Leaving Home for a Better Life?: Occupational Mobility of Skilled Immigrants: Some Empirical Comments from Spain in Light of the Current Economic Crisis Articles uri icon

publication date

  • June 2015

start page

  • 159

end page

  • 187

issue

  • 1

volume

  • 8

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

  • 1665-8906

abstract

  • The purpose of this paper is to study the occupational mobility experienced following migration by migrants who are university graduates or postgraduates who completed their studies before their arrival in Spain. To do so, we compared the first job they obtained in Spain with the last one held before leaving their country of origin. We identify three different types of mobility: downward mobility, lateral mobility, and upward mobility. Finally, we used logistic regression models to identify the strongest predictors of the three types of mobility previously classified. The empirical analysis was carried out using data from the Spanish National Immigrant Survey (ENI) of 2007, including information about some 15 000 individuals. Our attention will be focused on the 2 425 skilled migrants from this survey.

subjects

  • Sociology

keywords

  • brain waste; occupational mobility; labor market; migration; spain; fuga de talentos; movilidad ocupacional; mercado de trabajo; migraciones; españa