Abstract
This study examines the employment and work intentions of Syrian refugee women in the Netherlands. While earlier studies showed that refugee women have dramatically low labor force participation rates, it remains poorly understood why this is the case. In this study, we provide new insights, using large-scale, nationally representative data on Syrian refugee women in the Netherlands. Our analyses provide evidence to suggest that beyond human capital characteristics, three gender-specific factors contribute to lower participation rates: discrimination of Muslim women who wear a veil, family constraints and traditional gender role attitudes. Among Syrian unemployed women, we find that wearing a veil or having young children is associated with an inability to work, whereas traditional gender role attitudes are significantly associated with unwillingness to work.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Ethnic and Racial Studies |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | E-pub ahead of print - 21 Aug 2024 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Funding
No Statement AvailableDAS:The data that support the findings of this study are available from Statistics Netherlands. Restrictions apply to the availability of these data. Under certain conditions, these microdata are accessible for statistical and scientific research. For further information: [email protected]. The code can be found on SOCARXIV: https://osf.io/s9yhr/.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Instituut Gak-KNAW award |
Keywords
- employment
- Labor force participation
- refugee women
- Syrians
- The Netherlands
- work intentions
