Integrating Asylum Seekers in the Austrian Labour Market

At almost 89,000 applications for asylum by November 2015, asylum migration into Austria, propelled by the crisis in Syria and Afghanistan, reached a dimension in the course of 2015 not seen since the Hungarian crisis in 1956. International literature views asylum seekers as a group of migrants that is distinguished from labour migrants and other migrants (e.g., family migration, such as the influx of family members) by their human resources, labour market integration and other properties such as their physical and mental health. Similar to findings of international studies, asylum seekers recently arrived in Austria are found to be less successful in integrating in the labour market, even when accounting for other factors of importance for labour market integration. Women asylum seekers in particular suffer from major disadvantages.