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Do Refugees with Better Mental Health Better Integrate? Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia Longitudinal Survey

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  • Dang, Hai-Anh H.
  • Trinh, Trong-Anh
  • Verme, Paolo

Abstract

Hardly any evidence currently exists on the causal effects of mental illness on refugee labor market outcomes. We offer the first study on this topic in the context of Australia, one of the host countries with the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. Analyzing the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey, we exploit the variations in traumatic experiences of refugees interacted with time as an instrument for refugee mental health. We find that worse mental health, as measured by a one standard deviation increase in the Kessler mental health score, reduces the probability of employment by 14.1% and labor income by 26.8%. We also find some evidence of adverse impacts of refugees' mental illness on their children's mental health and education performance. These effects appear more pronounced for refugees that newly arrive or are without social networks, but they may be ameliorated with government support. Our findings suggest that policies that target refugees' mental health may offer a new channel to improve their labor market outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Dang, Hai-Anh H. & Trinh, Trong-Anh & Verme, Paolo, 2021. "Do Refugees with Better Mental Health Better Integrate? Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia Longitudinal Survey," GLO Discussion Paper Series 949, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:glodps:949
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    2. Mathilde Sengoelge & Alexander Nissen & Øivind Solberg, 2022. "Post-Migration Stressors and Health-Related Quality of Life in Refugees from Syria Resettled in Sweden," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(5), pages 1-14, February.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Australia; refugees; mental health; labor outcomes; instrumental variable; BNLA longitudinal survey;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O15 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Economic Development: Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration
    • I15 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Health and Economic Development
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
    • J21 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers

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