Failed Promise of Equality: Iranian women’s integration in the Netherlands

Abstract

Iranians are considered the most successful refugee group in the Netherlands in terms of integration. However, their path towards inclusion is not without struggles. This paper highlights organizational and societal limiting factors that are often forgotten in research and policy on refugees' integration in the job market and on inclusion in general. The data presented are based on 20 years of research on narratives from Iranian refugeesmostly womenabout their struggles towards societal and organizational inclusion. This article critically discusses the implications of dominant discourses and policies on the integration of refugees in the past and present to enable reflection for the future. The empirical data show how the consistency of normalized images of refugees hinders their path to long-term inclusion. The data analysis is situated within the theoretical discussion on refugees' integration in the labour market, connecting bodies of literature from refugee studies, organization studies and integration studies.This is an open access article under the terms of the Crea tive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is noncommercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.

Introduction “Labour market integration of highly skilled refugees in Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands”

“…Their research, however, shows considerable differences among Syrians in the Netherlands in terms of educational attainment, work experience before arrival, family situation and age. The authors call on policymakers to pay attention to individual needs, echoing other authors in this special issue (Ghorashi, 2020;Khan-Gökkaya & Mösko, 2020;Mozetič, 2020).…”

“…Supporters believe that this approach enables refugees to learn the language in an employment or education setting and to meet other people, which may help them find paid work (Miltenburg & Dagevos, 2020). But Ghorashi (2020) shows that participation does not necessarily help refugees feel accepted or included.…”

“…Inclusion has a broader goal, aiming to enable the participation of minorities into society "in which spaces are created to value the presence and contribution of minorities" and aims for refugees to "realize that their contribution matters" (ibid.). Ghorashi (2020) argues in this special issue that integration policies, as well as colleagues in the workplace, tend to focus on refugees' deficiencies more so than their qualifications. In a study of Iranian refugee women in the Netherlands, the author argues that they are "expected to become the same [fitting the image of the norm(employee)] yet never considered to be same-enough because of fixations on their otherness and their shortcomings" (Ghorashi, 2020: 12).…”

“…Policies that aim to promote labour market integration are based on assumptions about the causes for low employment rates. These policies can attribute the low employment rate of refugees to personal characteristics (the person does not speak the language of the host society; lacks necessary professional skills and competencies; is not motivated; lacks self‐esteem and will power; does not have the necessary cultural competences) and societal factors (discrimination in the labour market; long wait times for decisions on asylum applications) (Ghorashi, 2020; Vesterberg, 2015). These explanations correspond to policies that aim to address these individual and/or institutional “shortcomings.”…”

“…Normalized images of refugees frame them as weak, disadvantaged groups, who are passive receivers of assistance and a burden on the welfare system (Ghorashi, 2020; Mozetič, 2020). They can also be seen as a threat, especially refugee men (Ghorashi, 2020). These images mark refugees as needy or violent and fail to give them agency.…”