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The Determinants of Refugees' Destinations: Where Do Refugees Locate within the EU?

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  • Di Iasio, Valentina

    (University of Southampton)

  • Wahba, Jackline

    (University of Southampton)

Abstract

The recent so called Mediterranean refugee crisis has ignited concerns about the magnitude of the flows of asylum seekers to Europe. This paper examines the determinants of the destination choice of first time non-EU asylum applicants to the EU, between 2008-2020. It investigates the role played by policies related to employment rights, processing of asylum applications, attractiveness of the welfare system, economic factors and networks on the destination of asylum seekers within the EU. We find that the strongest pull factor for asylum seekers to a destination is social networks both in terms of previous asylum applicants as well as stock of previous migrants. Our findings also suggest that employment bans are not a strong deterrence for asylum seekers given their modest association to asylum flows.

Suggested Citation

  • Di Iasio, Valentina & Wahba, Jackline, 2023. "The Determinants of Refugees' Destinations: Where Do Refugees Locate within the EU?," IZA Discussion Papers 16085, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp16085
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    Cited by:

    1. Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Maxime Pirot, 2023. "From Refugees to Citizens: Labor Market Returns to Naturalization," Development Working Papers 489, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano, revised 11 Jun 2024.
    2. Beber, Bernd & Ebert, Cara & Sievert, Maximiliane, 2024. "Is intent to migrate irregularly responsive to recent German asylum policy adjustments?," Ruhr Economic Papers 1071, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    3. Beber, Bernd & Ebert, Cara & Sievert, Maximiliane, 2024. "Is Intent to Migrate Irregularly Responsive to Recent German Asylum Policy Adjustments?," IZA Discussion Papers 16850, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    employment ban; asylum seekers; refugees; EU migration;
    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
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • O52 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Europe

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