Differences in overqualification between immigrant groups

Abstract

Background: Many studies have researched the incidence of overqualification of immigrants in comparison with natives, but only a few focus on the differences between immigrant groups.Overqualification between immigrant groups is important to research because immigrants are not a homogenous group and they differ in characteristics. This study aimed to investigate the effect of the different explanatory theories: transferability of human capital, adaptation process, abilities and discrimination between immigrant groups on the incidence of overqualification. Methods: Survey data from the Survey Integratie Minderheden (SIM) was used for this study (N =935) . Binary logistic regression models were created to examine the association between immigrant group and the interactions of immigrant group with years spent on the Dutch labour market, Dutch language abilities and discrimination with the likelihood of not being correctly matched to their job, being overqualified, being underqualified and being educated for something else. Results: The results show that the main effect of immigrant group and the interaction of immigrant group with years spent on the Dutch labour market and with Dutch reading abilities on the likelihood of overqualification are not significant. The interaction of immigrant group with Dutch speaking (Wald=15.234, df=4, p=.004) and writing abilities (Wald=15.239, df=4, p=.004) and with discrimination (Wald=23.474, df=4, p<.001) on the likelihood of overqualification is significant. Conclusion: The incidence of overqualification for immigrant groups is affected by Dutch speaking and writing abilities and by discrimination. Further research is recommended to investigate these significances with a better fit database.