Private companies' engagement in the labour market integration of refugees: An exploratory study of the city of Stuttgart,Germany

Private companies of all sizes may engage in the integration of refugees into the labour market. Taking the case study of the highly industrialised German city of Stuttgart, this study explores the motivation of (a) private large-scale international enterprises including (automotive and high-tech companies) and (b) family-owned small- to medium-sized companies (private social enterprises, suppliers to the automotive industries, architecture, and engineering companies) to do so. The research further explores the companies' challenges, opportunities and the lessons learned throughout the process. Utilising the principles of Grounded Theory, a qualitative case study approach is applied with in-depth interviews with private companies, civil society, public private partnerships and experts. The findings show that the arrival of a large number of refugees during 2015/2016 has increased the engagement of the companies, increased their cooperation with other sectors, and has correspondingly led to some innovative initiatives in refugees' labour market integration and policy advocacy. The call for the engagement of the private sector and the existence of employment-related policies such as tolerated work permits (Ausbildungsduldung/Beschäftigungsduldung) were essential to create sufficient incentives for private companies to engage in the training and employment of refugees. However, the insecure residence permits and bureaucratic procedures in the public sector mostly discouraged their engagement. Our research shows that the two company types had different possibilities, different approaches towards refugees and faced different challenges while engaging in refugee labour market integration.     

Trajectories of loneliness during COVID-19 pandemic and associations with mental health and substance use

We examined patterns of longitudinal trajectories of loneliness during the COVID-19 pandemic using six time points (January 2020 [pre-pandemic] to March/April 2021) and whether trajectories were associated with psychological distress (depression/anxiety) and substance use (alcohol/cannabis) outcomes in Spring 2021. Participants were 644 young adults who completed online assessments. Outcomes were regressed on most-likely loneliness trajectory adjusting for pre-pandemic measures. Three loneliness trajectories varied from consistently lower to consistently higher. Pre-pandemic social support was associated with lower odds of a higher loneliness trajectory. Higher loneliness trajectories were associated with greater odds of past-month cannabis use compared to Low trajectories, but not significantly associated with depression, anxiety, or alcohol use in Spring 2021. Interventions addressing co-occurring loneliness and cannabis use are needed.     

Informing employees in small and medium-sized firms about training: Results of a randomized field experiment

We mailed brochures to 10,000 randomly chosen employed German workers who were eligible for a subsidized occupational training program called WeGebAU, informing them about the importance of skills-upgrading training in general and about WeGebAU in particular. Using survey and register data, we estimate effects of the informational brochure on awareness of the program, on take-up of WeGebAU and other training, and on subsequent employment. The brochure more than doubles awareness of the program. There are no effects on WeGebAU take-up, but participation in other (unsubsidized) training increases among employees aged under 45. Short-term labor market outcomes are not affected.     

Including migrant skills in a knowledge economy: The politics of recognition of foreign qualifications,work experience and industry courses

The lack of skilled labour pushes mature knowledge economies towards importing skills. Previous studies have shown that migrants' economic and social integration in their host societies depend on the recognition of their skills. Yet, the degree to which the certificates of migrants and their practical experience are recognised and additional training is offered, is contested. Interests conflict not only between unions and employers, but also among employers and unions themselves. We argue that social partners' preferences on foreign qualification recognition (FQR), recognition of experience and industry-wide training (in the following: FQR and related measures) are mainly determined by the existence of occupational labour markets. An occupational labour market segments the labour market and subsequently restricts access to these segments. FQR and related measures constitute a regulated avenue into these occupational labour markets, protecting these labour markets from an uncontrolled influx of workers. Empirically, this contribution compares whether and how hospitality and construction industries—two sectors that depend heavily on migrants and difficult to organise due to seasonal activity—recognise and remunerate foreign skills. The construction sector recognises and remunerates foreign skills to a much larger extent than the hospitality industry. Adopting the method of difference and based on expert interviews, the paper shows that the more social partners protect their domestic occupational labour market, the more they also support FQR and related measures. The article discusses the implications for migrants' wages and social inclusion, contributing to the analysis of socio-economic tensions in mature knowledge economies.     

Hidden champions: Exploring supportive family relationships of youth experiencing homelessness

The relationships that youth experiencing homelessness (YEH) have with supportive family members (i.e. those who provide them with social support) may be protective against risk behaviours and buffer adverse health outcomes. However, little is known about the nature of YEH's supportive family relationships and the type of social support that these family relationships offer them. Thus, we conducted in-depth interviews with 30 YEH to examine the type of social support received from family relationships and to explore the social dynamics of these relationships. We found that many YEH not only continued to maintain relationships with family members after becoming homeless but also received emotional and/or instrumental support from these family members. Beyond providing this type of social support, family members served as a source of motivation for these youth. Additionally, YEH contributed to their family relationships and gained a sense of connectedness in return. Lastly, we found that YEH's family support was influenced by their family circumstances and their need for autonomy. Collectively, our findings suggest there may be a need for interventions designed to strengthen relationships with supportive family members among YEH, who may derive multiple positive benefits from relating with the ‘hidden champions’ in their lives.     

Robustly assigning unstable items

Journal of Combinatorial Optimization - We study the robust assignment problem where the goal is to assign items of various types to containers without exceeding container capacity. We seek an...     

A Bootstrap Mechanism for Response Masking in Remote Analysis Systems

National Statistical Agencies and other data custodian agencies hold a wealth of data regarding individuals and organizations, collected from censuses, surveys and administrative sources. In many cases, these data are made available to external researchers, for the investigation of questions of social and economic importance. To enhance access to this information, several national statistical agencies are developing remote analysis systems (RAS) designed to accept queries from a researcher, run them on data held in a secure environment, and then return the results. RAS prevent a researcher from accessing the underlying data, and most rely on manual checking to ensure the responses have acceptably low disclosure risk. However, the need for scalability and consistency will increasingly require automated methods. We propose a RAS output confidentialization procedure based on statistical bootstrapping that automates disclosure control while achieving a provably good balance between disclosure risk and usefulness of the responses. The bootstrap masking mechanism is easy to implement for most statistical queries, yet the characteristics of the bootstrap distribution assure us that it is also effective in providing both useful responses and low disclosure risk. Interestingly, our proposed bootstrap masking mechanism represents an ideal application of Efron's bootstrap—one that takes advantage of all the theoretical properties of the bootstrap, without ever having to construct the bootstrap distribution.