Abstract
Skilled migration is an important strategy in developed economies seeking to address skills shortages and population ageing. Research on the labour market outcomes of skilled migrants tends to focus on employers' devaluation of skills without considering the role of immigration policy in the migration process. Moreover, there is little understanding of whether efforts to meet employer demands for local qualifications improve labour market outcomes. Drawing on a study on skilled migrants sponsored under the State-Specific and Regional Migration Scheme in the regional state of South Australia, we explore the shaping of skills and skills recognition in the migration journey, particularly migrants' strategy of reskilling in response to employer demands for local qualifications. Our logistic regressions on the association between the acquisition of Australian qualifications and labour market outcomes reveal only marginal returns to these efforts. We argue that Australia should consider developing a more coherent skilled migration process to better harness the human capital of skilled migrants.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 175-195 |
Number of pages | 21 |
Journal | International Migration |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Jun 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The research was supported by funds from the Department of State Development, Government of South Australia and by the Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the University of Adelaide. We also acknowledge Dr Romy Wasserman and Dr Hannah Barbour for their assistance with the preliminary data preparation. We wish to also thank the anonymous reviewers for their care and time in providing feedback. Lastly, we are also grateful to the participants who took part in our study. Open access publishing facilitated by Charles Darwin University, as part of the Wiley ‐ Charles Darwin University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Funding Information:
The research was supported by funds from the Department of State Development, Government of South Australia and by the Interdisciplinary Research Grant from the University of Adelaide. We also acknowledge Dr Romy Wasserman and Dr Hannah Barbour for their assistance with the preliminary data preparation. We wish to also thank the anonymous reviewers for their care and time in providing feedback. Lastly, we are also grateful to the participants who took part in our study. Open access publishing facilitated by Charles Darwin University, as part of the Wiley - Charles Darwin University agreement via the Council of Australian University Librarians.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. International Migration published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Organization for Migration.