Our results suggest that human capital quality in origin countries affects immigrants' labor market outcomes at destination by changing the selection process rather than by affecting immigrants' human capital transferability per se. In turn, differences across destination countries have to do with the differential impact of labor market institutions and conditions on the mismatch of immigrants as compared to the native born.
We have also documented significant correlations between immigrant-specific policies adopted by destination countries and immigrants’ occupational placement. These correlations are important in their own right, supporting further sorting hypothesis. However, since some of the policies are very recent, in the current context we are not able to distinguish whether better policies have attracted certain migrants, or whether the establishment of some policies has changed the outcomes of immigrants who were already at destination. Clearly, more research into this direction is needed. Despite this shortcoming, our results suggest that some
“best practice” countries can achieve a considerably fuller use of immigrants’ potential. If this is the general objective of other countries, too, our results suggest that there is room for improving immigrant outcomes through policies...
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