Suchergebnisse

Various studies have indicated the disadvantaged positions of refugees on the labor market and studied various characteristics explaining this. Yet, little is known about the impact of settlement policy characteristics on recent arrivals' labor market participation, despite them being heavily subject to such policies. We argue such policies, next to individual characteristics, can serve as a means to gather resources relevant to the host country and consequently labor market positions, but can also serve as a post-migration stressor obstructing this. Using the Netherlands as an example, we contribute to studies on the refugee gap and provide insight into key policy characteristics explaining recently arrived refugees' (finding) employment. We use two-wave panel data of 2,379 recently arrived Syrian refugees in the Netherlands, including data on key policy and individual characteristics combined with administrative data. Employing a hybrid model, we show both within- and between-person variation. Results indicate policy matters: short and active stays in reception, complying with the civic integration obligation and a lower unemployment rate in the region refugees are randomly assigned to are beneficial for Syrians' (finding) employment. Like for other migrants, various forms of individual human capital also play a role.

Interethnic contact is important for social cohesion and has been shown to vary with people's socio-economic status (SES). There is some evidence that SES has opposite effects on interethnic contact for non-Western ethnic minorities and for majority members in Western countries. Whereas minority members with a higher SES tend to have more contact with natives, natives with a higher SES tend to have less inter-ethnic contact. To replicate and further understand these contrasting findings, we focused on interethnic friendships in particular and tested simultaneously for majority and minority members whether preferences for cultural similarity, opportunities to meet ethnic others, and disapproval of third parties, mediate the relationship between SES and having interethnic friendships. Analyses of 368 natives and 267 non-Western ethnic minority members in the Netherlands confirmed the contrasting effects of SES on interethnic friendships for these two groups. Importantly, we found that for minority members higher SES was related to more friendships with natives through more meeting opportunities. For natives, higher SES was related to fewer friendships with ethnic minorities, however, this relationship could not be explained by lower meeting opportunities. Preferences for cultural similarity and third-party disapproval did not explain the link between SES and interethnic friendships for any of the two groups.