Overqualification among immigrants in Norway 2007 – 2012

Using data from administrative registers, Statistics Norway has developed an indicator of overqualification among immigrants. Overqualification is here formally defined as the number of people who has completed a higher education and are employed in occupations that do not require higher education. The methodology is discussed in earlier reports (in Norwegian).

By this method there were 94 000 over-qualified employees in 2012, of which 28 000 were immigrants. Among immigrants from the EU and North America the proportion was 34 percent, among immigrants from Africa and Asia it was 43 percent, compared to 11 percent in the rest of the population.

We also studied a panel of employees who were all over-qualified in 2007. Five years later the proportion was 85 percent among immigrants from Africa and Asia; it was 75 percent for immigrants from the EU and North America, compared to 58 percent for the rest of the population.

Finally, an even narrower panel was analyzed: people between 22 and 32 years old that completed higher education in 2000. Generally, immigrants in this panel had a lower employment rate than the total. Among those employed, immigrants from Africa and Asia had an overqualification of 25 percent in 2007, compared to 18 percent in 2012. The same figures the rest of the population were 11 to 8 percent