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In Germany and Canada, the integration of immigrants into the labour market is closely related to the various approaches towards the recognition and validation of informal learning. This paper aims to analyse the informal learning measures undertaken by immigrants as well as those offered by employers in the health and information and communication technology sectors during the labour market integration process. The study focused on nurses as well as IT project managers and programmers. The comparison focuses on the occurrence and quality of the four dimensions of the dynamic model of informal learning from an individual and an organisation perspective. The results show similarities between these two perspectives regarding the relevance of the four dimensions in the integration of immigrants into the labour market. In addition, clear differences between the two investigated sectors as well as country-specific differences appear.

Germany and Canada differ significantly regarding their migration policy as well as the structures of the national labour markets and their educational systems. This paper aims to analyse how these differences affect the labour market outcomes of immigrants and the usability of foreign qualifications and work experiences by using the health and ICT sectors as example. The comparison focuses on the question how qualifications and work experience serve as signals and are screened for in the recruiting process of enterprises. The results show clear differences as well as several commonalities between the two compared countries.

Canadian society is characterised by a plurality of immigrants and Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria, qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question how immigrants who have acquired their highest qualification outside Canada are able to use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current job. The analyses are conducted to verify the assumptions of human capital theory as well as the lack of transferability of human capital across country borders. To answer these questions a labour market success index is developed, which is used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results show that traditional operationalisations of human capital (years of education, years of work experience and skills) have a positive effect on individual labour market success. At the same time, being born abroad and having acquired one's highest qualification abroad in comparison to Canada, especially in a Non-Western country, has negative effects on the overall labour market success of an individual. Detailed comparisons regarding different indicators of labour market success also prove these comparatively negative effects. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of human capital theory and the necessity to complement it with Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital.

Twelve qualitative case studies in German and Canadian hospitals and IT companies were used in this mixed-methods study analysing the labour market outcomes of immigrants. The reported case studies investigate the immigrants' recognition, integration process and the usability of foreign qualifications, skills and work experiences in the labour market. Furthermore, the strategies and rationales of employers and employees within the recruiting process are analysed. Here, the focus lies on the transferability and obstacles of cultural and social capital across country borders as well as the relevant framework conditions. This paper refers to Bourdieu's approach towards different types of capital as well as the rational choice theory. The results demonstrate that immigrants in both countries face more obstacles accessing the labour market within the health sector than within the IT sector. The context of the recruiting situation strongly affects the strategies and behaviour of the employers or the recruiters. Within these sector- and country-specific confines, individual factors determine the immigrants' labour market success. Furthermore, the sector and the country affect the relevance of each individual factor in the recruiting process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Germany and Canada, the integration of immigrants into the labour market is closely related to the various approaches towards the recognition and validation of informal learning. This paper aims to analyse the informal learning measures undertaken by immigrants as well as those offered by employers in the health and information and communication technology sectors during the labour market integration process. The study focused on nurses as well as IT project managers and programmers. The comparison focuses on the occurrence and quality of the four dimensions of the dynamic model of informal learning from an individual and an organisation perspective. The results show similarities between these two perspectives regarding the relevance of the four dimensions in the integration of immigrants into the labour market. In addition, clear differences between the two investigated sectors as well as country‐specific differences appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Germany and Canada differ significantly regarding their migration policy as well as the structures of the national labour markets and their educational systems. This paper aims to analyse how these differences affect the labour market outcomes of immigrants and the usability of foreign qualifications and work experiences by using the health and ICT sectors as example. The comparison focuses on the question how qualifications and work experience serve as signals and are screened for in the recruiting process of enterprises. The results show clear differences as well as several commonalities between the two compared countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Byline: Silvia Annen, Daniel Schreiber Against the background of increasing importance of informal learning, in this paper, the national approaches towards the recognition of informal acquired competences in France Validation des Acquis de l'Experience (VAE) and Germany (external examination) are compared. As a theoretical and conceptual access, the new institutional economics is chosen. The context of the recognition of the problems concerning the transparency of the competences to be recognised arises as well, concerning the transparency of the according methods. In terms of the principal agent theory these problems can be seen as information asymmetries. To reduce them, stakeholders can choose methods of either signalling or screening. Therefore, both national approaches are analysed concerning the methods of the stakeholders. Furthermore, central similarities and differences are extracted.

Canadian society is characterised by a plurality of immigrants and Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria, qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question how immigrants who have acquired their highest qualification outside Canada are able to use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current job. The analyses are conducted to verify the assumptions of human capital theory as well as the lack of transferability of human capital across country borders. To answer these questions a labour market success index is developed, which is used as a dependent variable in regression models. The results show that traditional operationalisations of human capital (years of education, years of work experience and skills) have a positive effect on individual labour market success. At the same time, being born abroad and having acquired one's highest qualification abroad in comparison to Canada, especially in a Non-Western country, has negative effects on the overall labour market success of an individual. Detailed comparisons regarding different indicators of labour market success also prove these comparatively negative effects. The results demonstrate the limited explanatory power of human capital theory and the necessity to complement it with Bourdieu's concepts of social and cultural capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian society is characterized by a plurality of immigrants. Canadian migration policy and corresponding recognition approaches are strongly geared to economic criteria as well as qualifications and skills. This paper addresses the question of how immigrants to Canada use their foreign qualifications and skills in their current jobs. Qualification and skill mismatch are aspects of deficient integration of immigrants in the labor market. PIAAC data was used to investigate to what extent immigrants are affected by those phenomena and if there are significant differences between natives and immigrants or among different immigrant subgroups. The immigrant subgroups were categorized using the regions where the highest qualifications were acquired, and the migration programs were considered. The results show that immigrants are more often affected by the problem of over-qualification, while native Canadians are more often under-qualified. In contrast, skill mismatch occurs to a smaller extent among immigrants and native Canadians; the problem mainly appears among immigrants being under-skilled. A regression model confirms the negative influence of qualification and skill mismatch on employees' wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]