ifo Institute: Help with Contact with Employer Improves Job Opportunities for Refugees
Refugees’ prospects on the German labor market are improved to a significant extent if they receive support when they first approach potential employers. This was the finding of a research project conducted by the ifo Institute, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (LMU), MEDAM, and the University of Glasgow. Refugees without asylum status and refugees with below-average qualifications see a particular benefit.
“Many refugees do not know how to go about applying for a job in Germany,” explains Yvonne Giesing, a migration researcher at ifo. She and her colleagues interviewed over 400 refugees in and around Munich as part of the research project. They were asked what difficulties they had faced while searching for employment. The vast majority (67.7 percent) in the study stated that German language skills were a major challenge. By contrast, 38 percent of respondents said that they did not know where to look for work, while 10.2 percent struggled with the bureaucracy involved. The skills of 9.9 percent were insufficient to get a job. Furthermore, the ways in which they chose to make contact also impeded their success on the German labor market. Refugees tend to seek work through friends or by contacting firms directly. Just 39 percent read job advertisements online, yet this is often the most effective way of finding out about suitable openings.
The researchers followed up on these shortcomings. As part of the study, refugees were given CVs written in German, and some also received further assistance in sending their CVs to companies. Six and twelve months later, it became apparent that refugees with uncertain legal status and refugees with a below-average level of education saw a particular benefit from this additional help. On average, those refugees who received assistance in sending out their CVs have a greater likelihood (10 percentage points) of being employed one year later. For those with uncertain legal status, the likelihood is almost 20 percentage points higher, and approximately 15 percentage points higher for refugees with a below-average level of education.
Over the past year, the labor situation for refugees in Germany has improved dramatically. According to the German Federal Employment Agency, some 130,000 refugees found employment between July 2018 and July 2019 – 38 percent more than in the previous twelve months. Nonetheless, labor market integration is proceeding at a slower pace than originally hoped. Based on the findings, further progress could be made quickly and cost-efficiently through support programs. According to the study, additional job search assistance looks very promising, particularly for disadvantaged refugees. To this end, it is crucial that the assistance be provided with a minimum of red tape and in different languages. Other measures that could encourage the labor market integration of refugees would be to remove further obstacles, such as the residency requirement, priority review, and suspensions of deportation that are only temporary.
The study has been published in advance online by the Labour Economics journal (Volume 61, December 2019, 101745).
