A service of the

Forum

Integration of Immigrants in European Labour Markets

The European refugee crisis of 2015 has led to a renewed surge of research into how to integrate refugees – as well as family and labour migrants – into European societies and in particular into EU labour markets. Why do immigrants integrate better in some countries than others? Which skills have proven to be most essential for their successful integration, and what tools are available to countries to foster this integration? This Forum seeks answers to these questions, using country case studies, a review of social integration measures and an analysis of Bosnian refugee integration efforts from the 1990s.

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Figure of the month

Employment Rates of Refugees in Sweden

https://archive.intereconomics.eu/year/2017/5/the-labour-market-participation-of-humanitarian-migrants-in-sweden-an-overview/

This figure from the The Labour Market Participation of Humanitarian Migrants in Sweden: An Overview by Nahikari Irastorza and Pieter Bevelender shows the employment rates of various waves of humanitarian immigrants in Sweden between 1998 and 2012, separated by gender. Click on the image for additional details.

Editorial

The Fragility of Freedom of Movement

Intereconomics editor Cian Mulligan looks at the threat to freedom of movement  caused by the Brexit vote last year. Advocates of the freedom view it as a fundamental part of the single market, while critics view it as unnecessary for the functioning of the European Union. Behind all this, 16 million people across the EU live in other member states and await clarification.

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Immigrant Integration

Labour Market Integration of Refugees in Sweden

Pieter Bevelander and Nahikari Irastorza provide an overview of immigration and integration policies in Sweden and analyse the labour market integration of humanitarian migrants in Sweden relative to labour migrants, family reunion migrants and natives.

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Quote of the Month

Greek Weaknesses

“As far as investors are concerned, the biggest problem of the Greek economy is policy instability, followed by high tax rates and an inefficient government bureaucracy. It should be noted that the first two problematic factors did not exist prior to the crisis.”

from George Galanos, Angelos Kotios and Manolis Koutoulakis's article "How Greece’s Systemic Weaknesses Limited the Effectiveness of the Adjustment Programmes"

Letter from America

The Puerto Rican Saga

Well before Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, Puerto Rico was already in dire financial straits. Anne Krueger from Johns Hopkins University details Puerto Rico's economic stagnation and crippling debt and draws parallels to the situation in Greece. A key difference, however, is that Puerto Rico's economy is not merely in recession – it is shrinking.

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From the Archives

Will the Politics or Economics of Deflation Prove More Harmful?

In his 2015 Letter from America, Mark Blyth explained how continued deflation would lead to a decline of the political centre and why this would be "bad for the EMU project and all that flows from it". Blyth sees the anti-creditor, anti-market populist movements that have arisen since the crisis as threats not only to macroeconomic stability but to the "very idea of Europe".

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