A positive psychology intervention to foster economic integration of Syrian refugees in the Netherlands
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| Author | José Muller‐Dugic,Pascal J. Beckers,Mario H. Braakman |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13163 |
242
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International Migration. 2023;61:242–261.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
INTRODUCTION
The number of peo ple worldwide who were for ced to flee their homes is unp recedently high.
At the end of 2021, there we re over 27 million refugees globally. D ue to the war i n Syria, the Syria n refugee
population continued to be th e largest displace d group, with 6. 8 million Syrian ref ugees hosted in 129 countries
(United Nations Refugee Agency, UNH CR, 2021). The European Union (EU) is a top destination for refugees
Received: 22 Jun e 2022
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Revised: 2 April 2 023
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Accepted: 13 April 2 023
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13163
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
A positive psychology intervention to foster
economic integration of Syrian refugees in the
Netherlands
José Muller- Dugic1 | Pascal J. Beckers1 | Mario H. Braakman2
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which
permits us e and distributio n in any medium, provid ed the original wor k is properly cited , the use is non-comme rcial and no
modificat ions or adaptatio ns are made.
© 2023 The Autho rs. International Migration published by John Wi ley & Sons Ltd on behalf of I nternational Org anization for
Migration.
1Departme nt of Geography, Planni ng &
Environment, Institute for Management
Research, R adboud Universit y, Nijmegen,
The Netherlands
2Departm ent of Criminal Law, Til burg
Law School, T ilburg Universi ty, Tilburg,
The Netherlands
Correspondence
José Muller- Dugic, Departmen t of
Geography, Pla nning & Environment ,
Institute fo r Management Resea rch,
Radboud Uni versity, Nijmegen,
The Netherlands.
Email: jose.muller@ru.nl
Funding information
European Soc ial Fund; ZonMw
Abstract
Researc h shows that the lab our market integ ration of refu-
gees is ofte n problematic. Litt le is known about wh at kind
of measur es are eff ective to h elp them int egrate into th e
labour market. In the Netherlands, a positive psychology
intervention “Mosaic” for Syrian refugees was developed
to support their e conomic participation. This stu dy aims to
assess the effect of “Mosaic” on the economic participation
and work- related attitudes of Syrian refugees. “Mosa ic”
was implemented in six municipalities by conducting an
RCT with a waiting list control group. The results show that
in the sho rt term, the inte rvention group realizes a signifi-
cantly larger increase in hours spent o n an internship as
well as substantially lar ger gains in confidence to find work
in th e futu re. In th e long te rm, t he inte rven tion gr oup exp e-
riences larger confid ence gains related to finding a job that
fits their educ ation and experience.
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FOSTERING ECONOMIC PARTICIPATION OF REFUGEES
(European Political Strategy Centre, EPSC , 2015). In 2015, the numb er of a sylum seeker s applying for a sylum
within the EU reach ed 1.3 million, more than a third of wh om were from Syria (Abadie et al. , 2016). In 2016, more
than 1.1 million asylum seeker s applied for asylum in the EU and Member States gran ted protection to 710,400 of
them. Of t hose granted protec tion, 57% were from Sy ria (Eurostat, 20 17). After this peak, the nu mber of people
seeking asyl um within the EU stabilized t owards 2021 (UNHCR, 2021).
A simila r development in the number of people seeking asy lum was observed in the Net herlands. In 2014,
21,800 asyl um seekers were registered in the N etherlands. This numbe r more than doubled in 2015, with 43,100
asylum regi strations. In th at year, 18,700 Syrians a pplied for asylum in the Netherl ands, which account ed for 43
per cent of the total annual asylum registrati ons (Statistics N etherlands, 2016). In 2014, 20,000 people received
a tempor ary residence permit, whi ch was 33,0 00 in 2015, 37,00 0 in 2016, 29,00 0 in 2017, 17,000 in 2018 and
8000 in the fi rst half of 2019. Of the residence permits granted in 2014, 53 per cent wer e granted to Syrians. This
perce ntage incre ased to 71 per ce nt in 2016 and th en decreas ed to 41 per cent in 2018. In the fi rst half of 2019, it
increased slig htly again to 43 per cent (Stati stics Netherlands , 2020).
Asylum seekers dif fer from r efugees with regard to their residen ce licence. As defined in the 1951 Ge neva
Convention on Refugees, an asy lum seeker is som eone who has app lied for asylum in order to seek government
protection in a foreign country fearing violence or pers ecution in the country of origin . If granted, the appli-
cant obta ins a temporar y residence pe rmit and is th en commonly refe rred to as refu gee. According to the same
Convention, a refugee is an individu al, who has a well- founded fear of pers ecution in t he home count ry on the
grounds of race, religion, politic al opinion or membership of a particular group (UNHCR, 2018). In the Netherlands ,
entitlement s to refugee status init ially render a tempor ary residence perm it valid for 5 years. Upon r eceipt of the
protection status, refugees are e ntitled to housing outside the rec eption centr es – large- scale public hous ing
compounds that initia lly accommodate asylum seekers – and they are allocated to munic ipalities that then assume
responsibilit y for the newcomer integra tion into society (Centra al Orgaan opvang Asielzo ekers (COA), 2022).
Given the high num ber of refug ees resid ing in the Eur opean Uni on, the con cept of integ ration is of great inter-
est to po licymakers and s cholars. Althou gh the concept of integration is wi dely used, defi nitions of this co ncept
vary (e.g . Ager & Str ang, 2004; Cas tles et al., 2002; Spencer & Charsley, 2021). After a critical ref lection on th e
conceptualizat ions of int egration so far, Spencer and Chars ley (2021, p.16) d efine integrati on as: “P rocesses of
interactio n, personal and social change among individuals and institutio ns across s tructural, s ocial, cultura l and
civic sphere s and in relation to identi ty; processes which are multi- directional a nd have spatial, transnat ional and
temporal dimensions.” This definition groups the domains in which integration processes take place in five dimen-
sions, of which the s tructural one refe rs to the participatio n in the labour market, edu cation and health syste ms.
Research o n this struc tural dimension of integration s hows that the labour market i ntegration of ref ugees is
frequently problematic (e.g. Abadie et al., 2016; EPSC, 2015; MPI, 2016; Organization for Economic Co- operation
and Development (OECD), 20 16). Under t he Commo n Europe an Asy lum System , Membe r States are obliged
to grant acce ss to the labour ma rket no later than 9 months from the mo ment that an application is s ettled
(EPSC, 2015). Once a refugee is granted th e right the work, it is often difficult for them to part icipate in the labour
market (e.g. Abadie et al., 2016; Kon le- Seidl & Bolits , 2016; MPI, 2016; OECD, 2016). Refugees have lower em-
ployment rates than the native - born population (56% vs. 65% as EU- average) and lower rates than other groups of
migrants, such as labour migr ants (71%) and famil y migrants (53%). It t akes between 15 a nd 19 years for refugee
employment rat es to catch up with the EU average r ate of native- born (65%) (Abadie et al., 2 016).
Similar patterns are obs erved in the Netherlands (e.g. B akker and Dagevos, 2017; Engberse n et al., 2015;
Statistics Netherlands, 2020). Bakker and Dagevos (2017) found th at the labour market integration of the largest
refugee g roups, who arrived in the Netherla nds 20 years ago, remained significantly lower than the rates of la-
bour migrant s and native- born. Only 25 per cent of the refugee s were employed after 2 ye ars of residence in the
Netherlands . After 15 years, this rose to 57%, compared to 80% for native- born and 65% for other migrant groups.
The current labour market participation of Syrian refugees in the Netherlands also lags behind th e labour market
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