How are refugees faring on the labour market in Europe?

The OECD & European Commission recently released a working paper based on a 2014 Labour Force Survey. It answers 2 simple questions: who are the migrants who come for humanitarian reasons to Europe and how are they doing on the labour market, education, language and culture.Those questions have particular relevance in the current situation, but are notoriously hard to answer, as refugees gradually ‘disappear’ in migration and integration statistics when gradually settling in. This first evaluation provides key findings which can inform current policy debates.

Employment
Refugees represent one of the most vulnerable groups of migrants on the labour market. With an overall average employment rate of 56%, it takes refugees up to 20 years to have a similar employment rate as the native-born. Family migrants achieve comparable results, while persons arriving for employment or study purposes reach this level at the latest after 9 years.


In the first 5 years after arrival, only 1/4 refugees is employed. This is the lowest rate of all migrant groups. After 10 years, their employment rate reaches 56% and remains below the employment rate of native-born persons in most countries. The study also reveals that refugees are much more likely to be overqualified than other migrants. In total, almost 60% of employed tertiary-educated refugees in the EU are overqualified for the jobs they occupy, well above the levels the native-born (20%) and all other migrant groups (31%). 

A key finding is that bringing refugee women into employment is a particular challenge. Their average employment rate is 45%, 17 percentage points lower than that of men and 6 points lower than that of other non-EU born women.

Education

The survey finds that 1/5 refugees, aged 15-64 and residing in EU in 2014 had a tertiary level education. Although this is a rather high share, it ranks below the 27% of other non-EU born migrants. Moreover, their education level varies greatly by country. For example, 1/3 of refugees in Spain have higher education, while the respective share is less than 15% in Germany, Italy and Croatia. 

Another difference with non-EU migrants relates to the gender educational attainment gap: refugee women who arrived in the last 15 years tend to have significantly higher education levels than men, which is not the case for other non-EU born immigrant groups.

Language and culture

Less than half (45%) of refugees in the EU reported to have an advanced knowledge of the host-country language, while 2/3 of other migrants from non-EU countries declare to have such knowledge. However, such knowledge tends to improve with time, as the share of refugees who have advanced knowledge of the host-country language is twice as large among those who have been in the country for more than ten years, compared with more recent arrivals. It is highlighted that the level of knowledge of the host-country language has a considerable impact on the employment outcomes of refugees on all education levels.

Overall, 4/5 of all refugees living in Europe are found in 4 EU Member States (Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden and France). Even before the recent refugee surge, Germany was the top host country and the United Kingdom ranked second. An additional 10% lives in Belgium and Austria. 

Source: European Commission, DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion