Wage and occupational assimilation by skill level: migration policy lessons from Spain

Abstract

What are the migration policy lessons that can be learned from the Spanish case? Unlike countries with a large tradition of receiving immigrants, in Spain having a high-school degree does not give immigrants an advantage in terms wage or occupational assimilation (relative to their native counterparts). This paper discusses the potential explanations behind this result and analyzes the consequences of this result in terms of migration policy recommendations. JEL codes: J15, J24, J61, J62