Getting out of being a refugee : a case study about skilled refugees' labour market integration experiences in Amsterdam

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Getting out of Being a Refugee

A case study about skilled refugees’ labour market

integration experiences in Amsterdam

Name: Xandra Hoek Supervisor: Hein de Haas

Student no.: 10159630 Second reader: Sonja Fransen

Master Sociology (general track)

July 2017, Amsterdam

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Summary

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the role of the refugee status in skilled refugees’ labour market integration. Current researches and reports about the labour market integration of migrants show that refugees perform worse than other migrant groups. Explanations for this refugee gap are provided by academics and policy researchers, attributing this refugee gap to the specific characteristics of the refugee group.

However, the refugee group is not homogeneous and differs in among other things, race, gender, age, ethnic background, class, (work) experiences and educational level. All these factors, as well as contextual factors (i.e. the political, geographic and economic context) may play a role in the labour market integration of refugees. In order to get a fuller understanding of the complexity of processes of integration, it is fruitful to examine the labour market integration experiences within these different sub-groups and sub-sectors. This study thus examines the labour market integration experiences of skilled refugees in Amsterdam. Moreover, I am interested in how skilled people with a refugee status themselves would conceptualize the notion of ‘refugee’ and to what extent they identify themselves with the label. As literature on the use of labels and categories in (policy) research show the stigmatizing effects on the members of these shaped groups, this research investigates whether and how the refugee label affects skilled refugees in their search for a job or education.

This study has looked into these issues by interviewing eleven skilled people with a refugee status who are looking for or have already started a job or education in Amsterdam. During these semi-structured interviews the following topics were discusses: the meaning of having a job for skilled refugees and its role in their integration; the obstacles skilled refugees encounter during the execution of their integration strategies; and the meaning of ‘being a refugee’ and its salience in social interaction. Moreover, I took notes of conversations with employers and city council workers. As I kept working as a job coach for refugees in Amsterdam, I also used data collected during informal conversations with refugees and other job coaches. Additional data was collected through policy documents and observations. The respondents in this research were collected through my work as a job coach, and were chosen based on their educational level (i.e. studied at a university and/or ranking a highly skilled job) and city of residence (i.e. Amsterdam).

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3 Chapter 1 provides the theoretical framework used for this research. The literature set out in this chapter has functioned as a tool to determine the research objectives. Also, it has worked as a basis for this study’s methodological decisions and research design. Chapter 2 contains the motivations for the methodology, research design and methods, operationalization and sampling used in this research. Chapter 3 includes the analyses of the issues investigated in this study. This chapter explains what ‘being a refugee’ means for my respondents and illustrates how my respondents define and perceive their own integration as a process of ‘getting out of being a refugee’. Then, this chapter further examines being open towards Dutch people, finding a job and starting an education as skilled refugees’ strategies for integration. Furthermore, this chapter sets out the obstacles my respondents perceived in the implementation of these strategies.

This thesis closes with an concluding chapter wherein the elements of the analyses are brought together and conclusions are drawn, thereby answering the main question of this research: What the role of the refugee status in skilled refugees’ labour market integration experiences? This case study found that the attitude towards the refugee status shifted as soon as my respondents were provided a residence permit. While looking for asylum, the refugee status was desired, as it enabled my respondent access to the Netherlands. However, as a resident of the Netherlands, my respondents perceive the refugee status as a hindering factor for their integration. The skilled refugees in this case study articulated finding a job or starting an education and connecting to Dutch citizens as the ways to gain access to the inside society (i.e. full citizenship), however on the other hand face the obstacle that full citizenship (i.e. lose their refugee status) is necessary to be able to have full access to the rights and means needed to integrate into Dutch society.

The concluding chapter is followed by recommendations for policy makers and further research, thereby pinpointing the shortcomings of and gaps in this research. A shortcoming of this research is its selective sample in terms of residency duration, age, gender and family situation, as almost all of my respondents are young, single male and received their residence permit between 2015 and 2016. Further comparative research with a more diverse sample in terms of residency duration, age or family situation would thus give more insight in what affects the labour market integration of skilled refugees. Another shortcoming is that this research fails to investigate skilled refugees’ additional possibilities and strategies to get the information and tools they need. Further research on how skilled refugees deal with obstacles and setbacks, and how they achieve their goals around the structures and rules provided by policies and state institutions, would be of great

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addition to the existing literature. A final recommendation contains the advice to include refugees in the policy making process, and to work with case studies in order to grasp the complexity of processes of integration into policies and programmes made for refugees.

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Introduction

Recent reports and researches on the labour market integration of migrants show a ‘refugee gap’; humanitarian migrants fall behind compared to natives and other migrant groups when it comes to labour market participation (Cangiano 2012; Cebulla et al. 2010; NIACE 2009; OECD 2016). Monitoring reports on refugees show lower labour market participation than expected (Gemeente Amsterdam 2016a; 2016b). Academic studies and research reports on the labour market integration of refugees suggest that this gap is due to a lack of human capital (Van Tubergen et al. 2004; Boeri et al. 2002), insufficient proficiency in the host country’s language (Waxman 2001; Mamgain and Collins 2003; Chiswick and Miller 2001), being distanced from the labour market for too long, e.g. caused by refugees’ time on refuge and the asylum period (De Vroome and Van Tubergen 2010: 398), and because refugees have often faced traumatic situations as they unwillingly left their country (Konle-Seidl and Bolits 2016). Comparative studies on the effective labour market integration of refugees in different European countries suggest that early contact with the labour market is often associated with faster integration of refugees (Martin et. al 2016; Desiderio 2016; Lemaître 2007). These reports and studies have in common that the ‘refugee’ must be identified as a separate migrant group, as this group is characterized by distinctive motivations of migration and by different attitudes towards labour market participation and work (Martin et. al 2016).

However, ‘refugees’ are not a homogeneous group. First of all, the refugee status or label is a category conceptualized and used by researchers and policy makers to distinct between different migrant groups (Zetter 1991; Torpey 1998). Moreover, distinguishing differences may be used as a tool to make structures of oppression or exclusion among equally treated groups of people visible, which makes it possible to change these structures and improve the situation of those who were not noticed before. Still, people assigned a refugee status are in the first place humans with differences in background, class, race, gender, age and so forth. Claiming that there are refugee specific factors and obstacles as well as suggesting a similar integration strategy for all refugees or refugees in general, is thus something academics and policy researchers should be critical about.

Favourable conditions and obstacles for the integration of refugees differ highly from person to person and per context (Castles et al. 2001), involving gender, race and age, but also someone’s personality, class, skills and qualifications, as well as the policy and economic contexts

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6 of the city, region or country of residence. In order to get a fuller understanding of the complexity of processes of integration, it is fruitful to examine the labour market integration experiences within these different sub-groups and sub-sectors.

