Micro and Macro Determinants of Refugee Economic Status

ABSTRACT

A the ory-based model of factors in fluencing refugee economic status was tested using nationally representative samples of Soviet/East Eu ro pean (n = 4241), South east Asian (n = 4748), and Cu ban (n= 4707) work ing-age ref u gees re set tied in the United States. Cen sus data on in dividu als and house holds were combined with data onmetro poli tan ar eas to as sess the relative effects of demographiccharacteristics, residency characteristics, acculturation characteristics, and community characteristics upon ref u gees' em ploy ment sta tus, pub lie as sis tance utr lization, and house hold in come. The data were analyzed us ing regression analysiswithhierarchicalentryof blocks. Across the three groups, the model ex plained 26-31% of the vari ance in em ploy ment sta tus, 32-39% of the vari ance in pub lie as sis tance uti li za tion, and 28-35% of the varr ance in house hold in come. De mo graphic char ac ter is tics had the larg est ef feet oneconomicsta tus. Residency character istics, accultur ationchar ac ter is tics, and com mu nity char ac ter is tics all had small and rel a tively equal effects. The most important in dividual determinants of economic sta tus were education, gen der, disability, and house hold composition. Implications for refugee re set tie ment theory, policy, and practice are discussed.

Key Words:

• Refugees
• economic status
• employ merit
• welfare
• census