Reducing the assessment period for asylum seekers could improve their employment chances and integrate them into their adopted country more quickly, a new study has found.

An analysis of refugee data from Switzerland shows that reducing the waiting time by 66 days (10 per cent) would save Switzerland more than 5 million Swiss francs in social benefits and higher tax revenue.

The research – by Dr Dominik Hangartner from the London School of Economics and Dr Duncan Lawrence from Stanford University in the US, and published in the journal Science Advances – could have important policy implications for countries seeing an influx of refugees.

By analysing unique register panel data on all individuals who applied for asylum in Switzerland between 1994 and 2004, Dr Hangartner and his colleagues found that refugees waiting an additional year for their asylum claim decision face a 20 per cent reduction in their subsequent employment rate.

This was across all genders, origins, ages, and language regions – a pattern consistent with the idea that waiting in limbo dampens refugee employment through psychological discouragement, rather than a loss of skills.

On average, the refugees in the sample waited 665 days for their asylum decision.

The findings indicate that policy reforms that marginally reduce the waiting period for asylum seekers would help refugees navigate the difficult transition from a life in asylum limbo toward successful integration into their host country.

“Reducing wait times is no silver bullet to solving the refugee crisis, but an important and practical mechanism to increase employment and thereby reduce the significant public expenditures for welfare benefits and increase the tax contributions of newly employed refugees,” Dr Hangartner said.

“Typically, asylum seekers are temporarily housed in the country of arrival while they wait for a decision on their asylum claim.

“During this waiting period, they find themselves in a legal and social limbo in which their lives are essentially put on hold and they operate under the threat of deportation.

“Despite these and other known hardships asylum seekers face during lengthy asylum procedures, it remains unclear how longer waiting times affect the integration of refugees into receiving countries,” Dr Hangartner said.

Co-author Dr Duncan Lawrence said that money spent on reducing wait times, for example by hiring more case workers, while preserving the fairness and thoroughness of the asylum process will yield an excellent return on investment.

He said that while the study provided an important first step in enhancing current understanding of how the asylum process affects refugee integration, future research was needed on factors which affect refugee integration.

Laurie Nowell
AMES Australia Senior Journalist