Labor-Market Integration Projects Targeting Refugee Women in Germany: How Organizations With Different Inequality Regimes Negotiate Economic Integration

Abstract

In recent years, several European reception countries have made rapid labor-market integration a key part of refugee policy. Little is known about how such services work, how involved actors address their clients, and what effects this entails. This article examines labor-market integration projects targeting refugee women in post-2015 Germany. Comparing six projects of various organizational backgrounds, I identify two contradictory approaches: a femonationalist logic that addresses refugee women as barely employable caring mothers and spouses; and an intersectional feminist logic that perceives them as equally economically-active subjects. I argue that organizational rationales contribute to the limitations of gender-specific reception politics.