Labor-Market Integration Projects Targeting Refugee Women in Germany

How Organizations With Different Inequality Regimes Negotiate Economic Integration

Bibliographic Data

ID5897644
AuthorsJohanna Ullmann (0000-0002-9030-9225, Osnabrück University, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume24
Issue1
Pages1-15
Publication date2023-10-08
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1556-2948 • E-ISSN: 1556-2956
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15562948.2023.2264809
OpenAlexW4387453555
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited29

In recent years, several European reception countries have made rapid labor-market integration a key part of refugee policy. Little is known about how such services work, how involved actors address their clients, and what effects this entails. This article examines labor-market integration projects targeting refugee women in post-2015 Germany. Comparing six projects of various organizational backgrounds, I identify two contradictory approaches: a femonationalist logic that addresses refugee women as barely employable caring mothers and spouses; and an intersectional feminist logic that perceives them as equally economically-active subjects. I argue that organizational rationales contribute to the limitations of gender-specific reception politics.Keywords: Labor-market integrationrefugee womengender-specific reception policiesintersectionalitypolicy implementationfemonationalismactivationorganizational change AcknowledgementsI would like to thank all interviewees for their time and trust to talk about their experiences and engagements. Thank you to the editors and the three independent reviewers for their valuable comments. I am grateful to Helen Schwenken, Ulrike Krause, my colleagues at the "Migration and Society" research workshop and the "Forced Migration" research colloquium at the Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (IMIS) at Osnabrueck University as well as the IILME Standing Committee ("Immigration, immigrants, and the labor market in Europe") PhD Network of the IMISCOE International Migration Research Network for reading and commenting on previous versions of this paper. Thank you Samia Dinkelaker, Kathrin Fischer, Lisa-Marie Heimeshoff, Katrin Menke and Nadine Segadlo for your helpful feedback.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 In Germany, there are two different schemes for government aid: Support for economically active persons (Social Code, Book II) and for economically inactive persons (Social Code, Book XII).2 The projects' pseudonyms reflect the main features of the cases.3 All quotes are my translation.4 According to the German Social Code and its concept of the family as a "community of need", a beneficiary is no longer entitled to receive support if her/his spouse or other family members earns above a calculated minimum to cover family needs. Such state-imposed conservative familial dependence has an adverse effect, predominantly on women.Additional informationFundingThis work was part of the joint research project "Gender, Forced Migration, and Reception Policies. Processes of Gendered Inclusion and Exclusion in Lower Saxony" at University Goettingen, Oldenburg and Osnabrueck and supported by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture under Grant number 12.3-76251-99-42/16 and by the women's promotion program of Osnabrueck University

Immigration · Inequality · Negotiation · Political science · Politics · Public relations · Refugee · Social science · Sociology · Employment and Welfare Studies · Gender Studies · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Social Policy and Reform Studies

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