Migrant skills need a route into better jobs

A migrant who finds work may still be a long way from using the skills they brought. That distance between employment and a suitable job is central to a joint European Migration Network–OECD study published this summer on labour-market integration. Drawing on contributions from 25 national contact points, it examines how language, recognition of qualifications and other barriers prevent skills from reaching suitable jobs. The national policy contributions cover conditions through October 2025. They provide a dated inventory of barriers and responses, rather than a guide to every country's current rules.

The economic question extends beyond how many people enter a country. It concerns what people already living there are able to do. When a trained worker performs a job that does not use their capabilities, the employment count may look satisfactory while productive potential remains unused.

A job is the beginning

The OECD's November 2025 migration outlook found a substantial earnings gap across the 15 countries with suitable data. Immigrants entering the labour market earned, on average, 34% less than native-born workers of the same age and gender. Around two-thirds of the gap was associated with employment in lower-paying sectors and firms. The gap narrowed to 21% after five years in the host country.

The comparison adjusts for age and gender; it does not compare pay for identical work or isolate qualifications as the explanation. The association with sectors and firms directs attention to where workers enter the labour market. Moving into a better-paying job can matter as much as securing the first one.

An initial job can provide income, local experience and contacts. It can also leave little time for the training or administrative process needed to enter a profession. The relevant policy question is therefore not simply whether someone found work quickly. It is whether that first foothold allows progression.

That requires a longer view of outcomes. An employment programme could look successful after three months while failing to improve the match between workers and jobs over several years. Equally, a period of training could delay first earnings but improve later prospects. Neither route should be assumed superior for every worker.

Recognising the right skills

The summer study distinguishes formal qualifications from skills and from the fit between a person's field of study and their work. It describes obstacles including fragmented information, difficulties recognising overseas credentials and discrimination. Its discussion of responses includes language learning, assessment of prior learning and closer involvement by employers. The study documents those approaches; their results depend on the workers, employers and institutions involved.

An assessment process has to distinguish those barriers. A certificate may require verification; a skill may need demonstration; a worker may need a short course in local procedures. Requiring a whole qualification to be repeated could waste time when a narrow gap needs filling. Waving through the paperwork would fail where the gap is genuine.

There is an important public-interest boundary. Recognition should establish that a person can perform the work safely and competently. The opportunity lies in making that assessment clearer, quicker and proportionate, rather than assuming that professional standards can be dispensed with.

The OECD's 2025 policy review described countries developing bridging courses and smaller credentials to fill specific gaps. It also described Germany's approach of combining early employment with continued language learning and later skills development. Both are examples from the 2025 review, which describes policy design rather than proving a common effect across programmes.

Count the improvement

For the wider economy, better matching offers a route to expanding effective labour supply without treating people as interchangeable additions to a headcount. The gain depends on useful skills, actual demand and a workable route between them. It cannot be inferred from the number of certificates processed alone.

A recognition service should therefore be followed beyond the day it issues a decision. Does the worker reach a suitable employer? Can required training fit alongside the work that pays the bills? Job quality, earnings progression, retention and skill use would reveal more than the volume of certificates processed.

The summer study shifts attention to people already living in the country and the obstacles between them and suitable work. Removing one obstacle is valuable only if the route continues. A recognised qualification, an attainable training requirement and an employer willing to assess it have to meet in the same person's working life.