Unlocking Potential: Childcare Services and Refugees' Integration, Employment and Well-Being

Ludovica Gambaro (), Mathias Huebener, Sophia Schmitz and C. Katharina Spieß ()
Additional contact information
Ludovica Gambaro: London School of Economics
Sophia Schmitz: Federal Institute for Population Research
C. Katharina Spieß: Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung (BiB)

No 17181, IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)

Abstract: In armed conflicts, it is common for women, children, and the elderly to flee, leaving the men behind. While refugee women face particular challenges in caring for children in host countries, there is only limited evidence on the impact of childcare services on their integration. This paper examines the role of childcare services in the integration, employment, and well-being of refugee mothers. We focus on the displacement caused by the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Our analysis is based on a unique, large, and representative panel data set of Ukrainian refugees in Germany. We find a strong correlation between childcare attendance and the participation of refugee mothers in language courses, labour market activity, and social interaction. To establish causality, we leverage exogenous regional differences in childcare availability and excess demand. Our results reveal significant positive effects of childcare services on the participation of refugee mothers in language and integration programs, as well as employment and their interactions with Germans. However, we find no effects on maternal well-being. Our findings emphasize the importance of providing childcare services to refugee mothers to facilitate their integration.

Keywords: childcare services; refugees; forced migration; integration; employment; Ukraine (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I26 J13 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40 pages
Date: 2024-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-lab, nep-mig, nep-tra and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://docs.iza.org/dp17181.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17181

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
IZA, Margard Ody, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in IZA Discussion Papers from Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) IZA, P.O. Box 7240, D-53072 Bonn, Germany. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Holger Hinte ().