The Labor Market Integration of Refugees to the United States: Do Entrepreneurs in the Network Help?

Olivier Dagnelie (), Anna Maria Mayda and Jean-François Maystadt

No 11343, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: We investigate whether entrepreneurs in the network of refugees - from the same country of origin - help refugees' labor-market integration by hiring them in their businesses. We analyze the universe of refugee cases without U.S. ties who were resettled in the United States between 2005 and 2010. We address threats to identification due to sorting of refugees into specific labor markets and to strategic placement by resettlement agencies. We find that the probability that refugees are employed 90 days after arrival is positively affected by the number of business owners in their network, but negatively affected by the number of those who are employees. This suggests that network members who are entrepreneurs hire refugees in their business, while network members working as employees compete with them, consistent with refugees complementing the former and substituting for the latter.

Keywords: entrepreneurship; labor market integration; refugees (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 J61 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 49 pages
Date: 2018-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ent and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Published - published in: European Economic Review, 2019, 111, 257-272

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Related works:
Journal Article: The labor market integration of refugees in the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help? (2019)
Working Paper: The labor market integration of refugees in the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help? (2019)
Working Paper: The labor market integration of refugees to the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help? (2018)
Working Paper: The labor market integration of refugees to the United States: Do entrepreneurs in the network help? (2018)
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