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The labor market integration of refugees in the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help?

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  • Dagnelie, Olivier
  • Mayda, Anna Maria
  • Maystadt, Jean-François

Abstract

We investigate whether entrepreneurs in the network of refugees – from the same country of origin – help refugees enter the labor market by hiring them. We analyze the universe of refugee cases without U.S. ties who were resettled in the United States between 2005 and 2010. We address threats to identification due to refugees sorting into specific labor markets and to strategic placement by resettlement agencies. We find that the probability that refugees are employed 90 days after arrival is positively affected by the number of business owners in their network, but negatively affected by the number of those who are employees. This suggests that network members who are entrepreneurs hire refugees, while network members working as employees compete with them, which is consistent with refugees complementing the former and substituting for the latter.

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  • Dagnelie, Olivier & Mayda, Anna Maria & Maystadt, Jean-François, 2019. "The labor market integration of refugees in the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 257-272.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eecrev:v:111:y:2019:i:c:p:257-272
    DOI: 10.1016/j.euroecorev.2018.10.001
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    2. Michael A Clemens, 2022. "The economic and fiscal effects on the United States from reduced numbers of refugees and asylum seekers," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 449-486.
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    7. Ahrens, Achim & Beerli, Andreas & Hangartner, Dominik & Kurer, Selina & Siegenthaler, Michael, 2023. "The Labor Market Effects of Restricting Refugees' Employment Opportunities," IZA Discussion Papers 15901, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
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    11. Seonho Shin, 2022. "Evaluating the Effect of the Matching Grant Program for Refugees: An Observational Study Using Matching, Weighting, and the Mantel-Haenszel Test," Journal of Labor Research, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 103-133, March.
    12. Becker, Sascha O. & Ferrara, Andreas, 2019. "Consequences of forced migration: A survey of recent findings," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 1-16.
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    18. Sinkovics, Noemi & Reuber, A. Rebecca, 2021. "Beyond disciplinary silos: A systematic analysis of the migrant entrepreneurship literature," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 56(4).
    19. Seonho Shin, 2021. "Were they a shock or an opportunity?: The heterogeneous impacts of the 9/11 attacks on refugees as job seekers—a nonlinear multi-level approach," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 61(5), pages 2827-2864, November.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Refugees; Labor market integration; Entrepreneurship;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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