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Skill deficits among foreign-educated immigrants: Evidence from the U.S. PIAAC
[journal article]
Abstract Researchers have long observed that foreign-educated immigrants earn lower wages and hold less-skilled jobs than U.S. natives who have the same level of educational attainment, but the reasons for the disparity have been less clear. This paper tests the hypothesis favored by the human capital model ... view more
Researchers have long observed that foreign-educated immigrants earn lower wages and hold less-skilled jobs than U.S. natives who have the same level of educational attainment, but the reasons for the disparity have been less clear. This paper tests the hypothesis favored by the human capital model of earnings and employment–namely, that foreign-educated immigrants struggle in the U.S. labor market primarily because they possess fewer marketable skills than workers with U.S. degrees. Standardized tests administered as part of the Program for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies reveal that foreign-educated immigrants score 0.82 and 0.54 standard deviations lower on measures of literacy and numeracy, respectively, compared to natives who have the same age and educational attainment. The gaps remain significant after controlling for self-assessed English reading ability. When these skill measures are incorporated into regression analyses, the wage and skilled-employment penalties experienced by foreign-educated immigrants fall by half or more, providing strong evidence for the human capital model. However, this analysis cannot rule out additional explanatory factors, such as legal and social obstacles that foreign-educated immigrants may face.... view less
Keywords
migrant; level of qualification; education deficit; level of education; United States of America; arithmetic; reading; competence; educational inequality
Classification
Sociology of Education
Migration, Sociology of Migration
Free Keywords
PIAAC
Document language
English
Publication Year
2022
Page/Pages
p. 1-19
Journal
PLOS ONE, 17 (2022) 8
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0273910
ISSN
1932-6203
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed