IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/arx/papers/2203.00487.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Labor Market Integration of Refugees: RCT Evidence from an Early Intervention Program in Sweden

Author

Listed:
  • Matz Dahlberg
  • Johan Egebark
  • Gulay Ozcan
  • Ulrika Vikman

Abstract

This study uses a randomized control trial to evaluate a new program for increased labor market integration of refugees. The program introduces highly intensive assistance immediately after the residence permit is granted. The early intervention strategy contrasts previous integration policies, which typically constitute low-intensive help over long periods of time. We find positive effects on employment of the program. The magnitude of the effect is substantial, corresponding to around 15 percentage points. Our cost estimates suggest that the new policy is less expensive than comparable labor market programs used in the past.

Suggested Citation

  • Matz Dahlberg & Johan Egebark & Gulay Ozcan & Ulrika Vikman, 2022. "Labor Market Integration of Refugees: RCT Evidence from an Early Intervention Program in Sweden," Papers 2203.00487, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2203.00487
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://arxiv.org/pdf/2203.00487
    File Function: Latest version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Bruno Crépon & Esther Duflo & Marc Gurgand & Roland Rathelot & Philippe Zamora, 2013. "Do Labor Market Policies have Displacement Effects? Evidence from a Clustered Randomized Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 531-580.
    2. James Heckman & Rodrigo Pinto & Peter Savelyev, 2013. "Understanding the Mechanisms through Which an Influential Early Childhood Program Boosted Adult Outcomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(6), pages 2052-2086, October.
    3. Christian Dustmann & Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale & Uta Schönberg, 2017. "On the economics and politics of refugee migration," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 32(91), pages 497-550.
    4. Hangartner, Dominik & Sarvimäki, Matti & Spirig, Judith, 2021. "Managing Refugee Protection Crises: Policy Lessons from Economics and Political Science," IZA Discussion Papers 14821, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Lawrence F. Katz & Jonathan Roth & Richard Hendra & Kelsey Schaberg, 2022. "Why Do Sectoral Employment Programs Work? Lessons from WorkAdvance," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(S1), pages 249-291.
    6. David Card & Jochen Kluve & Andrea Weber, 2018. "What Works? A Meta Analysis of Recent Active Labor Market Program Evaluations," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 16(3), pages 894-931.
    7. Courtney Brell & Christian Dustmann & Ian Preston, 2020. "The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 94-121, Winter.
    8. Jacob Nielsen Arendt & Christian Dustmann & Hyejin Ku, 2022. "Refugee migration and the labour market: lessons from 40 years of post-arrival policies in Denmark," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 531-556.
    9. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen & Bolvig, Iben, 2023. "Trade-offs between work-first and language-first strategies for refugees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    10. Marbach, Moritz & Hainmueller, Jens & Hangartner, Dominik, 2017. "The Long-Term Impact of Employment Bans on the Economic Integration of Refugees," Research Papers repec:ecl:stabus:3618, Stanford University, Graduate School of Business.
    11. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Poutvaara, Panu & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "First time around: Local conditions and multi-dimensional integration of refugees," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    12. Blake H. Heller & Kirsten Slungaard Mumma, 2023. "Immigrant Integration in the United States: The Role of Adult English Language Training," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 15(3), pages 407-437, August.
    13. Braun, Sebastian T. & Dwenger, Nadja, 2020. "Settlement location shapes the integration of forced migrants: Evidence from post-war Germany⁎," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Foged, Mette & van der Werf, Cynthia, 2023. "Access to language training and the local integration of refugees," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    15. Cristina Bratu & Matz Dahlberg & Madhinee Valeyatheepillay, 2021. "Age at Arrival and Residential Integration," CESifo Working Paper Series 9181, CESifo.
    16. Martén, Linna & Hainmueller, Jens & Hangartner, Dominik, 2019. "Ethnic networks can foster the economic integration of refugees," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 101385, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    17. 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.
    18. Mette Foged & Linea Hasager & Giovanni Peri, 2024. "Comparing the Effects of Policies for the Labor Market Integration of Refugees," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 42(S1), pages 335-377.
    19. Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale, 2021. "Lift the Ban? Initial Employment Restrictions and Refugee Labour Market Outcomes," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(5), pages 2803-2854.
    20. Jacob Nielsen Arendt, 2022. "Labor market effects of a work-first policy for refugees," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 169-196, January.
    21. Pont-Grau, Alex & Lei, Yu-Hsiang & Lim, Joel Z.E. & Xia, Xing, 2023. "The effect of language training on immigrants’ integration: Does the duration of training matter?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 212(C), pages 160-198.
    22. Olof Åslund & Dan-Olof Rooth, 2007. "Do when and where matter? initial labour market conditions and immigrant earnings," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 117(518), pages 422-448, March.
    23. Mette Foged & Janis Kreuder & Giovanni Peri, 2022. "Integrating Refugees by Addressing Labor Shortages? A Policy Evaluation," NBER Working Papers 29781, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    24. Hans Grönqvist & J. Peter Nilsson & Per-Olof Robling, 2020. "Understanding How Low Levels of Early Lead Exposure Affect Children’s Life Trajectories," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 128(9), pages 3376-3433.
    25. 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).
    26. Imbens,Guido W. & Rubin,Donald B., 2015. "Causal Inference for Statistics, Social, and Biomedical Sciences," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521885881, January.
    27. Camilla Hvidtfeldt & Marie Louise Schultz-Nielsen & Erdal Tekin & Mogens Fosgerau, 2018. "An estimate of the effect of waiting time in the Danish asylum system on post-resettlement employment among refugees: Separating the pure delay effect from the effects of the conditions under which re," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(11), pages 1-14, November.
    28. 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.
    29. 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).
    30. Matti Sarvimäki & Kari Hämäläinen, 2016. "Integrating Immigrants: The Impact of Restructuring Active Labor Market Programs," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(2), pages 479-508.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Gathmann, Christina & Garbers, Julio, 2023. "Citizenship and integration," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).

