Why are some EU immigrant groups more disadvantaged on the German labor market than others?

Abstract

"Limited transferability of foreign human capital and limited signaling value of foreign degrees are important explanations for immigrants’ labor market disadvantages. While previous scholarship analysed the role of institutional settings in home countries in shaping this limited transferability and signaling value, scholars did not investigate whether similarities between institutional settings of immigrants’ host and home countries matter. This article investigates the role of occupation-specific degrees acquired in the educational institutions of the home country for labor market success in Germany, the archetype of an occupation-specific labor market. To minimize unobserved heterogeneity, we employ a rather homogenous sample of foreign-trained immigrants (FTI) from seven EU countries. Using German Micro Census data, the results show a positive association between occupational specificity in the home country and employment probabilities as well as wages in Germany. This association is particularly strong for FTI working in occupation-specific jobs, highlighting the importance of occupation-specific degrees for labor market integration in countries with occupation-specific labor markets. In summary, institutional similarities between home and host countries shape immigrants’ labor market success." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))

Cite article

Zimmermann, F., Damelang, A., Ruf, K. & Fehn, A. (2026): Why are some EU immigrant groups more disadvantaged on the German labor market than others? The role of institutional similarities between home and host country for labor market success. In: Soziale Welt, Vol. 77, No. 1, p. 61-82. DOI:10.5771/0038-6073-2026-1-61