The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries

Christian Dustmann, Courtney Brell () and Ian Preston

No 14296, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We provide an overview of the integration of refugees into the labor markets of a number of high-income countries. Discussing the ways in which refugees and economic migrants are differently selected and so might be expected to perform differently in a host country’s labor market, we examine employment and wages for these groups over time after arrival. There is significant heterogeneity between host countries, but in general refugees experience persistently worse outcomes than other migrants. While the gaps between the groups can be seen to decrease on a timescale of a decade or two, this is more pronounced in employment rates than it is in wages. We also discuss how refugees are distinct in terms of other factors affecting integration, including health, language skills and social networks. We provide a discussion of insights for public policy in receiving countries, concluding that supporting refugees in early labor market attachment is crucial.

Date: 2020-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (221)

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP14296 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries (2020)
Working Paper: The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries (2020)
Working Paper: The Labor Market Integration of Refugee Migrants in High-Income Countries (2020)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:14296

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP14296

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().