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BERN - IT'S a common sight in well-off countries: The immigrant company manager forced to drive a taxi because his English is not up to scratch, or the chemistry graduate employed as a bellboy because it pays better than his starting salary back home.
More people are migrating overseas for work but the countries they go to are failing to make the most of their skills.
A report on migration by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has found that a high proportion of immigrants are over-qualified for their jobs.
In Spain, for example, 42.9 per cent of migrants are over-qualified for the work they do. This is almost twice the over-qualification rate for locals, which is 25.5 per cent.
Over in Britain, 17.8 per cent of immigrants are considered over-qualified for the jobs they do but the over-qualification rate is close to that of locals.
Likewise in Denmark, where the over-qualification rate is 18.6 per cent for the migrant population and 10.4 per cent for the local population.
Some migrants face problems having their hometown degrees recognised in their host country, especially if they have studied under an unfamiliar education system, or one considered inferior.
Others may not be able to speak the host nation's language as well as the locals, even if their qualifications are up to the mark.
In addition, highly-qualified asylum seekers may not be allowed to work while they are awaiting the results of their asylum applications and to make ends meet, they take up menial tasks illegally.
However, the report also points out that even after 10 years of being in their host countries, migrants still show a higher rate of overqualification than locals.
The gap is as high as 10 percentage points in Austria and Norway.
The fact that convergence has not been fully achieved in many countries, the report notes, suggests that migrants face difficulties in building up social connections or the skills required to get them into the jobs for which they are qualified.
In all of the 32 countries in which data was collected, at least a quarter, and on average nearly half, of skilled immigrants between 15 and 64 years of age were inactive, unemployed or working in jobs for which they are over-qualified.
This, said the OECD, 'poses the question of whether the best use is being made of their skills'.
It recommends increasing recognition of qualifications, the promotion of training programmes and discouraging discrimination.
'This issue is even more relevant, with the ageing of populations in OECD countries, particularly in Europe, where the demands for skilled labour are likely to grow,' the report noted.
In a bid to keep economies growing even as working populations shrink, many countries have come up with policies to attract highly-qualified foreigners, such as allowing foreign students to stay on after graduation to seek employment. This, says the report, may explain high increases in foreign student populations.
Since 2000, the number of foreign students in OECD countries has gone up by over 40 per cent. Particularly high increases were noted in New Zealand, the Czech Republic and Korea. France, Japan, the Netherlands, and Australia have also seen increases of over 50 per cent in foreign student populations.
Chinese students were found to make up the bulk of overseas foreign students in total at 15 per cent.
NEO HUI MIN
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