The objective of investigation in this research is the labour market experiences of skilled refugees in Amsterdam. This study examines people’s ambitions, as well as personal experiences on the Amsterdam labour market during the search for a job or an education. Moreover, this study looks into the meaning of integration for this sub-group and what role having a job or education plays in the process of integration. As a job coach at a local initiative in Amsterdam where students and young people with a refugee status look together for a job or education, I spoke to many skilled refugees about their experiences on the Dutch labour market and their encounters with their contact person at the municipality. Also, we often spoke about the meaning of having a job and discussed strategies for finding a job that fits their skill level, previous work experiences, interests and field of expertise. It was through these conversations, that Khalil (who would become one of my respondents later on) told me: “In order to find a job, one must get out of being a refugee”.

Existing literature on asylum procedures of migrants and refugees show the importance of being a refugee opposed to an economic or voluntary migrant in order to receive access to both human and social rights in the country of asylum (Holmes and Castañeda 2016). In order to obtain the Dutch residency, refugees must carry out their ‘being a refugee’, sharing negative and traumatic experiences or ‘proving’ mental or physical stress (Fassin and d’Halluin 2005). In other words, being a refugee is the first step to start and build a life in the Netherlands, however in relation to skilled refugees’ labour market integration, being a refugee is an undesired label. Throughout semi-structured interviews with eleven skilled refugees with a Amsterdam residency, this case study discusses what ‘being a refugee’ and having a job or education means to skilled people with a refugee status, and gives an insight in the personal labour market integration experiences of skilled people with a refugee status. Altogether, this study answers the focal question: What is the role of the refugee status in skilled refugees’ labour market integration experiences?

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1. Theoretical framework

This study aims to investigate the role of the ‘refugee status’ in skilled refugees’ labour market integration experiences. The theoretical framework set out in this section has functioned as a tool to determine the research objectives. Moreover, it has worked as a basis for this research’s methodological decisions and research design.

Chapter 1.1 provides an overview of the existing literature on integration and its relation to citizenship. It touches upon the discussion about to which extent citizenship is a necessary tool or a reward for integration. This study focusses on the labour market (i.e. structural integration) of skilled refugees in Amsterdam, however social and structural integration are intertwined and cannot be isolated from one another. This section will provide a theoretical framework on definitions of social and structural integration and how both are related.

Moreover, literature on the labour market integration shows a gap between the employment of refugees and other migrant groups. Chapter 1.2 will give an overview of the recent literature about this ‘refugee gap’ and its explanations. This section will critically assess the explanations and counteracting factors for the refugee gap given by academics and policy researchers, thereby taking into account the heterogeneity of the ‘refugee group’.

Chapter 1.3 goes deeper into the literature and theories about the use of labels by researchers and policy makers. Whereas the use of labels might make minorities or less-favoured people within a community visible – thereby setting a basis for a solution and positive change for those who were unnoticed previously – labels can also have a stigmatizing effect on those who are assigned the label. This may also problematize a group. The obstacles skilled refugees perceive throughout their search for a job or education are then due to ‘being a refugee’, thereby not taking into account that (a lack of) labour market integration is individual and contextual, and is affected by a variety of factors, e.g. gender, race, age, skill or class.

1.1 Integration and citizenship

Among scholars and policy researchers, there is still discussion about the definition of integration. Interestingly, integration is commonly acknowledged as a social problem among scholars (Scholten 2011: 18). One of the most basic understandings of the concept of integration, is provided by John Berry’s (2011: 2.5) model of acculturation, which distinguishes four different processes or strategies: integration, assimilation, separation and marginalization. Integration refers

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to a strategy of creating relations or ties with other ethnocultural groups, as well as retaining one’s own heritage, culture and identity. Assimilation refers to a process of abandoning the culture and identity of one’s country of origin, and adopting the norms, values and culture of one’s new country of residence.

In literature that look more closely to processes of integration, a difference between institutional or structural integration and cultural or social integration can be distinguished. Institutional integration concerns the participation of refugees and migrants in the society on an institutional level, e.g. the labour market (employment), housing and health care. Cultural or social integration refers to a process wherein minority groups and mainstream or dominant society congregate in a shared system of culture, language and meaning. Ager and Strang (2008) note that social and institutional integration are interrelated, and thus cannot be pulled apart. In order for refugees to integrate structurally or institutionally, the bonding and bridging of social ties and proficiency in the host country’s language are necessary, and vice versa.

It is important to add that the definition of integration depends on deeper, often historically attached values in society. In the Netherlands, pillarism has played a role in the construction of Dutch migrant integration policies and attitudes. Scholten (2011: 19) argues that with the erosion of pillarism, the Dutch political discourse have been using immigrant integration as a means to regenerate a feeling of national belonging at the cost of migrants: “(…) at the turn of the millennium, immigrant integration became an important issue for the Netherlands’ revision of its national imagined community in the context of globalisation as an ongoing social process”.

A nation-state’s political and social environment is influenced by its government’s rhetorics, institutions and policies. Moreover, how integration practises, policies and programmes are formed, depend on a nation-state’s structural or institutional context (e.g. legal framework, labour market and health care institutions) and by its rules, procedures and dominant attitudes towards the responsibility for social care and relations within the society (Crul and Schneider 2010: 1260). Even though the Netherlands is known for its multiculturalism, its definition and understanding of integration has changed over the years.

In his study on the development of Dutch integration policy and discourse, Schinkel (2013: 1144) distinguishes three phases. The first phase was one of “precluded talk of integration”. Guest workers were invited to the Netherlands for work, however were not expected to integrate into the Dutch society at all, as they were expected to return to their home country eventually. This phase

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9 was followed by one focussing on structural integration, challenging structural inequalities experienced by migrants in the labour market and educational institutions (i.e. multiculturalism). The third and current phase is illustrated by a growing attention on cultural differences. In the current “culturalist phase” the integration discourse emphasizes the (re-)creation of Dutch national identity, with so-called universal Dutch norms, values and standards as a replacement for migrants own cultural heritage. Schinkel (2013: 1142) argues that in this discourse the non-integrated becomes an ‘outside society’ that is associated with social problems and are therefore in need of integration.

