Integrating Refugees by Addressing Labor Shortages? A Policy Evaluation

We evaluate the effect on newly arrived refugees' employment of a policy, introduced in Denmark in 2013, that matched refugees to occupations with local labor shortages after basic training for those jobs. Leveraging the staggered roll-out across municipalities, we find that the policy increased employment by 5-6 percentage points one year after arrival and 10 percentage points two years after. The policy was especially effective for male refugees and refugees with some secondary education. The findings suggest that this type of policy could alleviate long-term labor shortages and integrate low-skilled immigrants, while having minimal competition effects on natives.