Text: Charlotte Tybjerg Sørensen, Communications Officer
Photo: Colourbox

In the two research articles, published in Social Policy and Administration and Social Policy and Society, Rasmus Lind Ravn provides suggestions on which employers are most likely to succeed in integrating more refugees into the labour market, and what practitioners can be aware of when attempting to engage employers in active labour market policies.

Both articles are based on a representative questionnaire survey conducted among Danish employers in June 2019.

Six different types of employers

In the first article, Rasmus Lind Ravn has investigated which types of employers hire or do not hire refugees. Based on hierarchical cluster analyses, Rasmus Lind Ravn has developed a categorization; a typology of employers. Those who hire refugees are driven by different motives, attitudes and preconceptions about refugees. They can be divided into three types; knights, knaves and squires. 

• The knights are primarily driven by a desire to show social responsibility, and they have a positive view of people with a refugee background. However, their wish to be socially responsible often coincides with their self-interest.
• The knaves are primarily driven by their self-interest and do not believe that they have a social responsibility to hire refugees. Despite hiring refugees in practice, they are reluctant to do so because of a concern about relevant work experience.
• The squires are similar to the knights in some respects. They are driven by a desire to show social responsibility, but, like the knaves, have reservations about doing so due to concerns about refugees' work experience.

Rasmus Lind Ravn has also divided employers who have never employed refugees into three; aspiring knights, knights of fortune, and commoners.

• The aspiring knights show positive attitudes on most parameters - for example, they want to show social responsibility, and they are characterized by a complete absence of negative perceptions of refugees.
• The knights of fortune do not believe that they are obliged to show social responsibility, and they do not employ refugees because it has not been in their self-interest.
• The commoners make up the majority of Danish employers, and they are a special type of self-interested employer. Only a small minorityof the commonersbelieve they have a social responsibility to hire refugees, they see refugees' work experience as a barrier, and only a few believe that refugees are motivated to work.

In summary, the six types of employers have different attitudes, preconceptions and motivations for hiring or not hiring people with a refugee background.

• What is new here is the development of nuanced employer typologies and the finding that employers differ in their motivation for having or not having refugee employees, says Rasmus Ravn Lind.

(The article's further analyses show in which industries the different employer types are typically to be found, and it is discussed which labour market policy strategies can be used to engage more employers in labour market integration efforts.)

Attitudes and workplace characteristics of those who employ refugees

In the second article, Rasmus Ravn Lind describes the workplace factors, characteristics and employer attitudes associated with a higher probability of having people with a refugee background employed at the workplace.

-          I expected that there would be a positive correlation between, on the one hand, attitudes towards social responsibility and refugees, previous socially responsible practices in the area and cooperation with the job centre and, on the other hand, having people with a refugee background employed at the workplace, says Rasmus Ravn Lind.

The analyses show that preconceptions about refugees, attitudes towards social responsibility and existing CSR practices (in the form of employing other vulnerable groups and having previous experience of employing refugees) play a role in relation to existing employment practices.

-          This indicates that employers' attitudes and experiences are important factors in the labour market integration of refugees," says Rasmus Lind Ravn.

The analyses also show that there is a positive correlation between having been contacted by the job centre - with the purpose og persuading employers to either hire a refugee or getting a refugee for an internship - and having people with a refugee background employed.

-          This indicates that a proactive outreach effort by the job centres can contribute to getting more people with a refugee background into employment," says Rasmus Ravn Lind.

Rasmus Ravn Lind's research articles help to show how employment-oriented integration efforts can potentially be improved and targeted.

-          They give an idea of which employers are most likely to succeed in integrating more refugees into the labour market, and what practitioners can be aware of trying to engage employers, says Rasmus Ravn Lind.

Sustainable Development Goals

1: No poverty

8: Decent work and economic growth

10: Reduces inequalities

Want to read more?

• Social Policy and Society article
• Rasmus Lind Ravn's research profile
• CARMA – Centre for Labour Market Research