Within this notion of protecting the borders and identity of communities or nation-states lays an interesting relationship between citizenship and integration. Jurado (2008) points out that in an assimilist discourse citizenship is seen as a reward for successful participation and acculturation. In other words, one must adapt to the host country’s community or identity in order to earn full access or citizenship. Taking Estonia as an example Jurado (2008: 17) illustrates the dangers of this approach and argues that “governments that seek to foster cohesion in multi-ethnic societies should opt for the “tool” approach to citizenship, which prioritises the role of equality and participation rather than language and identity in the integration process”. Similarly, Bloch (2000: 78) emphasizes the importance of full citizenship for successful integration: “Anything less than full citizenship will impede settlement because members of the host society do not see the migrant as part of the society while the migrants cannot properly settle because they do not have the opportunity to feel that they are part of the society”. In this understanding, citizenship is a tool or a means for successful integration, rather than a reward.

1.2 The ‘refugee gap’

Recent studies on the labour market participation of migrant groups show a gap between the performances of refugees and of other migrant groups (Cangiano 2012; Cebulla et al. 2010; NIACE 2009; OECD 2016) – in the literature referred to as ‘the refugee gap’. On a positive note, longitudinal studies show that the employment rate of refugees increases over time (OECD-EU 2014). This empirical data provides evidence for policy researchers that the channel of entrance is a key indicator for the integration path of migrants. These reports share the notion that the refugee gap can be explained by the fact that refugees have other reasons and motivations for migrating, as well as different attitudes towards work and the labour market than other migrant groups: “Whereas labour migrants start working almost immediately after arrival, (…) humanitarian

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10 immigrants, for whom employment is not the main reason for moving to a new country, need more time to become part of the host country labour market” (Martin et al. 2016: 12). Moreover, a dominant assumption within migration studies is that political migrants have low human capital (Van Tubergen et al. 2004).

On a critical note, it is very difficult to identify the specific reasons for the ‘refugee gap’, as the group labelled as refugee is very diverse. Academia has often adopted categories used in policy when studying migration and integration topics. In this policy discourse, distinctions between economic migrants and political refugees, and between labour migrants, skilled migrant and expatriates are made. From a policy perspective these different categories are needed to make society legible and to decide what different policy measures are applicable and are needed to control migration flows. Also, the state can determine who will included and excluded from cross-border mobility (Torpey 1998: 245). Sociologists need to be critical about the use of categories, as social reality cannot be explained through distinctive groups. When an asylum seeker is provided a refugee status, this status comes with rights and obligations and a certain treatment by the state. However, people that are labelled as a refugee are not a homogeneous group. People come from different areas in the world, have different motivation for leaving their countries, and have different (work) experiences and skills.

Looking further into the literature that gives an explanation for the refugee gap in relation to labour market integration, the most commonly mentioned indicators are refugees’ lack of proficiency in the host country’s language (Roshid and Chowdhury 2013; Dustmann and Fabbri 2003; Hayfron 2001), refugees’ low skill level compared to other migrant groups and natives (OECD 2016; Boeri et al. 2002; Van Tubergen et al. 2004), refugees’ psychological stress due to traumatic experiences and the forced nature of migration (Konle-Seidl and Bolits 2016), as well as a lack of networks that provides refugees information about the host country’s system (i.e. structural integration), as well as the cultural norms, values and ethics of the host country’s labour market (i.e. social integration) (Martin et al. 2016). By focussing on the human capital and language proficiency of refugees, there is a risks of overemphasizing refugees lack of skills applicable to the labour market. In addition, focussing on refugees’ lack of social bridging may leave the importance of social bonding mechanisms in creating stability, trust and economic opportunities (Vallejo 2012) unargued. In stating that refugees are characterized by a psychologically state of mind due to their forced migration and traumatic experiences hides a risks

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11 of framing all refugees as inherently pathologically distressed. As Malkki (1992: 33) puts it: “Our sedentarist assumptions about attachment to place lead us to define displacement not as a fact about sociopolitical context, but rather as an inner, pathological condition of the displaced”, whereby people with a refugee status are not seen as “ordinary people, but represent, rather, an anomaly requiring specialized correctives and therapeutic ventions”.

Moreover, explaining the refugee gap by these characteristics leaves the effects of (ethnic) discrimination, stereotypical labels, prejudices, the policy and labour market context (i.e. nationally and locally), but also factors such as age, gender and personality undiscussed. Therefore, it is important to get more insight in the personal experiences of skilled refugees on the Amsterdam labour market, as well as in how skilled refugees identify themselves in relation to the labour market. Thus, case studies that look more closely into the many subgroups of the ‘refugee’ group (i.e. men, women, skilled, highly skilled, young old) are needed to get a better insight in the effectiveness of integration strategies and policies.

Modern societies are highly complex, which makes integration take place differently in a great variety of sub-parts of the society. Moreover, this makes integration individual and contextual (Castles et al. 2001). Interestingly, there are many studies that show differences in labour market integration between refugees and other migrants groups, however a much lesser amount of literature looks into the differences in labour market integration between various refugee sub-groups. There is quite an extensive amount of literature comparing different ethnic groups among refugees (Bevelander and Lundh 2007; Kallick and Mathema 2016; Sulaiman-Hill and Thompson 2013; Colic-Peisker and Tilbury 2007; De Vroome and Van Tubergen 2010). Moreover, Fozdar (2011) studied the labour market integration experiences of skilled Muslim refugees compared to non-Muslim skilled refugees, showing the negative effect of Islamic religiousness (i.e. discriminative practices towards Muslims) on refugees’ chances on the Australian labour market. There are also studies that have examined the role of gender in the labour market participation of refugees (Piché et al. 1999). More specifically, studies have focused on the relationship between home and work for migrant women (Preston and Man 1999; Giles 2002), as well as looked further into gender roles and differentiations based on gender in the labour market (Ng 1999; Koyama 2015). Not much studies on refugee integration focus on the effects of age. Some studies have looked into labour market participation of refugee youth (Wilkinson 2010;

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12 2008), but not much is written about the effects of old age on the labour market integration of refugees.

Through in-depth interviews, Steward and Mulvey (2014) studied the impact of asylum, integration and citizenship policies on the lives of refugees in Scotland. The research mainly focuses on the role of the temporality of refugees’ residence status and concluded it has a negative impact on peoples’ integration in the host country society, as their uncertain status puts them in an outsiders position. Mestheneos and Ioannidi (2002) interviewed refugees of fifteen European member states during 1999 about their personal experiences with their integration in host societies. Racism (both on a personal and institutional level) and enforced dependency on social benefits were the main reasons for refugees’ negative attitudes towards their integration process. Respondents indicated that their personality and the way they dealt with their refuge were the key factors in successful integration. Similar case studies on skilled refugees in the Netherlands have not been done yet – with this thesis I’d like to fill this gap in the literature.