    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. Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Poutvaara, Panu & Schikora, Felicitas, 2023. "First time around: Local conditions and multi-dimensional integration of refugees," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    2. Demirci, Murat & Kırdar, Murat Güray, 2023. "The labor market integration of Syrian refugees in Turkey," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    3. Jacob Nielsen Arendt & Christian Dustmann & Hyejin Ku, 2022. "Refugee migration and the labour market: lessons from 40 years of post-arrival policies in Denmark," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 531-556.
    4. Arendt, Jacob Nielsen & Bolvig, Iben, 2023. "Trade-offs between work-first and language-first strategies for refugees," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    5. Dahlberg, Matz & Egebark, Johan & Vikman, Ulrika, 2023. "Long-run integration of refugees: RCT evidence from a Swedish early intervention program," Working Paper Series 2023:23, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    6. Dahlberg, Matz & Egebark, Johan & Vikman, Ulrika & Özcan, Gülay, 2020. "Labor market integration of low-educated refugees," Working Paper Series 2020:21, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    7. Dahlberg, Matz & Egebark, Johan & Vikman, Ullrika & Özcan, Gülay, 2020. "Labor Market Integration of Low-Educated Refugees: RCT Evidence from an Ambitious Integration Program in Sweden," Working Paper Series 1372, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    8. Müller, Tobias & Pannatier, Pia & Viarengo, Martina, 2023. "Labor market integration, local conditions and inequalities: Evidence from refugees in Switzerland," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    9. Foged, Mette & van der Werf, Cynthia, 2023. "Access to language training and the local integration of refugees," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    10. 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).
    11. Fasani, Francesco & Frattini, Tommaso & Pirot, Maxime, 2023. "From Refugees to Citizens: Labor Market Returns to Naturalization," CEPR Discussion Papers 18675, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale, 2021. "Lift the Ban? Initial Employment Restrictions and Refugee Labour Market Outcomes," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(5), pages 2803-2854.
    13. Stefan Jestl & Michael Landesmann & Sebastian Leitner & Barbara Wanek-Zajic, 2022. "Trajectories of Employment Gaps of Refugees and Other Migrants: Evidence from Austria," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 41(2), pages 609-669, April.
    14. Courtney Brell & Christian Dustmann & Ian Preston, 2020. "The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(1), pages 94-121, Winter.
    15. Matilda Kilström & Birthe Larsen & Elisabet Olme, 2023. "Temporary refugee protection and labor-market outcomes," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 65(4), pages 1895-1929, October.
    16. 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).
    17. Albarosa, Emanuele & Elsner, Benjamin, 2023. "Forced Migration and Social Cohesion: Evidence from the 2015/16 Mass Inflow in Germany," IZA Discussion Papers 15850, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Adema, Joop & Aksoy, Cevat Giray & Giesing, Yvonne & Poutvaara, Panu, 2024. "The Effect of Conflict on Refugees' Return and Integration: Evidence from Ukraine," IZA Discussion Papers 16962, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    19. Emanuele Albarosa & Benjamin Elsner, 2023. "Forced Migration and Social Cohesion: Evidence from the 2015/16 Mass Inflow in Germany," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 1183, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    20. Strazzeri, Maurizio, 2021. "Assessing the Role of Asylum Policies in Refugees' Labor Market Integration: The Case of Protection Statuses in the German Asylum System," VfS Annual Conference 2021 (Virtual Conference): Climate Economics 242395, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C93 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Field Experiments
    • J08 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - General - - - Labor Economics Policies
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J23 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Demand
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:arx:papers:2203.00487. 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: arXiv administrators (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arxiv.org/ .

    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.