The gender dimension of refugees’ integration in the labor market

This paper examines the gender differences in labor market integration among refugees and their determinants. It focuses on a longitudinal dataset that covers the entire refugee population in Switzerland over 20 years. During the period examined, the majority of refugees came from low-income economies in Africa and Asia. The quasi-random allocation of asylum seekers across Swiss cantons, which differ in their socio-economic characteristics, provides a natural experiment to identify the effects of source country culture and the role of local initial conditions in shaping refugees’ labor-market integration trajectories. Our empirical findings show that women refugees from countries with more conservative gender norms (measured by female-to-male labor force participation ratios and fertility rates) have less favorable labor market outcomes, with these effects varying in their persistence over time. The analysis further reveals the negative role of initial unemployment and the positive role of co-ethnic networks in the cantons of arrival, with these effects varying by gender and network characteristics. Finally, local attitudes toward gender equality reduce the gender gap in labor market outcomes among refugees.