Refugee Employment and Gender Inequality in Country of Origin: Household and Individual Characteristics

Background and Purpose: Deep inequalities impact all women but particularly those experiencing the intersectionality of racialization, displacement, and violence (Bertrand, 2011; Rose, 2016). Gender-blind resettlement policies and economic independence requirements of women resettled in Western nations and the diasporic ethnic enclaves shape women’s opportunities. Even as the number of refugees resettled in the United States dwindles under current immigrant policy, more resettled families worldwide are headed by women (Memela & Majaraj, 2018). Employment is required by U.S. policy (U.S. Department of State, 2018) and so refugee women must find ways of gaining economic wherewithal. While there are many qualitative examinations of how refugee women integrate, there have been no empirical studies using data from nationally representative samples. Recent work has begun to explore the role of sending regions in refugee wages but has not considered how gender-based inequality is associated with employment outcomes for refugee women (Minor & Cameo, 2018). Built on the existing literature, this study investigates the association of the level of gender-based inequality in their country of origin on refugee women’s employment in the United States.

Methods: This study uses PUMS data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2010-2015 American Communities Survey (ACS), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Annual Immigration Statistics Yearbook, and the UNDP’s Gender Inequality Index. The analysis sample consists of respondents to the ACS survey who are refugees of working age and who are not in the armed forces or currently enrolled in school (n=21,765). Using a proxy variable to indicate refugee status, we compare the current employment status of refugee women and men and examine associated factors including race, marital status, having children, English skills, and other variables indicated in the literature. Logit analysis of the binary variable indicating current employment was supplemented with an interaction term for being female and the Gender Inequality Index score for the individual’s country of origin as estimation to ascertain associations between refugee women’s country of origin and other factors as compared to men’s.

Results: Logit outcomes support the proposed model (F =57.05, p<0.001) for refugees’ employment related to gender and the Gender Inequality Index score for their country of origin. Being female (p<0.001), being from a country with higher gender inequality (p=0.02), having at least one child under age 5 (p=0.001), and not having U.S. citizenship (p<0.001) were associated with not being currently employed. Greater time in the U.S. (p<0.001), being widowed, divorced, or separated (p<0.001), having a high school diploma or GED (p<0.001), finishing two years of college (p=0.03), and being racially identified as Black (p=0.001) are associated with being employed.

Conclusion and Implications: Social policy must acknowledge and ameliorate the deep inequalities confronting refugee women as they integrate in resettlement contexts. A constellation of structural and social factors in refugee women’s current circumstances intersects with gender-based inequality in their country of origin. Findings indicate the need for policies and programs that consider cultural backgrounds and unequal human capital investments in countries of origin when welcoming refugee women.