In the case of highly skilled refugees, many studies show that it is problematic for refugees to find a job at their skill level, as skills are differently validated in the host country (Van Riemsdijk 2013; Bakker et. al 2016; Müller and Jacob 2008). Also, insufficiency in the language of the host country is perceived as an obstacles (Waxman 2001; Mamgain and Collins 2003; Chiswick and Miller 2001). Employers are less sure about whether the skills obtained abroad are real and will fit the Dutch labour market compared to the skills and qualifications of applicants that finished an education in the Netherlands. An employer will thus prefer to hire an applicant with a Dutch education certificate (Friedberg 2000). Moreover, Kanas and Van Tubergen (2009: 897) state that “employers are less well-informed about the occupational career of immigrants before migration than about the experience immigrants obtained in the host country”. In the hiring process, employers thus prefer qualifications, skills and experience obtained in the host country. Moreover, how skills are taught, learned, tested and certified in educational institutions, and how skills are recognized, used and valued, is shaped institutionally and is socially as well as culturally constructed (Müller and Jacob 2008: 126). Additionally, members of professional groups have interests in engaging “in practices of cultural inclusion and exclusion to ensure their own reproduction” (Bauder 2006: 91), as professionals see their competition grow as skilled migrants enter the labour market.

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13 1.3 Labelling and essentializing mechanisms

The risk of essentializing ethnic groups have been topic of discussion among academics. In this process of essentializing, ‘essential’ characteristics are attributed to members of a culturally defined group, e.g. ethnic, linguistic, behavioural or socioeconomic characteristics. Through this, individual differences are explained by the individual’s membership of a group and the characteristics assigned to that group, which leads to stereotypical and unrealistic perceptions of individual differences. As Barth already argued in his work Ethnic Groups and Boundaries (1969) we should rather focus on the boundaries of ethnic groups rather than focussing on “the cultural stuff” inside (Barth 1969: 15). We could assign certain labels to people based on their external appearance, ethnic background or heritage. However, individuals possess multiple roles or identities that become salient in different social contexts or settings. As Brubaker thus pointed out, ethnicity is fluid and contextual and can therefore not be essentialized, as this leads to analytical ‘groupism’, the “tendency to treat ethnic groups as substantial entities to which interests and agency can be attributed” (Brubaker 2002: 164).

Coming back to Barth’s understanding of ethnicity and the formation of ethnic groups, it is not the cultural capital, i.e. set of common norms and values, that as an essence determines an individual’s membership to an ethnic group, but rather an individual’s relation to a social context or setting that brings about a particular identity or role. In other words, ethnicity is situational. As Verdery (1993: 35) puts it: “Ethnic identifications should be seen as based in ascription and self-ascription, rather than in ‘possessing’ a certain cultural inventory; this focusses analytical attention on the possible manipulation of identities and on their ‘situational’ character”. I want to apply this concept of relational and contextual identity to the labelling and categorizing of migrants, by studying skilled refugees’ job aspirations and self-identifications at the Amsterdam labour market. The way refugees identify themselves may be more complex and multilateral than the one-dimensional ‘refugee’ label implies. Labels such as ‘refugees’ force individual descriptions to cases, “whereby an individual identity is replaced by a stereotyped identity with a categorical prescription of assumed needs” (Zetter 1991: 44). Zetter claims that labelling is a process of stereotyping, a conceptual apparatus for administrations and governments to make separate, fixed categories with a given set of necessities (i.e. food, shelter and protection) in order to make a heterogeneous group of individuals applying for asylum intelligible and manageable (ibid: 60). Through labelling, a group of individuals with varying reasons for refuge, personalities,

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14 background, (work) experiences and qualifications is reduced to one category and by that assigned to a fixed set of regulations and procedures.

In the Netherlands, people with a refugee status are assigned a temporary five-year residence permit. Among Dutch politicians there is discussion about lengthening this temporary period, thereby adjourning refugees’ possibilities to lay a claim to a permanent permit. As many refugees receive social benefits and financial support “refugees are costly to host states and therefore must be returned to their country of origin” (Gray 2006: 153-154). However, by lengthening the temporary permit of refugees, aiming to their return, the opportunity for refugees to become a full member and participant of society will be compromised, which will ‘cost’ the state in the long run. This is part of a more general phenomenon: by refusing to fully accept the long-term presence of migrants, they are often pushed into marginalization.

Moreover, framing refugees as ‘costly’ suggests that they are merely dependent of the host country state. In this conceptualization, refugees are presented as victims who are in need for help and protection. As described by Rozakou (2012: 563) through the notion of hospitality, the concept of ‘the refugee’ creates a power relation wherein refugees are dependent on the state and non-state actors of a host country: “Conceptualizing asylum seekers as guests put them in a space between biological existence and full political and social life. Neither merely “bare life” nor a full political being, the refugee was produced as the receiver of humanitarian generosity, as having limited agency”. In addition, the conceptualization of ‘the refugee’ as hurt, traumatized and in need of shelter is the very condition for asylum seekers to receive a residence permit. As nation-states have narrowed down the channels for migrants to enter European welfare states, asylum seekers need to prove that they are a refugee – i.e. unwillingly left their home country due to danger and political threat – and not an economic or voluntary migrant, in order to receive access as well as human and social rights to the country of asylum (Holmes and Castañeda 2016). In order to obtain the Dutch residency, refugees must thus carry out their ‘being a refugee’, by sharing their negative and traumatic experiences and ‘proving’ their deservingness of a refugee status though their mental or physical state (Fassin and d’Halluin 2005). Refugees are therefore not in the first instance approached as skilled and educated citizens, but as hurt and traumatized people in need for help and shelter.

Castles, Korac and Verdery (2001: 113) argue that “exploration of the process of integration is concerned with issues such as identity, belonging, recognition and self-respect”.In

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15 a case of Iranian female refugees in the Netherlands, Ghorashi (2005) discovered that the inability to respect themselves and to create a feeling of belonging in the Netherlands made Iranian skilled refugees passive, demotivated, isolated and dependent of the state. This in turn justifies the image of refugees as a burden to the state and reduces active and productive refugees to that negative image. This study shows the influence of the ‘refugee label’ and its corresponding trajectories and policies on Iranian refugees integration. This raises the question to what extent and in what context (i.e. under which conditions) this ‘refugee label’ hinders refugees in their labour market integration. This research will thus look further into what this ‘refugee label’ or ‘being a refugee’ means to my respondents and what role it plays in their integration.

