First Time Around: Local Conditions and Multi-Dimensional Integration of Refugees

Scared Straight? Threat and Assimilation of Refugees in Germany

“…In fact, our findings are likely to capture di↵erent nuances of the assimilation process documented inAksoy et al (2020). The similarity of results for economic integration in our work and inAksoy et al (2020) supports this interpretation.8 In related work,Schilling & Stillman (2021) andGraeber & Schikora (2021) examine the e↵ect of right-wing vote share and hate crimes on refugees' well-being and social inclusion in Germany.…”

“…Second, we develop a comprehensive measure that aims at capturing immediate threat, rather than generic attitudinal openness, faced by refugees. Both the focus on local cultural convergence and the more comprehensive threat index we develop may explain the di↵erence between our findings and those in Aksoy et al (2020), for what concerns cultural convergence. 7 Finally, our work speaks to the literature that leverages the quasi-exogenous allocation of refugees within Germany to assess the e↵ect of local characteristics on a wide range of economic outcomes (Bahar et al, 2019;Battisti et al, 2021).…”

“…Second, our paper is related to the vast and growing literature on the economic integration of refugees in high-income countries, which has recently been summarized in Brell et al (2020) and Becker & Ferrara (2019) among others. Closest to our paper, Aksoy et al (2020) show that more favorable labor market conditions and more open attitudes among locals promote the economic and cultural integration of refugees across German regions. As in our work, Aksoy et al (2020) rely on the novel Survey of Refugees to measure both dimensions of integration.…”

“…Closest to our paper, Aksoy et al (2020) show that more favorable labor market conditions and more open attitudes among locals promote the economic and cultural integration of refugees across German regions. As in our work, Aksoy et al (2020) rely on the novel Survey of Refugees to measure both dimensions of integration. We complement their findings in at least two ways.…”

Labor Market Integration of Refugees: RCT Evidence from Sweden

“…Recent research shows that the initial conditions that immigrants face in their host countries have important and long lasting impacts on their future economic and social integration (5,(11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Given the importance of initial conditions, it is striking that help to recent immigrants -such as language courses and job search programs -is typically offered in small doses and over long periods of time (16,17).…”