Outflows from Health Insurance and Subsequent Careers of Asylum Seekers of the Years 2005-2014

Asylum seekers, who were health insured by the Austrian Social Security System for the first time in the years 2005 to 2014 and who subsequently moved to other positions in the Austrian Social Security System, showed a rapid and steady increase in their labour supply in their first years on the Austrian labour market. After nine to ten years their participation rate was only marginally below that of natives or other foreigners. Since 2010 the distribution of this labour supply between unemployment and employment spells has however changed substantially on account of the increasingly strained situation in the Austrian labour market. As a consequence the integration process into employment – relative to natives and also other foreigners – came to a halt as of the fourth year among all cohorts except for those that entered the labour market in 2005. By contrast the time spent in unemployment by these cohorts increased substantially.