) increased respectively by 18.6 and 4 percent, narrowing the gaps with EU immigrants. Despite the inflow of non-EU immigrants in these occupations, we find no evidence of crowding out or downward wage pressure for natives.
        %K skill transferability
%K occupational recognition
%K immigrant integration