Evaluation of Labour Market Integration Measures for Refugees

Integration into work and training is a key factor in promoting the integration and social participation of people who have been admitted to Germany for humanitarian reasons since 2015. In April 2018, according to the Labour Market Migration Monitor of the Federal Employment Agency, around 487,500 persons in the context of refugee migration were registered as job-seekers; almost 77,100 of them were registered as job-seekers in an employment promotion measure organized by employment agencies and job centres. The task of the evaluation is to comprehensively examine and evaluate the implementation, utilization, effectiveness and efficiency of these labour market-oriented integration measures for refugees. The evaluation is structured along five groups of labour market integration measures:

Measures

1. for activation and professional integration,
2. to promote career choices and vocational training,
3. for the promotion of further training,
4. preparatory measures to take up employment, and
5. employment creation schemes.

The evaluation, in which a total of seven institutes are involved (see below), comprises five modules:

1. The Monitoring provides continuous information on the use of the various measures, including information on participation, on how to reach the target groups and on regional differences in the use of the measures.
2. The Quantitative Analysis examines the extent to which integration into employment and training among refugees can be attributed to participation in measures and what influence other factors – such as the local labour and training market – have.
3. The Gender Mainstreaming and Equality module addresses the question of whether there are systematic differences in support between different groups of fugitives, what structural background this may have and how this is to be assessed from the point of view of equality.
4. The Efficiency Analysis investigates the relationship between the effects of the measures on the one hand and the resources used for them on the other. Furthermore, the efficiency analysis investigates whether there are side effects outside the target group as well as displacement effects in the labour market or in the distribution of resources.
5. The implementation analysis provides a comprehensive picture of the design and implementation of the measures at the local level. The aim is to clarify the influence of the organizational and institutional conditions and local configurations of actors on the implementation of these measures. Furthermore, the implementation analysis examines why some measures may have a greater effect than others.

The IAQ is conducting the implementation analysis in cooperation with the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW) at the University of Tübingen. In the implementation analysis, local case studies will be carried out in 16 selected municipalities. Two types of measures will be analysed in depth in each of them. The case studies are spread over two phases in 2018 and 2019. 11 to 14 semi-structured interviews will be conducted on site with representatives of the job centre, the employment agency, an integration centre (if available), with policy-makers, civil society organizations and other public bodies.

Institutes involved:

Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), overall project management
German Institute of Economic Research (DIW)
Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ), University of Duisburg-Essen
Institute for Applied Economic Research (IAW), University of Tübingen
Institute for Employment Research (IAB)
Kantar Deutschland GmbH
RWI – Leibniz Institute for Economic Research (RWI)