IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/glodps/1591.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Self-selection on human capital for Ukrainian refugees in Belgium

Author

Listed:
  • Berlinschi, Ruxanda
  • Verhaest, Dieter
  • Poelmans, Eline
  • Adriaenssens, Stef

Abstract

This study documents self-selection on human capital for Ukrainian refugees. We compare the socio-demographic characteristics of a representative sample of Ukrainian refugees who registered in Belgium in the fall of 2022 with those of the Ukrainian population before the war. Contrarily to previous studies, we find negative self-selection on human capital, particularly for men and for refugees arriving from the low conflict intensity regions of Ukraine. At the same time, refugees from the low conflict intensity regions arrive with more locally-specific human capital, such as knowledge of the French language, previous visits to Belgium, and access to social networks in Belgium. Such self-selection, driven by individual incentives - economic and patriotic - has societal benefits, such as reduced brain drain for Ukraine and improved job matching in European countries offering protection.

Suggested Citation

  • Berlinschi, Ruxanda & Verhaest, Dieter & Poelmans, Eline & Adriaenssens, Stef, 2025. "Self-selection on human capital for Ukrainian refugees in Belgium," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1591, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:1591
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/314852/1/GLO-DP-1591.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Russia-Ukraine war; refugees; human capital; self-selection;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • F5 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management

    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:zbw:glodps:1591. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/glabode.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.