Is There a Refugee Gap? Evidence from Over a Century of Danish Naturalizations

30 Pages Posted: 12 Sep 2020

See all articles by Nina Boberg-Fazlic

Nina Boberg-Fazlic

University of Southern Denmark

Paul Richard Sharp

University of Southern Denmark - Department of Business and Economics

Date Written: August 2020

Abstract

The "refugee gap" in the economic status of refugees relative to other migrants might be due to the experience of being a refugee, or to government policy, which often denies the right to work during lengthy application processes. In Denmark before the Second World War, however, refugees were not treated differently from other migrants, motivating our use of a database of the universe of Danish naturalizations between 1851 and 1960. We consider labor market performance and find that immigrants leaving conflicts fared no worse than other migrants, conditional on other characteristics, within this relatively homogenous sample of those who attained citizenship. Refugees must be provided with the same rights as other migrants if policy aims to ensure their economic success.

Keywords: Asylum Policy, Denmark, Immigration, naturalizations, refugee gap

JEL Classification: F22, J61, N33, N34

Suggested Citation

Boberg-Fazlic, Nina and Sharp, Paul Richard, Is There a Refugee Gap? Evidence from Over a Century of Danish Naturalizations (August 2020). CEPR Discussion Paper No. DP15183, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3688132

Nina Boberg-Fazlic (Contact Author)

University of Southern Denmark ( email )

Campusvej 55
DK-5230 Odense, 5000
Denmark

Paul Richard Sharp

University of Southern Denmark - Department of Business and Economics ( email )

DK-5230 Odense
Denmark

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