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2. Methodology

As I am challenging social categories or labels by arguing that these are situational and not fixed, and the members of categories are not a homogeneous groups, a positivist approach is not suitable for my research. Social reality is not fixed but continuously shifting as it is a creation of individuals social (inter)actions. Instead of studying labour market integration through fixed and observable variables such as language proficiency and skill (i.e. certificates), my aim is rather to gain a deeper understanding of how individuals interpret their social world and deal with externally imposed socially constructed labels. I will thus take a more constructionist approach. In this research, I will not present a definite version of social reality, but rather try to give a specific version of social reality, thereby showing that social categories are fluid and situational (Bryman 2008: 19). Categories are thus social constructs that are shaped by how we talk and write about it. Through a discourse analysis we can make the underlying constructs of categories salient, and critically assess them. Taking into account these epistemological and ontological stances, I will conduct an inductive qualitative research.

Because I want to understand how the way the refugee label is constructed affects the labour market integration experiences of skilled refugees in Amsterdam, I will take an interpretivist approach. I am particularly interested in skilled refugees’ (positive and negative) experiences throughout their job search. Also, I want to gain a better understanding of how skilled refugees perceive or identify themselves on the Dutch labour market. In order to understand, it is important to try to see these experiences through the eyes of the respondents themselves. As Bryman (2008: 16) puts it: “[I]t is the job of the social scientist to gain access to people’s ‘common-sense thinking’ and hence to interpret their actions and their social world from their point of view”.

As the views of my participants are central to my research, I will collect my data through qualitative research methods. A common critique on qualitative research methods is its risk of being too subjective. I am aware of this risk, as I am personally invested in this research topic. In order to prevent my personal interests, believes and opinions from influencing my research, I will ask as much open questions as possible, avoid suggestiveness and I will not complete the answers of my respondents.

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17 2.1 Operationalization

This qualitative research aims to study the labour market integration experiences of skilled refugees in Amsterdam. As processes of integration involve identity, belonging, recognition and self-respect (Castles et al. 2001: 113) and the perceives obstacles for integration vary per person and context, it is important to find out what the meaning having a job has for skilled refugees and how they themselves see the role of having a job or education in relation to their integration. Also, I am interested in the obstacles they themselves perceive in their integration in the Netherlands and what would help them to overcome these obstacles. Moreover, I want to find out to what extent they are confronted with ‘being a refugee’ (i.e. the refugee label) on a day-to-day basis and what effect this has on their integration.

Through qualitative interviews with skilled refugees in Amsterdam, this study will investigate the following topics:

1. The meaning of having a job for skilled refugees and its role in their integration; 2. The obstacles skilled refugees encounter during their integration strategies;

3. The meaning of ‘being a refugee’ and to what extent skilled refugees are confronted by it in social interaction. I would like to define labour market integration as being able to find a job on the right skill level, and having the agency to be an independent labour market actor. What ‘the right skill level’ is and what level of agency is needed to be an independent actor, will become clear from this study. The same can be said for the third topic of investigation: the implications on the refugee label. As the literature provides a base for understanding the stigmatizing implications of using labels or categorization by institutional bodies (Zetter 1991; Torpey 1998), this study aims to give a more practical insight in what role of ‘the refugee label’ plays in the integration of skilled refugees in Amsterdam.

2.2 Research design and methods

This study does not aim to generalize its finding to a wider social world, but rather aims “to determine whether a theory's propositions are correct or whether some alternative set of explanations might be more relevant” (Yin 2003: 38). This case study therefore critically assesses dominant theories and ideas in academia and policy research about the labour market participation of refugees through a group of skilled and educated people with a refugee status in Amsterdam.

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18 The research methods that were used in this research are semi-structures interviews. Since I am interested in the personal experiences of skilled refugees in Amsterdam, I will ask as much open questions as possible, avoid suggestiveness and I will not complete the answers of my respondents. However, as I am particularly interested in what integration, being employed and having a refugee status means for my respondents on a personal level, I used the research topics discussed in Chapter 2.1 as a navigator during my interviews.

As not everyone will be open to talk about personal topics or experiences, the conversations with my respondents were open and my aim was to let my respondents talk as much as possible in order to be not too steering myself. Because of our similar ages, and as some of the respondents already knew me, they were very open to share their experiences. At the start of every interview I emphasized the respondents’ anonymousness and the possibility to refuse answering questions they did not feel comfortable with. My aim was to have an open attitude and make my respondents feel comfortable, both in my verbal responses and questions as well as in my posture. Skinner (2014) emphasizes the importance of posture during interviews. I therefore used Skinner’s techniques of turning your body 45 degrees from your interviewee as well as nodding and showing the palms of your hand.

As I kept working as a job coach during my research, I took notes of conversations with employers and city council workers. Also, I inscribed relevant data obtained from informal conversations with skilled refugees, and relevant information or situations I ran into as a job coach. Additional data was collected through policy documents and observations. The data I analysed thus involve transcript of interviews, policy documents and notes from informal conversation, non-recorded interviews and observations. The data was thematically coded in ATLAS.ti through open, axial and selective coding.

2.3 Sampling

For this study, purposive sampling is used, a form of non-probability sampling, as the aim is not to randomly select respondents, nor to make generalisations from the sample to a bigger population. Rather, this research focuses on a group with particular characteristics (i.e. being highly educated and skilled, residing in Amsterdam and looking for or already started a job or education). The sample of this study is thus not representative of a bigger population of refugees in Amsterdam or the Netherlands. Rather, I want to study a small sub-group with similar characteristics in detail. As I am specifically interested in Amsterdam skilled refugees’ labour

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19 market integration and how this is influenced by the way refugees are socially constructed, I have used homogeneous sampling.

My respondents are refugees with a permit, residing Amsterdam. Respondents must have started or finished an university education and preferably (but not necessarily) have some work experience in skilled jobs, either in de home country or in the country of residence (i.e. the Netherlands). Respondents need to be active labour market participants, i.e. looking for or already having a job.

As a job coach at StudentJobcoach, a local coaching project in Amsterdam for refugees with a residence status in search for a job or education, I approached my respondents. As the project focuses on young people between the age of 18 and 35 years old, the respondents for this study are around that age. Among refugees in Amsterdam, the biggest group is between 18 and 34 years old.

2.3.1 Demography of refugees in Amsterdam

The largest group of people with a refugee status in Amsterdam are those who received their residence permit between 2015 and 2016. Within this group, around 65 percent of the population is male, and 35 percent is female (Gemeente Amsterdam 2016b: 48). More than a half of the people are male and single (Gemeente Amsterdam 2016a: 6). In addition, the largest group of people within the Amsterdam refugee population is between eighteen and 34 years old (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Age distribution among the Amsterdam refugee population between January and September 2016. Reprinted from Vluchtelingenmonitor Amsterdam, by Gemeente Amsterdam, November 2016, retrieved from http://www.ois.amsterdam.nl.

