Bridging the state and market logics of refugee labour market inclusion – a comparative study on the inclusion activities of German professional chambers

Abstract

Due to their high numbers, refugees’ labour market inclusion has become an important topic for Germany in recent years. Because of a lack of research on meso-level actors’ influences on labour market inclusion and the transcendent role of organizations in modern societies, the article focuses on the German professional chambers’ role in the process of refugee inclusion. The study shows that professional chambers are intermediaries between economic actors, the government and refugees, which all follow their own logics and ideas of labour market inclusion (the state, the market and the community logic). The measures taken by professional chambers mainly reflect a governmental logic (to reduce refugee unemployment) combined with a market logic (to provide human resources to economic actors). A community logic (altruism) only comes into play as a rather unintended consequence of measures addressing the other two logics. The measures of two types of professional chambers are compared. Close similarities between them reveal that the organization type is of theoretical relevance to explain the type of measures organizations opt for.

The Ecosystem of Managing Refugee Employment: Complementarity and Its Microfoundations

“…For instance, we did not systematically capture actors' access to financial resources or the disproportionate costs that individual actors have to bear to keep the ecosystem functioning. However, these aspects, too, are important because powerful actors such as the government or employers may exert control in various ways, as when they decide which programs receive temporary funding or when they issue guidelines governing the activities of volunteers and support organizations (Danis & Nazli, 2019;Fleischmann, 2019;Maletzky de Garc ıa, 2021). Power imbalances and related flows of money certainly shape the dynamics within an ecosystem, and it would be fascinating to compare ecosystems with varying actor structures, financial resources, and related distribution of power for differences in their success.…”

Inter-Organisational Entanglements in Migrant Support Ecologies: Action and Collaboration Supporting Labour Market Integration

“…However, for social-oriented organisations, including charities, state-run service providers or social enterprises, this refers to entities that pursue similar moral or ideological goals, for example, concerning solidarity, empowerment or justice (Lawrence & Hardy, 1999). This also includes organisations driven by wider political agenda, particularly state actors seeking to govern and exercise power (Hesse et al, 2019;Maletzky de García, 2021).…”

“…Actors' activities and practices, informed by various factors including resource constraints, reflexivity, social idiosyncrasy and competing expectations regarding the value to be created, translate into organisational practices (Danış et al, 2019;Hesse et al, 2019;Maletzky de García, 2021). However, because actions and practices are subject to (re)interpretation and disruption, there is scope for unpredictability, serendipity and discontinuity.…”

“…Consequently, there is inadequate knowledge regarding inter-organisational arrangements, and there have been growing calls to consider the roles of wider networks of organisations, including the factors shaping their interactions (Finsterwalder, 2017;Hesse et al, 2019;Lee et al, 2020). This is in recognition of the multiple tensions that shape their activities and engagement, for example, the diversity of institutional logics followed by state, commercial and charitable organisational actors (Hesse et al, 2019;Maletzky de García, 2021). Richardson et al (2020) urged researchers to adopt an 'ecosystems' perspective to examine how different organisations can and do cooperate to support refugees.…”

A help or hindrance? Highly educated refugees’ perceptions of the role of civic integration programmes in accessing the labour market in Oslo, Malmö and Munich

“…Until recently, most academic attention has been paid to the individual-level factors affecting refugee labour market participation, such as refugees' demographic characteristics, motivations and attainments. Less scrutiny has been dedicated to the ways the receiving society shapes refugee employment, in particular, the organisational-level implications of, for instance, employers, integration programmes, newcomer support organisations [NSOs] and professional chambers (Lee et al, 2020;Maletzky de García, 2021;Phillimore, 2021). This is problematic, given that, when perceived as a two-way process (Ager & Strang, 2008), refugee labour market participation does not rest merely on refugees' efforts and capabilities but needs to be paired with an inclusive social fabric that provides acceptance, services and opportunities.…”