Understanding and advancing labor market integration in transitional times

The economic and social integration of immigrants is at the core of scholarly and policy debates. The pandemic has reinforced the urgency of the issue.

This program aims to improve our understanding of the mechanisms promoting and preventing successful labor market integration, and to develop evidence-based policy tools in close collaboration across disciplines and with agents in the public and private sectors.

The research builds on perspectives from economics, psychology, and political science, and combines various approaches for data collection and analysis.The program is organized around four work packages focusing on areas where knowledge is much needed.

The first package concerns innovations in integration policy measures, studying e.g. the labor market and social impacts of providers in the civil sector connecting recent migrants with established residents.

The second package focuses on the role of firms and employers in the integration process, and their importance for understanding disparities across groups.

Studies will address how structural change and labor market institutions affect the prospects facing foreign-born and marginal workers.

Other projects collaborate with private and public employers to study the effects of subsidized employment in combination with intensified training. The third package addresses the impact of migration policy on the labor market.

Recent years have seen major shifts in national and international regulations that are likely to affect the functioning of labor markets as well as the outcomes of individuals and firms.

The fourth package considers the importance of cognitive and non-cognitive abilities for understanding individual outcomes and inequalities across groups.

The goal is to develop methods and technologies for measuring aptitude that work in various settings for broad groups, which can later be included in interventions within labor market and educational policy.