Permanent Residency and Refugee Immigrants' Skill Investment

Jacob Arendt, Christian Dustmann and Hyejin Ku

No 16313, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We analyze an immigration reform in Denmark that tightened refugee immigrants' eligibility criteria for permanent residency to incentivize their labor market attachment and acquisition of local language skills. Contrary to what the reform intended, the overall employment of those affected decreased while their average language proficiency remained largely unchanged. This was caused by a disincentive effect, where individuals with low pre-reform labor market performance reduced their labor supply. Our findings suggest that stricter permanent residency rules, rather than incentivizing refugees' skill investment, may decrease the efforts of those who believe they cannot meet the new requirements.

Keywords: labor supply; refugee integration; immigrant assimilation; language proficiency; human capital (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J22 J24 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2023-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published - published online in: Journal of Labor Economics , 27 January 2025

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Related works:
Working Paper: Permanent Residency and Refugee Immigrants’ Skill Investment (2023)
Working Paper: Permanent Residency and Refugee Immigrant Skill Investment (2023)
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