“Sobreeducación de migrantes en una economía emergente: el caso de Chile.”

Abstract

Migration flows have steadily increased over the last fifty years, gaining particular significance in Latin America during the past decade. To assess their economic impact, it is essential to measure migrants’ level of adequacy in the labor market of the destination country. A number of studies have approached this issue by analyzing migrant overeducation, a phenomenon occurring when formal educational qualifications exceed those required for the jobs performed. This is particularly relevant due to the negative e!ects of overeducation on migrants’ earnings and the aggregate economy of the receiving country. However, most existing research focuses on developed countries, which exhibit migration patterns and labor market characteristics distinct from other economies. This study addresses this gap by examining migrant overeducation in an emerging country, Chile, emphasizing heterogeneities related to sex and country of origin. Using an OLS methodology, this research firstly investigates whether migrants have a higher probability of being overeducated. Secondly, it analyzes di!erences based on sex and country of origin. Thirdly, it explores several explanatory variables and mechanisms behind these di!erences in overeducation probabilities between migrants and locals, including factors scarcely addressed in current literature, such as socioeconomic status, size of support networks, participation in professional associations, family structure, and degree validation. Finally, the speed of migrants’ labor market adaptation is measured. The results indicate that migrants are 17.6 percentage points more likely to be overeducated compared to locals, with di!erences of 13.7 percentage points among men and 22.1 percentage points among women. Comparing by country of origin, all migrant groups exhibit a higher tendency toward overeducation than locals, though the gap is most pronounced among Venezuelan migrants (24.5 percentage points). Variables such as socioeconomic status, extent of support networks, membership in a professional association, and marital status are significant and reduce the likelihood of overeducation. Having children increases this probability. Even after controlling for these and other variables, being a migrant and the country-of-origin dummy variables remain significant. On average, the probability of migrant overeducation decreases by 1.4 percentage points per year since arrival, implying that migrants take between 13 and 14 years to converge to the local population’s level of overeducation. The probability of women’s overeducation decreases by 1.3 percentage points annually, suggesting an adaptation period of 18-19 years to the Chilean labor market. Men’s probability of overeducation decreases by 1.4 percentage points per year, implying a shorter adaptation period of 9 to 10 years.