3 October 2024 – The third GS4S Working Paper documents a data collection on vacancies published online, which is being implemented by web scraping online platforms in selected non-EU countries. The data collection aims at locating labour or skill shortages in important origin countries of migration to the EU. Where the shortages coincide with shortages in EU countries, a skill partnership could address both shortages simultaneously. The potential of the web scraped data are explored based on the initial wave of the data collection. The note concludes by outlining how the data collection can be transformed into measures of shortages at the level of occupations and skills.

3 October 2024 – This paper explores the overeducation of tertiary-educated migrants in European labour markets. Using data from the European Labour Force Survey (2012–2022), we show that immigrants, particularly those from non-EU countries, are significantly more likely to be overeducated than natives. Despite a general decline in overeducation levels for all groups over time, the immigrant-native gap remains, especially for foreign-educated migrants. Furthermore, the likelihood of overeducation for foreign-educated migrants increases until 15–19 years after migration, a pattern consistent across all areas of origin and migration cohorts. Importantly, differences in educational quality between origin and destination countries do not primarily account for these overeducation differentials. The findings underscore the need for policies that better align immigrants’ skills with labour market demands in Europe to avoid the waste of valuable immigrants’ skills, which are harmful not only to migrants but to the economies of receiving countries too.

1 September 2024 – This first entry in the GS4S Working Paper Series examines the impact of labour shortages on migration aspirations and destination references among individuals from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. Using a two-stage Heckman selection model, we analyse data from the OeNB Euro Survey and the World Bank’s STEP Measurement Program. The results indicate that labour shortages significantly influence migration decisions: individuals are more likely to aspire to migrate if there is a shortage of workers in their occupation in the aspired destination countries, while shortages in their home country reduce migration aspirations. These findings suggest that both origin and destination countries should consider labour market conditions when formulating migration policies. For destination countries, highlighting demand for specific skills can attract needed workers, while Western Balkan countries should address the education-labour market mismatch to mitigate local shortages. Policy co-ordination between regions is crucial to manage migration flows and address skill gaps without exacerbating local shortages.

  (English)

  (Serbo-Croatian)