Publications - Policy Briefs

The capacity for labour market opportunities to ensure the economic and social ‘inclusion’ of people within society holds true for host populations as well as migrants, refugees and asylum seekers (MRAs). Regardless of one’s migrant or native status (by native we mean people residing in their country of birth and nationality), employment provides income, social identity, social connections, and it enables individuals to contribute to the growth and prosperity of the country through consumption and taxation. However, the integration of MRAs via labour markets is not a straightforward task, due to the specific issues relating to migration and refugee/asylum statuses, but also due to the extent of heterogeneity apparent across contemporary labour markets in Europe. This heterogeneity (in economic structure, sectorial composition, labour force and demographic features, etc.), combined with the substantial, but also uneven, impact of the wider economic crisis on European labour markets, has created a highly differentiated economic and social environment across countries. Building on such premises, SIRIUS understands the labour market integration of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees as being dependent on a pattern of concurring circumstances and features located at different analytical levels: at the macro (state, sub-state and supra-state), at the meso (intra-societal), and at the micro (individual) levels.
In this policy brief we present evidence and policy considerations about the ‘macro’ dimensions of integration by scrutinizing the characteristics of post-2014 MRAs along with the economic drivers of the SIRIUS economies (the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom and Switzerland) and their labour markets determinants.