Labour Market Profile, Previous Employment and Economic Integration of Refugees: An Austrian Case Study

Abstract

In 2015, large numbers of forced migrants crossed the borders to the European Union and the influx of new arrivals has led to the important question of implications for the host societies. This article assesses the labour market profile and previous employment of the recent inflows of displaced persons, mainly coming from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Moreover, sectoral unemployment rates and trends in job openings in different economic branches in the host society are compared to the profiles of the refugee population. Analyses are based on two unique datasets on displaced persons in Austria: DiPAS (a social survey among asylum seekers) and competence checks (information on occupational and transferable skills). Results indicate that the labour supply provided by refugees' roughly corresponds to the labour demand in Austria. In terms of a potential impact on the Austrian labour market, this match might be regarded as favourable.

Even worse than the undocumented? Assessing the refugees’ integration in the labour market of Lombardy (Italy) in 2001–2014

“…Bakker et al (2017) talk about a 'refugee entry effect', stressing, in particular, the initial disadvantage that refugees usually 1. face at the beginning of their working career in the host country that tends to decrease (but rarely disappear) over time. Both personal characteristics of refugees and host country-specific characteristics are responsible for refugees' penalization (Bevelander, 2016;Rengs et al, 2017).…”

“…Second, other characteristics, in many cases unobserved, such as the reason for migration, help to explain differences between different categories of immigrants. Refugees may lack personal motivation compared with other migrants, especially the economic ones (Campbell, 2014;Rengs et al, 2017). Third, in his labelling theory, Zetter (1991Zetter ( , 2007 ascribes to the mechanism of identity redefinition a role of its own in remoulding refugees as passive victims in need of assistance, perpetuating their dependency and disadvantage.…”

“…Other factors may be ascribed to the host country‐specific characteristics. The reception system often builds ‘mechanisms of exclusion’ for asylum applicants (including deportation, detention, dispersal, resettlement policies, regimentation of their daily routines and restriction in their mobility), which negatively impact on their integration and agency (Bloch & Schuster, 2005; Bevelander, 2016; Rengs et al, 2017; Schuster, 2004). The legislation also may deny refugees the authorization to work upon their arrival (Shisheva et al, 2010).…”

Barriers to Entrepreneurial Refugees’ Integration into Host Countries: A Case of Afghan Refugees

“…Due to a lack of formal proof and unavailability of professional certification, refugees cannot obtain the desired and full advantages of working in the host country [23]. So, such refugees are more inclined toward entrepreneurship to tackle the threat of unemployment and low-wage jobs [24]. The author of [25] shows that 10% of the refugees in their study started their businesses after staying five years in Australia.…”

Factors Influencing Attitudes of Refugee-Host Population: New Evidence from Thailand

“…In addition, some studies suggested that people across age, education and income background were more likely to accept refugees from a similar ethnicity (Martén et al, 2019) probably because they feel a sense of shared identity and commonality (Halabi & Nadler, 2017). Furthermore, existing studies address that people who work in farming and agriculture are generally more accepting of refugees than those in other occupations (Rengs et al, 2017). One possible explanation was that refugees are often willing to work for lower wages than locals, which can help farmers to reduce labor costs (İçduygu & Diker, 2017).…”