0-3 years old 4-11 years old 12-17 years old 18-26 years old 27-34 years old 35-44 years old 45-54 years old 55 years and older

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20 Moreover, 56 percent of the overall refugee population in Amsterdam comes from Syria and 22 percent comes from Eritrea. The remaining 22 percent of the people are originally from Tibet, Uganda, China, Afghanistan, Soedan, Irak and Iran (ibid.: 17). Within the biggest ethnic group among the Amsterdam refugee population, Syrians, around 25 percent of the population is highly educated. Among Eritreans, around ten percent is highly educated (ibid.: 33). There must be noted that these are numbers based on completed educational trainings. Thus, these numbers do not take into account the people who started a higher education but were unable to complete it (e.g. due to the war). I have taken into account these demographics during the formation of my research sample.

2.3.2 Research sample

For my research sample I selected educated or skilled people with a refugee status residing in Amsterdam who are either looking for or have already started a job or education. As Eritreans and Syrians are the biggest groups within the refugee population, my sample contains mostly Syrian and Eritrean refugees. Moreover, among the Eritrean refugees, only ten percent is highly educated, whereas among the Syrian population 25 percent completed higher education. In addition, a bit less than two third of the refugee population who got a status in 2015 and 2016 is male, whereas little over one third is female. In composition, this sample tried to be a representation of the highly skilled or educated current refugee population in Amsterdam. During the course of this research eleven respondents were interviewed. Ten respondents are from Syria (from which three were originally from Palestine, Egypt and Armenia) and one from Eritrea. Unfortunately, only one female respondent could be found.

This study aimed to interview around fifteen refugees. However, there were some obstacles in the course of this research. Because the interviews needed to be conducted in English or Dutch, not everyone could be interviewed, taking into account the research topics. As most highly skilled refugees speak English on a high level, this was only a problem in two cases. Another problem that arouse during the selection of the sample was that some of the potential respondents were very busy with work, Dutch language courses and other obligations to family and friends. This made it difficult to find a right moment to take the interviews which slowed the overall research process. Taking into account the research time and the high saturation reached with eleven respondent, I have decided to not look further for more respondents. However, if the research process would not

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have been delayed as much, I would have liked to interview more people, specifically more women and people from Eritrea.

2.4 Validity and reliability

The validity and reliability of qualitative research is often expressed through notions developed in quantitative research (Bryman 2008: 376). However, the notions of validity and reliability as expressed in quantitative research are not always as adaptable to qualitative research methods and methodology. Guba and Lincoln (1994) pointed out that in order to follow a constructionist approach (instead of a realist approach in which social researchers are working towards the revelation of absolute social truths) qualitative research should be assessed by the alternative criteria credibility, transferability and dependability. For this study, the criteria internal reliability and external validity pose a problem, as only one researcher is collecting the data and the research concerns a case study which is not meant to be generalized across social settings (Bryman 2008: 376-377). The criteria of Guba and Lincoln (1994) are thus much more feasible to critically assess the methodology and methods used in this research.

2.4.1 Credibility

Whether a qualitative research is credible “entails both ensuring that research is carried out according to the canons of good practice and submitting research findings to the members of the social world who were studied for confirmation that the investigator has correctly understood that world” (Bryman 2008: 377).

During the interviews with respondents, I had a set of questions based on my operationalization. Some of the questions were not understood in the right way, due to poor or vague choice of words and a language barrier. As the interviews were conducted in English and Dutch, respondents were not always fully able to express themselves. However, as my research methods involved in-depth semi-structured interviews, questions could be rephrased, or answers came to light later on during the conversation. Moreover, respondents were not hesitant to tell me when they did not understand the question. Unfortunately, the language barrier cannot be taken away entirely – an Arabic or Tigrinya speaking researcher would’ve been desirable.

Even though respondents were mostly open to talk about their opinions and experiences, some people were reluctant to be critical about Dutch people, employers or their case managers. Some respondents started to talk in a more general way about refugees’ experiences in Amsterdam.

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22 In addition, respondents often firstly emphasized their gratefulness to the Netherlands and Amsterdam for accepting them before they shared their critique or negative experiences. Some shifted the conversation from personal experiences to those of others (i.e. friends or acquaintances). However, this could also just mean that these are topics of conversation that refugees talk about with each other as well, or that my respondents wanted to share not only their own but also others’ stories out there. Namely, most of my respondents thanked me at the end of the interview and told me they were happy they were able to tell and share their story.

In order to test my findings with the people from which I’ve tried to capture its social world, I have used respondent validation. I have asked all my respondents to critically assess my analyses, however most said they trusted me. Although flattering, this is a weakness within my research. Some of the people I interviewed, I already knew throughout the StudentJobocach project and were reluctant to be critical. Also, for some of my respondents the academic English made it hard to understand the document I send them.

Before I started this research, I was already working at the StudentJobcoach project since November 2016. In that time I had many (group) conversations with people with a refugee status looking for a job or education. Throughout these conversations and observations I developed some questions and ideas about the labour market participation of skilled refugees in Amsterdam, the refugee integration strategy in Amsterdam and the role of the refugee label or status. Throughout in-depth interviews I have tested these ideas. Triangulation however turned out to be difficult for this specific case study, as quantitative data collection methods would not give any new insights. However, focus groups would have been a good way to collect more non-verbal data such as facial expressions and emotions and to test analyses and collected data in a bigger group. Unfortunately it was, due to time restrictions, not possible to set up a focus group.

2.4.2 Transferability

The choice of open, semi-structured interviews gave the opportunity to create thick descriptions of the social world of my respondents (Geertz 1973). During the conversations with my respondents, we spoke about the meaning of work and integration, the background of my respondents (i.e. country of origin, previous work experiences, education, aspirations and interests), and I explicitly asked for specific situations and experiences in the Netherlands. During the interviews I have tried to get an insight in my respondents social context (or the social context of a described situation or experience) by asking additional questions. However, not all of my

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23 respondents were equally open to talk about social situations or personal experiences in detail. A longer research time to get to know my respondents better, or to do follow-up interviews would have given a thicker description of the data.

2.4.3 Dependability

Dependability in qualitative research can best be compared with the concept op reliability. Qualitative research is difficult to reproduce, as many uncontrollable factors affect the outcome of the research. Lincoln and Guba (1985: 317) suggested “inquiry audits” (i.e. an auditing process of proposing your information and data to someone familiar with the topic of investigation) as a way to increase the dependability of the research. Apart from submitting my analysis to my respondents and receiving feedback from my thesis supervisor, I have not conducted an inquiry audit with others.

