SOEP Brown Bag Seminar

Many high-income economies strive to integrate recently immigrated refugees and asylum-seekers into their labor markets. We contribute to the discussion of relevant policy tools and use rich survey data that are matched to precise administrative records on refugee immigrants to Germany. We study the impact of occupational recognition decisions on refugee outcomes. Applying a difference-in-differences design with person-specific fixed effects, we find that those who benefit from occupational recognition are more likely to be employed, earn higher wages, have higher life satisfaction, and transfer higher remittances to their home countries than individuals who never (or later) apply for occupational recognition. In future work, we will employ event study designs to examine the development of effects over time and offer additional details on relevant mechanisms.