The Impact of Migration Policy on Migrants' Education Structure: Evidence from an Austrian Policy Reform

We ask how a reform of migration law intended to increase the selectivity of migration (the so-called integration agreement regulation in 2003) impacted on the education structure of migrants to Austria. To identify the effects of this reform, we use the fact it affected only migrants from third countries but not from EEA-countries. We find no compelling evidence that this regulation improved the education structure of migrants to Austria. Our interpretation of this is that the implicit positive impact of the reforms on the education structure of migrants was countervailed by an increased restrictiveness of the migration regime in total.