Labor market integration of refugees in Austria is a highly debated issue (at least) since the year 2015. How refugees can succeed in entering the labor market is discussed in the recently published paper “Finding your way into employment against all odds? Successful job search of refugees”, which is based on 26 interviews with refugees in employment. A high level of personal agency of refugees is necessary to overcome the many barriers on the labor market, establish a social network within Austria and obtain host country specific human capital. The Austrian institutional setting and the institution “apprenticeship” in particular acts as a two-edged sword. On the one hand, refugee craftsmen who want to work in their field of expertise without an apprenticeship certificate face an uphill battle. On the other hand, young refugees are able to enter the labor market as apprentices even if they arrived with only little formal schooling.
The research paper was written by Roland Verwiebe, Bernhard Kittel, Fanny Dellinger, Christina Liebhart, David Schiestl, Raimund Haindorfer and Bernd Liedl and it was published in the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies recentely.
