Do refugees with better mental health better integrate? Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey

Dang, Hai-Anh H., Trinh, Trong-Anh and Verme, Paolo (2023) Do refugees with better mental health better integrate? Evidence from the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey. Health Economics, 32 (12). 2819 - 2835. ISSN 1057-9230

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Abstract

Hardly any evidence exists on the effects of mental distress on refugee labor outcomes. We offer the first study on this topic in the context of Australia, one of the host countries with the largest number of refugees per capita in the world. Analyzing the Building a New Life in Australia longitudinal survey, we exploit the variations in traumatic experiences of refugees interacted with post-resettlement time periods to causally identify the impacts of refugee mental health. We find that worse mental health, as measured by a one-standard-deviation increase in the Kessler mental health score, reduces the probability of employment by 11.9% and labor income by 22.8%. These effects appear more pronounced for refugees that newly arrive or are without social networks, but they may be ameliorated with government support. These findings have significant implications for the development of health and labor policies, particularly regarding the integration of refugees within host countries.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10991050
Additional Information:	© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Divisions:	International Inequalities Institute
Subjects:	R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine H Social Sciences
JEL classification:	J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J6 - Mobility, Unemployment, and Vacancies > J61 - Geographic Labor Mobility; Immigrant Workers O - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth > O1 - Economic Development > O15 - Human Resources; Human Development; Income Distribution; Migration J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J1 - Demographic Economics > J15 - Economics of Minorities and Races; Non-labor Discrimination J - Labor and Demographic Economics > J2 - Time Allocation, Work Behavior, and Employment Determination and Creation; Human Capital; Retirement > J21 - Labor Force and Employment, Size, and Structure
Date Deposited:	22 Aug 2023 16:18
Last Modified:	12 Dec 2024 03:51
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/120053

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