Publication: Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities: Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland
Date
2022-01
ISSN
Published
2022-01
Author(s)
Müller, Tobias
Pannatier, Pia
Viarengo, Martina
Abstract
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.
Citation
“Müller, Tobias; Pannatier, Pia; Viarengo, Martina. 2022. Labor Market Integration, Local Conditions and Inequalities: Evidence from Refugees in Switzerland. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9914. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/36915 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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