Research
Working papers
Refugees' Economic Integration and Firms (with Matt Cole, Liza Jabbour and Ceren Ozgen)
Abstract: We explore whether a civic integration component dedicated to labour market training (the ONA) boosts refugees' economic outcomes and the quality of firms they work for. Using linked employer-employee administrative data from 2014 to 2021 for the Netherlands and Regression Discontinuity design we find that taking the ONA sped up the economic integration of refugees for 3 years in terms of increased employment probability, hours worked and higher hourly wages. We further show that taking the ONA results in refugees working for larger, less labour-intensive and less routine-task-intensive firms and experiencing increased job stability. The ONA benefits male and female refugees and particularly those from Syria.
Presented at the 61st ERSA Congress and RES 2024 Annual Conference etc.
Invisible Immigrants: Urbanisation, Co-National Density and the Legal Integration of Refugee (with Matt Cole, Liza Jabbour and Ceren Ozgen)
Abstract: Benefitting from the quasi-random allocation of refugees and utilising administrative data on the universe of refugees, we analyse the factors that influenced refugees’ decision to legally integrate. We focus on the role played by initial assignment location and use two measures of legal integration: i) whether or not an individual passed the civic integration exam; ii) whether full naturalisation occurred. We find that refugees allocated to urban areas are more likely to integrate. The presence of employed co-nationals in the same assignment location increases this probability further. The positive density effect is robust to controlling for public attitudes and amenities, and endogeneity checks.
Presented at DIW Workshop on the Integration of Refugee Families in Host Countries, EALE Conference and RES 2024 Annual Conference etc.
Firm Sorting and the Economic Assimilation of Refugees (with Matt Cole, Liza Jabbour, and Ceren Ozgen)
Abstract: The literature on immigrant-native wage gaps points out that such gaps can be explained not only by individual (un)observed characteristics but also by firms via two complementary channels: firm sorting and pay-setting. Firm sorting focuses on differences in the fractions of natives and immigrants employed in a firm with specific pay premiums, whilst the second channel emphasises the differences in wage-setting between natives and immigrants within firms. In this context, we investigate whether and to what extent firm sorting effects influence the native-immigrant wage gap, using linked employer-employee data for 2014-2022 in the Netherlands. Focusing on native-refugee gaps and using a two-way effects model (the AKM model), we show significant pay differentials between refugees and natives, with refugee wages approximately half of those of natives. We also find a substantial mismatch between ability and firm-specific pay premiums for this group, where we highlight the geographical dispersion policy to place refugees away from suitable local labour markets as a potential explanation. Our analysis also suggests that individual characteristics are the main drivers of wage gaps within and between groups, though firm sorting accounts for 14% of the native-refugee wage gap. The pay-setting effect is zero. The adverse impact of firm sorting may stem from refugees having limited access to higher-paying firms upon entering the labour market and may result in a mismatch between refugees' abilities and wages.
Presented at Administrative Data Research (ADR) UK Conference, Future of Work - Workshop on Ongoing Changes in the Labour Marke, 13th Annual International Conference on Immigration in OECD Countries and 5th EBRD-King’s College London Workshop on the Economics and Politics of Migration etc.
Work in progress
UK Keyworkers – An Assessment of Pay, Precarity and Change During the Pandemic with Carmichael, F., Lewis, P. and Mogra, U
Exposure to automation and well-being of workers with Etheridge, B., and Ozgen, C.
Book chapter
Ceren Ozgen, Matt Cole and Hiromi Yumoto, Legal and Economic Integration of Refugees: What Works? , Migration, Displacement and Diversity - The IRiS Anthology, (Oxford Publishing Services, 2023)