“Making Do” in the Land of Opportunity—a Quantitative Exploration of the Economic Integration of Refugees in Utah

Abstract

The economic integration of refugees is a multidimensional process. Yet, existing research predominantly assesses economic integration unidimensionally as rapid employment or as wage level. Few researchers examine refugees’ long-term prospects for earning a livable wage. I argue that to understand refugee economic integration researchers should model multiple dimensions. Using a combination of administrative data and regional contextual data, I employ event history analysis to compare models predicting employment to those predicting the acquisition of a livable wage. I find that the factors contributing to employment differ dramatically from those that contribute to earning a livable wage. The study offers strong support for the broad hypothesis that scholars need to theorize the causes of different forms of economic integration separately.