Setback in labour market integration due to the Covid-19 crisis? An explorative insight on forced migrants’ vulnerability in Germany

ABSTRACT

In Germany as elsewhere, the Covid-19 pandemic has provoked a severe crisis for the economy, the labour market, social life and public administration. This article explores how refugees, who have accessed the labour market prior to the crisis, are affected by the current situation. Focusing on the crisis-shaken labour market as a juncture for integration processes, we were interested in whether the crisis actually increases vulnerability and leads to setbacks in integration processes. Based on qualitative interviews with refugees and employers conducted at the beginning of the crisis, the article identifies three problem areas in the field of working life (every day working life, conditions of work, prospects and the advancement of careers) in which the crisis-induced disruptions produced feelings of disorientation and made some refugees vulnerable. This went hand in hand with irritations in adaptation processes that are crucial for integration. The findings suggest that the Covid-19 crisis could, for some, turn into a ‘critical event’ in entire integration trajectories.

KEYWORDS:

• Refugees
• labour market integration
• social vulnerability
• Covid-19 crisis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The study ‘(Employment) Integration and Participation of Refugees’ was designed at and funded by the Institute for Employment Research (IAB). Research has been carried out in cooperation with a research team at the Free University of Berlin.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mariella Falkenhain

Mariella Falkenhain is Senior Researcher at the Research Department ‘Joblessness and Social Inclusion’ at the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) in Nuremberg, Germany. She received her doctoral degree from the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin (Germany), and served as visiting lecturer at the University of Bamberg (Germany). Her research interests include poverty, integration and governance in the context of labor migration and forced migration, as well as qualitative and mixed methods. Mariella Falkenhain is an active member of the International Public Policy Association (IPPA) and the International Society for Third Sector Research (ISTR).

Uwe Flick

Uwe Flick was trained as psychologist (PhD and habilitation) and sociologist. Currently he is professor for qualitative social and educational research at the Freie Universität, Berlin, Germany. Before that he worked at the Alice Salomon University in Berlin in the fields of health services research, which is still his major area of research, with a focus on vulnerability and service utilization. He also worked at Vienna University (Austria) in the Institute of Political Sciences. Current research focuses on ethical issues of health care for migrants at the end of life and on labour market integration of migrants and refugees. He is author or editor of numerous textbooks and handbooks, most of which have been translated in several languages in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Books include An Introduction to Qualitative Research (sixth ed., 2018, SAGE), Introducing Research Methodology—Thinking Your Way through Your Research Project (third ed., 2020, SAGE), the edition of The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Analysis (2014, SAGE), the SAGE Qualitative Research Kit (second. ed., 10 Vols., 2018, SAGE), and The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Data Collection (2018, SAGE).

Andreas Hirseland

Andreas Hirseland (PhD) studied economy, sociology and psychology. He was an Assistant Professor in sociology at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich (Germany) and in economic psychology at the University of Augsburg (Germany), and an Associate at the special research area ‘Reflexive Modernization’ (SFB 536) before he joined the Institute for Employment Research in Nuremberg, Germany. There, he is Deputy Head of the Research Department ‘Joblessness and Social Inclusion’ and contributed to the implementation of research programmes for the evaluation of welfare reforms. Currently, he is project director of the research project ‘(Employment) Integration and Participation of Refugees’. His research interests include discourse analysis, qualitative and mixed methods, welfare state, labour market, participation, social inequality and poverty research.

Shahed Naji

Shahed Naji studied Scenography at the Technical University of Berlin, Germany. He worked at LEAD, a part of Stiftung Mercator as a coordinator for the project ‘Migration Ambassadors’. He also coordinated projects related to migration and refugees funded by NGOs and international organisations (such as USAID, EU, UNHCR, Action Aid) across the Middle East. He is currently Research Associate at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany, in a project on ‘(Employment) Integration and Participation of Refugees’. His research focuses on labour market integration, transitions to work, and cooperation with civil society initiatives.

Kristina Seidelsohn

Kristina Seidelsohn studied sociology at the University of Cologne and the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. She was a fellow in the graduate school ‘Group-focused Enmity’ at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Research on Conflict and Violence at the University of Bielefeld (Germany), and completed her PhD in 2017. She worked in various regional and international research projects, currently at the Freie Universität Berlin in a project on ‘(Employment) Integration and Participation of Refugees’. Her research focuses on migration and integration, vulnerability and social inequality, precariousness and transitions to work.

Thomas Verlage

Thomas Verlage studied sociology at the University of Bielefeld, Germany. He worked at the Social Pedagogical Research Centre ‘Education and Coping in the Life Course’ at the Goethe University Frankfurt (Germany), and was involved in various regional and international research projects in the field of school-to-work transition. He currently works as Research Associate at the Freie Universität Berlin in a project on ‘(Employment) Integration and Participation of Refugees’. His research focuses on youth social work, transitions to work and the interdependency between different areas of welfare law.