Refugee Labor Market Outcomes by Major Ethnic Group Socioeconomic Status: A Study of Social Capital and Context of Reception

Abstract

I examine of the effect of refugees’ major ethnic group socioeconomic status on their labor market outcomes after U.S. resettlement using two methodological approaches. First, I estimate the causal effects of major ethnic group SES on the probability of refugees’ employment and wages using International Rescue Committee (IRC) data prepared by Beaman (2012). Second, I examine the same effects using a sample of likely refugees identified in 2005-2018 American Community Survey data via an established procedure (Ruggles et al. 2020; Capps et al. 2015; Evans and Fitzgerald 2017). I identify significant positive effects of the proportion of major ethnic group members who have at least a college education on refugee’s probability of employment and significant negative effects on refugee’s wage for those who are employed using the first approach, but generally do not find consistent evidence that shows that refugees’ major ethnic group SES affects labor market outcomes.