2 April 2025  –  This study empirically examines the relationship between robot
adoption and immigrant labour (differentiated by region of origin and education level) in Austrian
firms using a novel dataset linking firm-level survey data on robotics adoption from Austria’s
Information and Communication Technologies (IKTU1) surveys (waves 2018, 2020 and 2022) with
registry-based employment records. Employing Poisson pseudo-maximum likelihood (PPML)
estimations, we analyse firm-level employment decisions while controlling for firm characteristics, industry and region.

4 March 2025 – The sixth working paper assesses the recent evolution of mobility schemes and partnerships in the European context, exploring the implications for using these initiatives to address skills shortages. Taking recent academic literature that has focused more on skills development and training as a starting point, this paper generates a typology that reviews mobility schemes based on the skills needs they are trying to address and the type of mobility they seek to support, ranging from short-term visits to long-term training or work placements. Building off this typology, the paper also includes short case studies of recent / ongoing mobility schemes, examining how they approach mobility and skills development and their outcomes to date. 

29 January 2025 – The fifth GS4S Working Paper asks how private sector actors in comparable settings are operating in terms of training and attracting workers, and if they are leading or managing structures similar to GSPs with other businesses already. The goal of this exercise is to understand how business-to-business (B2B) partnerships may be designed to function well as a GSP, such that it culminates in beneficial outcomes for all stakeholders: not only the businesses involved but also workers themselves, as well as the countries of origin and destination. As part of this, the paper establishes some important factors and policy levers to keep in mind when designing or regulating a B2B partnership, for audiences ranging from EU policy makers to NGOs, training centres, and businesses considering B2B approaches to GSPs.

The fourth GS4S Working Paper examines the intersection of skilling, reskilling, upskilling and migration in three countries of origin- Egypt, Bangladesh and Nigeria- offering a comparative analysis of their socioeconomic contexts, policy landscapes and skilling initiatives

29 January 2025 – 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)