Various Domains of Integration of Refugees and Their Interrelationships: A Study of Recent Middle Eastern Refugee Inflows in Austria

This paper investigates the size and direction of the interrelationships between two important aspects of integration of refugees in Austria: labour market integration and social integration. Labour market integration is captured in terms of being in paid employment, as compared to being unemployed or inactive, whereas social integration distinguishes between social networks and their ethnic composition and social capital. The analysis uses a unique dataset based on a survey of about 4000 refugees from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran who had come to Austria since 2010. It finds an important causal link between social integration and obtaining paid employment and shows that social network effects with Austrians are particularly significant for labour market integration. This has important implications as factors that affect refugees’ social integration with Austrians also have an impact through this channel on their employment prospects. The analysis also finds that social networks with Austrians and co-ethnic social networks are complementary. This is significant, as it indicates that—in the case of this group of refugees which are often in the early phases of integration with the host society—the linkages with the co-ethnic community do not hinder social integration with individuals (predominantly Austrians) outside that community but develop in parallel.