The migrant penalty

Employment rates for New Zealanders born offshore are lower than those for their New Zealand-born counterparts (Ministry of Education, 2023). This is despite over 50% of Kiwis with tertiary diploma (or higher) and aged between 25 and 64 were born offshore. So we employ fewer of the most qualified people we have in the country. Worse, earnings for Kiwis born offshore are 15% lower (Ministry of Education, 2023). So not cool.

Migrants are more likely to work in jobs for which they are overqualified (Larsen et al., 2018), and will likely struggle to gain recognition for their birth nation academic or occupational credentials (Li & Lu, 2023), so face education-occupation mismatches. However, migrants who gain qualifications in their new nation are likely to earn more than migrants whose qualifications were gained offshore (Maani & Le, 2021), possibly because completed new country qualifications may provide some proof of language competency.

Most nations seek migrants to offset low birthrates and skill gaps; for example, the EU with a replacement rate of 1.46 children/couple, below the 2.1 replacement rate (Eurostat, 2024). However, what about the effect of migration on migrants' children. Being thrust into a 'better life' different to what we have previously known must affect development, particularly when there are also language barriers. 

In Aotearoa 27% of our population are immigrants (World Population View, 2024); whereas Italy has 10% (Meschi & Pavese, 2023; World Population View, 2024). Italian research at primary and secondary schools showed that Italian migrant students' academic performance were negatively affected by being grouped with low-achieving peers, while Italian-born students are mainly affected by the average quality of classmates (Meschi & Pavese, 2023). So if we are new to a nation, we need to self-align with high-achievers to remain competitive. 

But I wonder if some of the Italian problems (Meschi & Pavese, 2023) may also arise from a lack of adaptive teaching. While I was a business school lecturer, 90%+ of my students were often student visa international students. As a result, teaching had to be delivered in a more component-oriented way which allowed all learners to get the building blocks without dumbing down the content (students still needed to reach the standard). We could not assume 'prior knowledge', and so provided more scaffolding and support to get students up to speed. It was hard work; we had to be more creative, more performative. We went home with 'empty tanks'!

It took time to build the infrastructure and pastoral care systems to support international students well. We did testing to evaluate language levels (if not, they went to language school first, then back to the business school once they had the appropriate language capacity).

Also, perhaps we are more used to working across cultures in New Zealand with 27% of us being born elsewhere. Interesting.

Sam

References:

Eurostat. (2024). Fertility Rates. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Fertility_statistics#:~:text=1.46%20live%20births%20per%20woman%20in%20the%20EU%20in%202022,-In%20recent%20decades&text=A%20total%20fertility%20rate%20of,in%20the%20absence%20of%20migration

Larsen, E. N., Rogne, A. F., & Birkelund, G. E. (2018). Perfect for the Job? Overqualification of Immigrants and their Descendants in the Norwegian Labor Market. Social Inclusion, 6(3), 78. https://doi.org/10.17645/si.v6i3.1451

Li, X., & Lu, Y. (2023). Education–Occupation mismatch and nativity inequality among highly educated U.S. workers. Demography, 60(1), 201-226. doi:https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-10404849

Maani, S. A., & Le, W. (2021). Over-education and immigrant earnings: A penalized quantile panel regression analysis. Applied Economics, 53(24), 2771-2790. https://doi.org/10.1080/00036846.2020.1869169

Meschi, E. & Pavese, C. (2023). Ability composition in the class and the school performance of immigrant students. Labour Economics, 85, 102450. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.labeco.2023.102450

Ministry of Education. (2023). How educational attainment and labour market outcomes compare between foreign-born and New Zealand-born New Zealanders. Education Counts. https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/80898/how-educational-attainment-and-labour-market-outcomes-compare-between-foreign-born-and-new-zealand-born-new-zealanders

World Population View. (2024). Immigration by Country 2024. https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/immigration-by-country