Are Second Generation Immigrants More Overeducated Than Natives? a Comparison Between France and the United States

Increasing attention has been raised from academic researchers as well as from public policy actors to mismatches in the labor market as a form of human capital underutilization. Overeducation can be thought as a mismatch as it stands for an excess of education with respect to the worker’s occupation (Freeman, 1976). In other words, the job does not fully make use of the worker’s skills acquired through education. Besides, some analyzes of job quality take a measure of overeducation into account to stand for a “bad job quality”. The concept of overeducation often deals with the young’s integration on the labor market and analyzes only rarely compare two populations that are different solely by their origin. Overeducation comparisons between populations of the same country based on origins often relate to immigrants versus natives as, in the migration process, immigrants are more likely to face a diploma devaluation (Chiswick, Miller, 2008; Butcher, 1994; Bratsberg, Terrell, 2002). Second generation immigrants have only rarely been concerned while differences in overeducation might inform on some forms of inequalities on the labor market because, as natives, their education has been in the “host” country.

Despite being born in the same country, natives and second generation immigrants are nevertheless facing some major labor market inequalities, in particular in the hiring process, while there is no proof they are clearly less educated than natives. Consequently they might reduce their requirements and expectations for their job and apply for less qualified ones. The question that interest us in this article deals with the matching between workers’ education and their occupation. This article aims at testing the hypothesis of a stronger overeducation for second generation immigrants compared to the situation of natives. In other words, we suppose that the relationship between education and occupation is stronger for natives.

The comparison between France and the United States allows to compare two different labor markets, with different institutions, but also to compare two countries of immigration with distinct integration institutions. The comparison of these two countries might shed light on some education and hiring patterns’ divergences, especially among distinct populations – natives and second generation immigrants. As we compare the situations of France and of the United States, we use two national databases. For France, Trajectoires et Origines allows to have precise socioprofessional variables as well as a large sample of second generation. For the United States we use the Current Population Survey for the same reasons. Overeducation is measured statistically with the help of contingency tables.

The article shed light on the relative equal education that natives and second generation immigrants receive. Results however show a more important overeducation for second generation immigrants compared to natives, that can suggest labor market discrimination. Finally results claim for a large heterogeneity among second generation immigrants: between origins first but also, as natives, between genders, women tend to be more penalized independently of origins.