di Maria Perino e Michael Eve

IT. Il paper presenta alcuni dati che documentano le difficoltà dei richiedenti asilo, arrivati negli ultimi due/tre anni, a trovare lavoro in Italia. Essi confermano le tesi della letteratura esistente che evidenzia come i rifugiati abbiano maggiori problemi e impieghino più tempo per “integrarsi nel mercato del lavoro” non solo rispetto ai cittadini ma anche agli altri immigrati.
Ci sembra che l’attenzione alle differenze tra i vari canali di migrazione, agli effetti che questi hanno sulle reti sociali e di conseguenza sui processi di inserimento lavorativo sia una questione politica cruciale e possa contribuire a spostare il dibattito verso elementi di realtà.

EN. In this paper we present some data documenting the difficulties of migrants arriving in the last couple of years as asylum seekers in finding jobs in the Italian labour market. Given the virtual absence of data on how recent refugees and asylum seekers are faring in the labour market in Italy, we believe even our very fragmentary data is a contribution. We then contextualize the problem in the general finding reported in the literature that (with some exceptions) refugees find it more difficult and take longer to “integrate into the labour market” not only when compared with natives but also with other migrants. We briefly discuss the various explanations proposed in the literature for this “refugee gap”, cite evidence showing that individual characteristics of refugees cannot fully explain the size of the gap, and argue that existing explanations are insufficient.
We then argue that the differences in the employment rates of migrants arriving via different channels (international protection, family reunion, employment, study) deserves attention in general, not just as a topic for “refugee studies”. We discuss the differences of various migration trajectories and the effects these have on social networks formed in the country of arrival, and consequently on ability to integrate into the job market.