IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/iza/izawol/journl2020n269.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Integrating refugees into labor markets

Author

Listed:
  • Pieter Bevelander

    (University of Malmö, Sweden, and IZA, Germany)

Abstract

Refugee migration has increased considerably since the Second World War, and amounts to more than 50 million refugees. Only a minority of these refugees seek asylum, and even fewer resettle in developed countries. At the same time, politicians, the media, and the public are worried about a lack of economic integration. Refugees start at a lower employment and income level, but subsequently “catch up” to the level of family unification migrants. However, both refugees and family migrants do not “catch up” to the economic integration levels of labor migrants. A faster integration process would significantly benefit refugees and their new host countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Pieter Bevelander, 2020. "Integrating refugees into labor markets," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 269-269, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:2020:n:269
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://wol.iza.org/uploads/articles/269/pdfs/integrating-refugees-into-labor-markets.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://wol.iza.org/articles/integrating-refugees-into-labor-markets
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. DeVoretz, Don J. & Pivnenko, Sergiy & Beiser, Morton, 2004. "The Economic Experiences of Refugees in Canada," IZA Discussion Papers 1088, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Joop Hartog & Aslan Zorlu, 2009. "How important is homeland education for refugees’ economic position in The Netherlands?," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 22(1), pages 219-246, January.
    3. Kalena E. Cortes, 2004. "Are Refugees Different from Economic Immigrants? Some Empirical Evidence on the Heterogeneity of Immigrant Groups in the United States," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 86(2), pages 465-480, May.
    4. Pieter Bevelander & Ravi Pendakur, 2012. "The labour market integration of refugee and family reunion immigrants: A comparison of outcomes in Canada and Sweden," Norface Discussion Paper Series 2012041, Norface Research Programme on Migration, Department of Economics, University College London.
    5. Abdurrahman Aydemir, 2011. "Immigrant selection and short-term labor market outcomes by visa category," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 24(2), pages 451-475, April.
    6. Cortes, Kalena E., 2004. "Are Refugees Different from Economic Immigrants? Some Empirical Evidence on the Heterogeneity of Immigrant Groups in the United States," IZA Discussion Papers 1063, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Peter Huber, 2016. "Zur Arbeitsmarktintegration von Asylsuchenden in Österreich," WIFO Monatsberichte (monthly reports), WIFO, vol. 89(3), pages 157-169, March.
    2. Lens, Dries & Marx, Ive & Vujic, Suncica, 2018. "Is Quick Formal Access to the Labor Market Enough? Refugees' Labor Market Integration in Belgium," IZA Discussion Papers 11905, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    3. Marc-André Luik & Henrik Emilsson & Pieter Bevelander, 2018. "The male immigrant–native employment gap in Sweden: migrant admission categories and human capital," Journal of Population Research, Springer, vol. 35(4), pages 363-398, December.
    4. Lens, Dries & Marx, Ive & Vujic, Suncica, 2018. "Does Migration Motive Matter for Migrants' Employment Outcomes? The Case of Belgium," IZA Discussion Papers 11906, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Stuart Campbell, 2019. "National identity among economic and non-economic immigrants," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 17(2), pages 411-438, June.
    6. Julia Bock-Schappelwein & Peter Huber, 2015. "Auswirkungen einer Erleichterung des Arbeitsmarktzuganges für Asylsuchende in Österreich," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59410.
    7. Stuart Campbell, 2014. "Does it matter why immigrants came here? Original motives, the labour market, and national identity in the UK," DoQSS Working Papers 14-14, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    8. Dries Lens & Ive Marx & Sunčica Vujić, 2017. "Integrating (former) asylum seekers into the Belgian labour market. What can we learn from the recent past?," Working Papers 1710, Herman Deleeck Centre for Social Policy, University of Antwerp.
    9. Isabella Buber-Ennser & Judith Kohlenberger & Bernhard Rengs & Zakarya Al Zalak & Anne Goujon & Erich Striessnig & Michaela Potančoková & Richard Gisser & Maria Rita Testa & Wolfgang Lutz, 2016. "Human Capital, Values, and Attitudes of Persons Seeking Refuge in Austria in 2015," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(9), pages 1-29, September.
    10. Lens Dries & Marx Ive & Vujić Sunčica, 2019. "Double Jeopardy: How Refugees Fare in One European Labor Market," IZA Journal of Development and Migration, Sciendo & Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 10(1), pages 1-29, June.
    11. Isabel Ruiz & Carlos Vargas-Silva, 2018. "Differences in labour market outcomes between natives, refugees and other migrants in the UK," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 18(4), pages 855-885.
    12. Abramitzky, Ran & Boustan, Leah & Catron, Peter & Connor, Dylan & Voigt, Rob, 2021. "Refugees without Assistance: English-Language Attainment and Economic Outcomes in the Early Twentieth Century," SocArXiv 429jp, Center for Open Science.
    13. Sander Gerritsen & Mark Kattenberg & Sonny Kuijpers, 2019. "The impact of age at arrival on education and mental health," CPB Discussion Paper 389.rdf, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    14. Sander Gerritsen & Mark Kattenberg & Sonny Kuijpers, 2019. "The impact of age at arrival on education and mental health," CPB Discussion Paper 389, CPB Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.
    15. Cahit Guven & Lan Anh Tong & Mutlu Yuksel, 2020. "Australia's Immigration Selection System and Labour Market Outcomes in a Family Context: Evidence from Administrative Data," The Economic Record, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 96(S1), pages 50-77, June.
    16. Céline Piton & François Rycx, 2020. "The heterogeneous employment outcomes of first- and second-generation immigrants in Belgium," Working Paper Research 381, National Bank of Belgium.
    17. Ghosh, Sucharita & Enami, Ali, 2015. "Do refugee-immigrants affect international trade? Evidence from the world's largest refugee case," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 37(2), pages 291-307.
    18. Battisti, Michele & Giesing, Yvonne & Laurentsyeva, Nadzeya, 2019. "Can job search assistance improve the labour market integration of refugees? Evidence from a field experiment," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    19. Zwysen, Wouter & Demireva, Neli, 2020. "Who benefits from host country skills? Evidence of heterogeneous labour market returns to host country skills by migrant motivation," ISER Working Paper Series 2020-06, Institute for Social and Economic Research.
    20. M. Reza Nakhaie, 2018. "Service Needs of Immigrants and Refugees," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 19(1), pages 143-160, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    immigration; refugees; asylum; economic integration; resettlement;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J18 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Public Policy
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izawol:journl:2020:n:269. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.