Furthermore, I have documented my data collected through interviews, observation and informal conversation, as well as the coding steps taken in my analysis:

 The topics of questions that have acted as a guide throughout the interviews;  Transcripts of interviews;

 Notes of the interviews with the director of the Amsterdam Refugee Approach and a senior policy advisor;  Notes taken during interviews and informal conversations with respondents;

 Considerations taken during sampling;  Data analysis, i.e. data coding.

In this way, this research could be conducted by another researcher once again.

Unfortunately, not all of my respondents wanted the interviews to be recorded. Given reasons were the inability to talk freely and an unease to have every of their spoken words in writing. In the case of the policy advisors I spoke, they wanted to stay as anonymous, as some of the things they shared were politically sensitive or even confidential (unfortunately, this data could therefore not be used for this study). As I was the only one at these conversations to listen, take notes and ask questions, the data obtained here is less dependable.

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3. Analysis

This research wants to give an insight in the personal experiences and challenges people with a refugee status in Amsterdam face in their search for a job and education. During my conversations with my respondents, I spoke about what it means for skilled refugees to have a job or to start an education, how they would define integration and what obstacles they face while implementing their integration strategies. During these conversations we also spoke about the meaning of integration and having a job, and discussed a statement of one of my respondents, Khalil: “In order to get a job [in the Netherlands], one must get out of being a refugee”. I have been using this statement to open a conversation about whether my respondents shared this opinion, and what ‘being a refugee’ means to them.

Even though this study does not aim to evaluate specific policies and programs extensively, the role of the Amsterdam Refugee Approach, the Amsterdam refugee integration strategy, or more specifically the street-level executors of this integration strategy (i.e. case managers) turned out to play a rather large role in my respondents’ labour market integration experiences. Moreover, the integration of refugees cannot be isolated from its political context (Castles et al. 2001). Therefore, it is necessary to outline the Amsterdam policy context as part of this analysis.

3.1 The Amsterdam refugee integration policy context

In the Netherlands, the integration of refugees is the responsibility of city councils. In 2007, the municipality of Amsterdam decided that her services must work together for an overall encompassing integrated refugee policy for the city of Amsterdam (Gemeente Amsterdam 2015: 11). Refugees would be assigned a contact person from VluchtelingenWerk Nederland, an organisation that helps refugees integrate and find their way in the Netherlands, for questions about work, housing, health care and education. Moreover, this contact person was responsible for the integration trajectory of multiple so-called ‘status holders’. In 2011, the integrated refugee integration strategy for Amsterdam was continued by the city council. The ambitions for integration and labour market participation were raised. In addition to the contact persons from VluchtelingenWerk, refugees were assigned a case manager from the municipal Service Work and Income (DWI). These case managers must ensure that ‘status holder’ find a paid job as soon as possible (ibid.).

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25 In the Netherlands, refugees who are granted asylum are granted a five-year temporary residence permit. Those who want to apply for permanent residency need to follow integration and language courses and pass the integration exam within three years. In order to pass the integration exam, one must be able to speak, listen and write on A2 level. In order to be accepted to higher education, one must have a B2-level language proficiency. Until 2013, integration and language courses were cared for on the municipal level. Since January 2013, the national Service Implementation of Education (DUO) is responsible for the execution and enforcement of the Law on Integration. As DUO took over, the responsibility for integration shifted to the individual level. Since 2013, those who want a permanent residence permit are themselves responsible for the application for a student loan at DUO – a maximum of 10,000 euro’s to spend at one of the many language and integration course providers – and must themselves find a fit language institution to spend this integration budget. With this change, the language and integration courses were additionally outsourced to private institutions. Someone who does not pass the integration exam within three years must pay back the loan granted by DUO (Algemene Rekenkamer 2017: 5). In practise this leads to viewer people passing the integration exam, a great differentiation in quality of language course providers – as there is no independent quality control – and to many people not able to find their way to a language institution. Especially humanitarian migrants had troubles with the self-responsibility in a foreign language with little to no guidance. Moreover, people are reluctant to start their integration and language courses because of the risk of financial debts (ibid.: 58).

In 2015, the city council decided once again to continue the Amsterdam Refugee Approach program until 2018, as the Netherlands experienced a peak in asylum applications in 2015. Furthermore, the Amsterdam refugee integration strategy was intensified during the program; every status holder who received residence in Amsterdam after the first of January 2016 would be – instead of a case manager from DWI, who apart from refugees also accompany Dutch citizens with social benefits – assigned a contact person from Team Entrée, a group of case managers trained to exclusively coach refugees to a job or education. Moreover, status holders who arrived in Amsterdam after January 1st_{2016 will get an extensive assessment that gives insight in people’s}

capabilities, skills, language and education level, personality, (work) experiences and interests in order to make an individualized plan for participation and integration. The case load for case managers of Team Entrée is one on 50 ‘status holders’, which enables case managers to guide

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26 people as well as possible. Additionally, this is a relatively small group of newcomers. Most of the refugees residing in Amsterdam still have a case manager from DWI – one case manager of DWI is the contact person of 350 refugees with social benefits.

Whereas until 2015 both integration and participation were equally important, the Amsterdam refugee policy over the period 2015-2018 shifts the focus on participation. Early contact with the labour market is often associated with faster integration of refugees (Martin et. al 2016; Desiderio 2016; Lemaître 2007; Bloch 2007). For the Amsterdam refugee approach the starting point is thus that anyone who is (physically and mentally) able to work must participate on the labour market, even though this involves work below someone’s skill level.

3.2 Setting goals and making plans

During the conversations with my respondents about what integration meant for them, many of them initially ascribed a strategy of assimilation as the best way to integration. In order to start and build a life in Amsterdam, it is important to let go of the past and of everything that mentally keeps you in your home country. However, over the course of this research and further conversations and observations, I learned that my respondents did not want to let go of their heritage and culture, but rather wanted to let go of their refugee background and history. They described their culture, norms, values and knowledge as a great asset and addition to the Dutch labour market and society as a whole. On the other hand, their ‘refugee state of mind’, associated with frustration about what happened to their home country, worrisome about family members and friends and sadness about losing everything they had, withhold them from moving on and rebuilding a live in the Netherlands. Caleb, a 25-year old teacher from Syria, explained how his friends are still mentally living in their home country, Syria:

“Because it is sometimes hard to be a refugee. Sometimes some people still live with the past. Like my friends, they still they are here but the mind [is] in Syria. You have to go out of this. You have to forget you are refugees, how people look at you.”

