TY  - RPRT
        AU  - Anger, Silke
AU  - Bassetto, Jacopo
AU  - Sandner, Malte
        TI  - Lifting Barriers to Skill Transferability: Immigrant Integration through Occupational Recognition
        PY  - 2024/Nov/
        PB  - Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        CY  - Bonn
        T2  - IZA Discussion Paper
        IS  - 17444
        UR  - https://www.iza.org/publications/dp17444
        AB  - 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.
        KW  - skill transferability
KW  - occupational recognition
KW  - immigrant integration
        ER  -