Abstract
Refugee women from the Near and Middle East face specific challenges when entering the Austrian labour market. Particularly gender-based factors, including care and reproductive work, exert pressure on these women and constitute major hurdles for successful entry into employment in Austria. Based on nineteen qualitative interviews with refugee women who participate in the labour market as well as experts from public and private organisations, we investigate into refugee women’s social and cultural capital as well as their individual agencies that lead to access paths into the labour market. We introduce the concept of enablement as the process of gathering the preconditions of the ability to conquer the challenges that arise on that path. In the wake of this, we illuminate the way in which the three dimensions of individual, institutional and relational enablement interplay and eventually shape individual agency towards labour market integration.
Highlights
The recent flow of refugee migration to Europe, which far comprises over three million refugees, peaked in 2015/2016
We developed an answer to the research question—how refugee women who were employed early in their integration process find their particular pathways into employment—by means of the concept of enablement
This concept describes the process of becoming able to conquer the challenges of access to the labour market and refers to the groundwork for the development of agency
Summary
The recent flow of refugee migration to Europe, which far comprises over three million refugees, peaked in 2015/2016. Our study does not ask how refugee women gain power in a classical sense but focuses on how they become able to develop individual agencies and find their way into employment in a new culture and society.
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