Migration is an increasingly relevant factor for European welfare states (Afonso and Devitt, 2016) and reached a new peak in 2015 due to a considerable increase in forced migration. From 2014 to 2015, the annual number of asylum seekers in EU member states more than doubled and also remained on this high level in 2016, while the distribution of refugees among European states varies considerably (Eurostat, 2017). Although the number of asylum seekers who will be given permanent residence in European countries cannot be predicted yet, many refugees will not return to their home countries. Thus, their integration – which is primarily achieved through labour market integration in capitalist societies – becomes a crucial task. Indeed, it may be seen as a core task of a social-investment strategy, of which ALMPs constitute an important aspect (Burgoon, 2017).
While the role of ALMPs and migration is increasingly studied, the role of ALMPs when it comes to forced migration has remained rather neglected so far. A special focus on forced migration seems important, however, since forced migrants are a group facing special problems on the labour market (e.g. uncertain residence status) (Brücker, 2018). Against this background, the paper will analyse in a comparative way if policies directed towards the labour market integration of refugees focus on activation. Following a most different systems design, countries were chosen that belong to different welfare regimes (Esping-Andersen, 1990), but have all adopted activating labour market policies in recent years and face increasing problem pressure with regard to the (labour market) integration of refugees (either with respect to an increasing number of asylum applicants and/or with respect to the political debate on the topic): Sweden, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
The paper first reviews the conceptual literature on activating labour market policy and operationalises these with regard to the labour market integration of refugees. It then analyses multiple sources such as government material, reform proposals, and strategy papers from 2015 onwards in order to answer the research question. In sum, the paper aims to make a contribution to comparative welfare state research by 1) systematically analysing policies directed at the labour market integration of refugees and 2) contributing to the current debate on ALMPs by expanding its analytical focus to a so far neglected field of research.
References
Afonso A. and Devitt C. (2016): Comparative Political Economy and International Migration. Socio-Economic Review 14(3): 591–613.
Brücker H. (2018): The Flow of Migrants to Germany and their Integration into the German Labour Market. IAB-Forum, 26 January.
Burgoon B. (2017): Practical Pluralism in the Empirical Study of Social Investment: Examples from Active Labour-Market Policy. In: Hemerijck A. (ed.) The Uses of Social Investment. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 161–173.
Esping-Andersen G. (1990): The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Eurostat (2017): Asylum and First Time Asylum Applicants by Citizenship, Age and Sex. Annual Aggregated Data (rounded).
