Full Citation
Title: Refugee Resettlement: The Role of Social Networks and Job Information Flows in the Labor Market
Citation Type: Miscellaneous
Publication Year: 2006
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Abstract: As of 2005, there were over 9.2 million refugees worldwide and hundreds of thousands asylum seekers. Resettlement of refugees to North America and Europe is the primary strategy used when repatriation and local integration into the country of first asylum are not possible or undesirable. An important aspect of the resettlement process is how to distribute refugees within the new host country, and essential to that question is the role of social networks in facilitating job information to new arrivals. This paper provides empirical evidence of information flows regarding job opportunities within social networks among refugees resettled in the U.S. An adapted version of the model developed by Calvo-Armengol and Jackson (2004) provides the intuition that competition can exist between network members for job referrals and investigates the dynamics between the size of a social network, the tenure of network members and labor market outcomes. This model is tested empirically using a sample of refugees resettled in the U.S. from 2001-2005. The size of the social network is measured by the number of individuals from the same place of birth who reside in the same metropolitan area. The econometric specification controls for individual characteristics at the time of arrival as well as metropolitan area and nationality group fixed effects. The empirical analysis is consistent with the predictions of the model: a larger number of network members who have arrived in the U.S. one year ago lowers the probability of employment and the wage while more tenured network members improve labor market outcomes for recently arrived refugees. This paper therefore provides empirical evidence of the theoretical work by Calvo-Armengol and Jackson and isolates both costs and benefits of participation in social networks.
Url: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228688186
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Authors: Pande, Rohini; Beaman, Lori; University, Yale
Publisher: Yale University
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Labor Force and Occupational Structure
Countries: United States