We study the extent to which temporary overseas migration enables returnees to climb the occupational
ladder. Using data from Egypt, we estimate the occupational mobility of different labor market entrants’
cohorts, returnees relative to non-migrants, controlling for the non-randomness nature of migration. We
rely on instrumental variable approach and also employ a Difference-in-Differences, as well as
Difference-in-Differences matching techniques to control for the endogeneity and selection into migration.
We find evidence that return migration increases the probability of upward occupational mobility.
Conditioning on the destination country, the impact of migration experience in non-oil countries is about
two times greater than the estimated coefficient for oil countries. The findings underscore the role played
by temporary overseas work experience in enhancing human capital accumulation of skilled migrants.