By Liene Ulmane, Student Assistant, Center for Displacement, Migration and Integration (MIX)
Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash
MIX Team talked with Rasmus Lind Ravn, Assistant Professor at AAU Department of Politics and Society about his research paper “Which employers have refugee employees - and which do not? Employer typologies developed through hierarchical cluster analyses”.
“The most interesting finding in the research is, that employers differ quite a lot in their motivations for employing, or not employing refugees. Many factors are at play including perceived self-interest, attitudes, and preconceptions about refugees,” notes Rasmus Lind.
Rasmus Lind continues and marks that there is a wide range of possibilities to continue research building on the results and findings of the study. “For instance, cross-national comparative studies could explore the prevalence of the employer types in different welfare state systems. Another possibility could be to explore and validate the typologies through in-depth qualitative interviews” he indicates.
Reading list for January 2023
- "Which employers have refugee employees - and which do not? Employer typologies developed through hierarchical cluster analyses"
By Rasmus Lind Ravn
Abstract: Employers can be regarded as gatekeepers of jobs. They decide how to post vacancies, whom to recruit and whom to dismiss. In recent years, a growing body of research has highlighted the crucial role of employers in relation to labor market participation of disadvantaged groups. This article contributes to this research by exploring which types of employers have refugee employees—and which do not. We develop the typologies through hierarchical cluster analyzes using a nationally representative survey of Danish workplaces. We find that the employers who have experiences with having refugee employees can be grouped into three based on their attitudes and preconceptions; knights, knaves and squires. Likewise, employers who have never had refugee employees can also be divided into three groups; aspiring knights, knights of fortune, and commoners. The groups differ in their attitudes and motivations for (not) having refugee employees. Our main contribution to the literature is the development of new nuanced employer typologies, and the finding that employers differ in their motivations for having, or not having, refugee employees.
► Find the research paper here
- "Negotiating Borders through a Politics of Scale: Municipalities and Urban Civil Society Initiatives in the Contested Field of Migration"
By: Martin Bak Jørgensen, Helge Schwiertz, Ilker Atac, Robin Vandevoordt, Sophie Hinger & Susanne Spindler
Abstract: In contrast to the increasingly repressive migration policies at national and supranational scales, new pro-migrant policies, networks, and practices of support have been initiated at the local scale. In numerous European municipalities, political visions and concrete experiences of inclusive approaches in the field of migration have emerged in recent years that combine questions of the right to global freedom of movement and social rights. While numerous studies have examined these "politics of scale" and scale-making at the local level in different places, this forum aims to further these debates by reflecting the entanglement of social movements and civil society organizations with the local municipalities across Europe and by bringing the analyzes and experiences of various initiatives into discussion. We therefore examine practices, relations and institutions of local migration politics that re-negotiate and bypass national and supranational borders at local scales, but also create new borders and boundaries in these processes.
► Find the research paper here
- "Migrants' Work Environment in the Danish Construction Sector: a Scoping Study"
By Charlotte Hooper Overgård, Laust Høgedahl, Magnus Jespersen & Trine Lund Thomsen
Abstract: This study of existing research maps out what is known about the work environment of migrant workers employed in the construction sector in Denmark. Through the systematic approach offered by a scoping study and using two conceptual models identifying determinants of worker health and safety as analytical frameworks, we identify an overall paucity of research concerned specifically with the health and safety of migrants. A broader literature shows that migrants are vulnerable workers who are channeled into 3D jobs and face job insecurity. Migrants also face poor treatment and segregation. We conclude by identifying 10 gaps in the current literature, including a lack of valid evidence concerning accidents and risks.
► Find the research paper here
