Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland

The paper examines the patterns of economic integration of refugees in Switzerland, a country with a long tradition of hosting refugees, a top-receiving host in Europe, and a prominent example of a multicultural society. It relies on a unique longi...

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Main Authors:	Müller, Tobias, Pannatier, Pia, Viarengo, Martina
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2022
Subjects:	REFUGEES LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION INEQUALITY MIGRANT LABOR MIGRATION
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/744751643249598650/Labor-Market-Integration-Local-Conditions-and-Inequalities-Evidence-from-Refugees-in-Switzerland http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36915

id	okr-10986-36915
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-369152022-02-04T05:10:35Z Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland Müller, Tobias Pannatier, Pia Viarengo, Martina REFUGEES LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION INEQUALITY MIGRANT LABOR MIGRATION The paper examines the patterns of economic integration of refugees in Switzerland, a country with a long tradition of hosting refugees, a top-receiving host in Europe, and a prominent example of a multicultural society. It relies on a unique longitudinal dataset consisting of administrative records and social security data for the universe of refugees in Switzerland over 1998–2018. This data is used to reconstruct the individual-level trajectories of refugees and to follow them since arrival over the life-cycle. The study documents the patterns of labor-market integration, and highlights the heterogeneity by gender and age at arrival. Refugees’ labor-market performance is compared to natives’ and other groups of migrants’ labor-market performance. The empirical analysis exploits the government dispersal policy in place since 1998, which consists of the random allocation of refugees across cantons, to identify the causal effects of the local initial conditions. The study finds that higher unemployment rates at arrival slow down the integration process, whereas the existence of a co-ethnic network does not consistently lead to a faster integration. It is shown that in locations where refugees face relatively more hostile attitudes by natives upon arrival, they integrate at a faster pace, probably due to a greater effort undertaken in environments that are more hostile. Together these results, highlight the importance of an early entry in the labor market of the host country, and the need to take a longer run perspective when examining the effectiveness of policies, as the effects may vary over time and different complementary interventions may be needed in the short vs. long-run. 2022-02-03T14:57:17Z 2022-02-03T14:57:17Z 2022-01 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/744751643249598650/Labor-Market-Integration-Local-Conditions-and-Inequalities-Evidence-from-Refugees-in-Switzerland http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36915 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9914 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Switzerland
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	REFUGEES LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION INEQUALITY MIGRANT LABOR MIGRATION
spellingShingle	REFUGEES LABOR MARKET INTEGRATION INEQUALITY MIGRANT LABOR MIGRATION Müller, Tobias Pannatier, Pia Viarengo, Martina Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
geographic_facet	Europe and Central Asia Switzerland
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9914
description	The paper examines the patterns of economic integration of refugees in Switzerland, a country with a long tradition of hosting refugees, a top-receiving host in Europe, and a prominent example of a multicultural society. It relies on a unique longitudinal dataset consisting of administrative records and social security data for the universe of refugees in Switzerland over 1998–2018. This data is used to reconstruct the individual-level trajectories of refugees and to follow them since arrival over the life-cycle. The study documents the patterns of labor-market integration, and highlights the heterogeneity by gender and age at arrival. Refugees’ labor-market performance is compared to natives’ and other groups of migrants’ labor-market performance. The empirical analysis exploits the government dispersal policy in place since 1998, which consists of the random allocation of refugees across cantons, to identify the causal effects of the local initial conditions. The study finds that higher unemployment rates at arrival slow down the integration process, whereas the existence of a co-ethnic network does not consistently lead to a faster integration. It is shown that in locations where refugees face relatively more hostile attitudes by natives upon arrival, they integrate at a faster pace, probably due to a greater effort undertaken in environments that are more hostile. Together these results, highlight the importance of an early entry in the labor market of the host country, and the need to take a longer run perspective when examining the effectiveness of policies, as the effects may vary over time and different complementary interventions may be needed in the short vs. long-run.
format	Working Paper
author	Müller, Tobias Pannatier, Pia Viarengo, Martina
author_facet	Müller, Tobias Pannatier, Pia Viarengo, Martina
author_sort	Müller, Tobias
title	Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
title_short	Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
title_full	Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
title_fullStr	Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
title_full_unstemmed	Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
title_sort	labor market integration, local conditions and inequalities : evidence from refugees in switzerland
publisher	World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate	2022
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/744751643249598650/Labor-Market-Integration-Local-Conditions-and-Inequalities-Evidence-from-Refugees-in-Switzerland http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36915
_version_	1764486156305563648

Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities : Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland

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