Working Paper: CEPR ID: DP15183
Authors: Nina Bobergfazlic; Paul Sharp
Abstract: The "refugee gap" in the economic status of refugees relative to other migrants might be due to the experience of being a refugee, or to government policy, which often denies the right to work during lengthy application processes. In Denmark before the Second World War, however, refugees were not treated differently from other migrants, motivating our use of a database of the universe of Danish naturalizations between 1851 and 1960. We consider labor market performance and find that immigrants leaving conflicts fared no worse than other migrants, conditional on other characteristics, within this relatively homogenous sample of those who attained citizenship. Refugees must be provided with the same rights as other migrants if policy aims to ensure their economic success.
Keywords: asylum policy; denmark; immigration; naturalizations; refugee gap
JEL Codes: F22; J61; N33; N34
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| treatment and policy differences (I18) | refugee gap (F22) |
| uniform treatment of migrants (F22) | refugee gap (F22) |
| current policies (J18) | refugee gap (F22) |
| conflict status (D74) | likelihood of being in a skilled occupation (J24) |
| observable characteristics (C90) | likelihood of being in a skilled occupation (J24) |
| migrants from conflict areas (F22) | likelihood of being in a skilled occupation (J24) |