On Thursday, April 19th, the Brussels International Center for Research and Human Rights attended a seminar that examined the question of "Why do refugees struggle to integrate into European labour markets?". The event was hosted at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) office in Brussels and was supervised by Ms. Nadzeya Laurentsyeva, a CEPS research fellow who uses her economic and financial background to inform her perceptive migration research. Ms. Laurentsyeva was accompanied by two researchers, Mr. Franscesco Fasani and Ilke Adam. 

Mr. Franscesco Fasani is a research affiliate at the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), a research fellow at the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM) and The Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA), and a reader for the School of Economics and Finance at Queen Mary University of London. He was there to present findings from his recent research "(The struggle for) refugee integration into the labour market: Evidence from Europe". This research seeks to concretely compare the integration outcomes of economic migrants and refugees who share similar profiles (sending region, education level, age, date of arrival, etc.). This is an ambitions project that illuminates interesting patterns in refugee integration, specifically highlighting the employment gaps that are found between refugees, economic migrants, and local residents. 

This research was well complemented by the work of Ms. Ilke Adam, a research professor at the Institute for European Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Brussels. Her more qualitative, sociological perspective helped to contextualize some of the economic patterns that Mr. Fasani had displayed during his presentation. Through her research she has explored the impact that European and Belgian policy has had on the integration of refugees and other migrants. She emphasized the need for mainstreaming migrant integration, meaning that it should engage actors from local communities to the federal government. 

The aim of this seminar was to further explore the barriers to integration refugees face and discuss the different aspects that are impacting the observed outcomes. Integration is a complex issue and requires an interdisciplinary approach. Through seminars such as this one, researchers and policy makers can work together to better understand this issue.