Abdullah, a 23-year old former English literature student and sales manager from Syria, shared a similar experience, and describes his state of mind as a “refugee mood”:

“Like anyone we have this sense of humour but when you, like, be alone for a year, like, one hundred percent without any family and friends, anyone to speak with about [the] things going on and you [are] just alone in your mind… You became more, like, quieter, of less humour... You need to get off this mood. This refugee mood. You will need to go

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27 along with life, get back on your feet, get rid of everything bad on your mind [and] leave your personal story back home.”

Aden, a 23-year old business administration major from Palestine, experienced a similar state of mind, however described it as living in “a refugee bubble”, which is not only a depressive mood about your past, family and situation as Abdullah and Caleb described. Aden describes this ‘refugee bubble’ as being depressed about doing nothing and being dependent from the state. Being a refugee is thus a mental state “between you and yourself”, but also symbolizes feeling stuck in a situation where you are a burden or “an obstacle” to others, taking money from the state and not being able to live up to your goals.

Nishat, a 21-year old former economy student from Syria, experiences ‘being a refugee’ as a prison. He however refers to this as a past state of mind, during his time in asylum centres. He told me that in that time he felt stuck in procedures, and got depressed because he was not able to do anything. Now, as he is out of the asylum centre and a resident of Amsterdam, he feels free again and feels he has the opportunity to make something out of his life. However, Nishat emphasized the importance of having a job and making his own money:

“Now, I really need a job. I have the uitkering [social benefits] now but it’s nothing, I cannot do nothing now without money. I don’t want to take the state’s money, I wanna live my life, like, how I want it.”

Aaron, a 26-year old Syrian former network marketing business owner who is graduated in telecommunication and network marketing, explains how this ‘refugee state of mind’ is created during the asylum period. Not only does the inability to do anything leaves refugees alone with their thoughts. Also, in order to get a refugee status and to stay in the Netherlands, refugees need to share lot of their often bad and traumatic experiences and memories with the Dutch state (i.e. the Dutch Immigrant and Naturalisation Service) to prove they are worthy of shelter and protection. This coincides with time of insecurity about the future, procedures and waiting. One might argue we can speak of a paradox here. On the one hand, refugees need to embrace and share their personal stories, bad experiences and the situation in the home country in order to get a refugee status from the Dutch state, which enables them to make plans for the future and build a life in the Netherlands. On the other hand, my respondents emphasize the importance of getting rid of the refugee label, most importantly in their own mind, in order to integrate in the Dutch

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28 society. In relation to integration, having a refugee label hinders people from doing what they want, i.e. to act freely.

This state of mind is not only affected by the things refugees went through, but also by things my respondents read in the media and on social media, by negative attitudes, and by their experiences in day-to-day interaction. My respondents identify themselves by their qualities, educational background, interests or (work) experience, but also want to be seen by others as any other, normal person. Unfortunately, some of my respondents encountered situations where their refugee status played such a big role, that it distracted from the way they actually want to or would identify themselves.

Zakaria, a 29-year old graduate in accounting from Egypt, told me a story about a woman in her late fifty’s at the university of applied sciences in Rotterdam. The woman was aware of Zakaria’s refugee background and asked a lot of questions about it. Although she excused herself, blaming her curiosity, Zakaria felt uncomfortable. As a political activist during the Arab Spring, Zakaria fled from Egypt to Syria. Now, he had to leave Syria as well. As a reaction to his story the woman asked if Zakaria felt lost. Zakaria had the feeling she felt sorry for him, something he did not like. Zakaria told me:

“Experiences changes us in a new, stronger person. You can throw me anywhere, I will adapt. This is not something negative, so don’t feel pity.”

Also Caleb told me that people often feel sorry for what happened to his country:

“[Y]ou know how people look at you. You have like less power from the normal people or something like this you have to to go out from this thinking for finding a good job and find a good life here.”

The workplace is a space where skilled refugees are being able to get out of that label, and to relate to Dutch colleagues as equal. On the other hand, skilled refugees are confronted with being different. Shula, a 27-year old Syrian-Armenian graduate in international law, works as an intern at a humanitarian litigation bureau in Amsterdam. Khalil, a 32-year old major in business administration and finance, found a job as a business controller at an international business in durable energy located in Amsterdam. Both experienced being treated differently than their Dutch colleagues. During his job interview, Khalil was asked if he drinks alcohol and would be okay with working with gay people. Even though Khalil was caught off guard by the questions, he was able to put them in perspective: “In the Netherlands it’s all about the team, I need to fit in. It’s all

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29 about if you are you open-minded”. Still, Khalil felt a bit stigmatized and was overwhelmed with the question as it was based on prejudices. When Khalil got the job he noticed his colleagues talk differently to him and treat them less harsh. However as a colleague, he was able to call on his co-workers to treat him like any other employee in the firm.

Abdullah experienced a similar situation at the work place as well. During a job interview at a local restaurant chain, the interviewer told Abdullah he wanted to help him. Abdullah was confused about this notion of ‘helping’:

“I didn't get it. Like, help me? With what? (…) What are you planning to help me with? I don't need your help. I'm here to take the job. You need people, that's normal. You need people to serve your customers. And I need a job so it's both ways. And though I can't speak Dutch perfectly as you but I can do it. I speak Dutch like, wat wil je drinken [What do you want to drink]? Wat wil je eten [What do you want to eat]? Asjeblieft, eet smakelijk [Enjoy your meal].” Abdullah adds that now that he has a job he is able to show that he is in no need of help. Also, he feels more comfortable to start a conversation and to confront people with prejudice attitudes in order to take them away.

Not all of my respondents encountered discriminative or prejudice situations on the labour market. This was partly due to the fact that not all of my respondents have a job, or have applied for a job yet. Moreover, asking about situations outside of the labour market and during their time in the Netherlands in general, most of them emphasized the kindness of Dutch people. In that context, discriminatory situations or practices were merely seen as an exception. Aaron talked with me about his experiences with Dutch people:

“You are welcome any time to ask questions, you are welcome any time to take a help or if you want any help to meet anybody he is.. he will be so happy, so I see the humanity here. (…) You will see it in small example[s]. If you try your Dutch, the man who you not love, he would help you how to do your sentence and he will answer you in Dutch and he will translate it to English. This small thing. Second thing like, when we were in the AZC's lot of people came to take us [to] their house (…) to have food and a good meal and that will learn us maybe some Dutch or to show us like, yeah only to have conversation with us.”

Through social media and news channels, my respondent are aware of the presence of people in the Netherlands who are do not agree with the arrival and acceptance of refugees, or see them as terrorists or a burden for the state. However, not one of them had personal encounters with such people. Also, my respondents told me that the way they see themselves, was not affected by the way others would see them. Moreover, Khalil argues that whether you are able to take away

Getting out of being a refugee : a case study about skilled refugees' labour market integration experiences in Amsterdam