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Are asylum seekers more likely to work with more inclusive labor market access regulations?

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  • Michaela Slotwinski

    (University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics
    ZEW – Centre for European Economic Research)

  • Alois Stutzer

    (University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics)

  • Roman Uhlig

    (University of Basel, Faculty of Business and Economics)

Abstract

In the face of recent refugee migration, early integration of asylum seekers into the labor market has been proposed as an important mechanism for easing their economic and social lot in the short as well as in the long term. However, little is known about the policies that foster or hamper their participation in the labor market, in particular during the important initial period of their stay in the host country. In order to evaluate whether inclusive labor market policies increase the labor market participation of asylum seekers, we exploit the variation in asylum policies in Swiss cantons to which asylum seekers are as good as randomly allocated. During our study period from 2011 to 2014, the employment rate among asylum seekers varied between 0 and 30.2% across cantons. Our results indicate that labor market access regulations are responsible for a substantial proportion of these differences, in which an inclusive regime increases participation by 11 percentage points. The marginal effects are larger for asylum seekers who speak a language that is linguistically close to the one in their host canton. Summary Inclusive labor market access regulations substantially increase the employment chances of asylum seekers, in particular if the language distance is short.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaela Slotwinski & Alois Stutzer & Roman Uhlig, 2019. "Are asylum seekers more likely to work with more inclusive labor market access regulations?," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 155(1), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:sjecst:v:155:y:2019:i:1:d:10.1186_s41937-019-0046-2
    DOI: 10.1186/s41937-019-0046-2
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    Cited by:

    1. Berggren, Niclas & Ljunge, Martin & Nilsson, Therese, 2022. "Immigrants’ Tolerance and Integration into Society," Working Paper Series 1447, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    2. Michael A Clemens, 2022. "The economic and fiscal effects on the United States from reduced numbers of refugees and asylum seekers [Refugees without Assistance: English-language Attainment and Economic Outcomes in the Early," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 38(3), pages 449-486.
    3. Carlos Madeira, 2022. "Partial identification of nonlinear peer effects models with missing data," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics, Springer;Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics, vol. 158(1), pages 1-18, December.
    4. Marco Pecoraro & Anita Manatschal & Eva G. T. Green & Philippe Wanner, 2019. "Does integration policy improve labour market, sociocultural and psychological adaptation of asylum-related immigrants? Evidence from Sri Lankans in Switzerland," IRENE Working Papers 19-08, IRENE Institute of Economic Research.
    5. Zimmermann, Severin & Stutzer, Alois, 2022. "The consequences of hosting asylum seekers for citizens’ policy preferences," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    6. Francesco Fasani & Tommaso Frattini & Luigi Minale, 2021. "Lift the Ban? Initial Employment Restrictions and Refugee Labour Market Outcomes," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 19(5), pages 2803-2854.
    7. Lorraine Wong, 2023. "The effect of linguistic proximity on the labour market outcomes of the asylum population," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 36(2), pages 609-652, April.
    8. Aksoy,Cevat Giray & Ginn,Thomas Clinton, 2022. "Attitudes and Policies toward Refugees : Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9985, The World Bank.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Asylum policy; Asylum seekers; Economic integration; Employment ban; Labor market access regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F22 - International Economics - - International Factor Movements and International Business - - - International Migration
    • J61 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Mobility, Unemployment, Vacancies, and Immigrant Workers - - - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers
    • J15 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination

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