Systematic Review of Active Labor Market Policies’ Effects on Immigrants’ Employment

Abstract

This systematic review describes the recent literature on integration programs and active labor market policies (ALMPs) that strive to enhance immigrants’ employment. We searched several databases, resulting in a total of 2,514 records. After step-by-step screening, we had 44 studies that satisfied our predetermined inclusion criteria.

We divided policy measures into four groups: language training, integration programs, monetary sanctions and general ALMPs. Although these policies often overlap, the studies focus on certain parts of the policies.

The main finding of this review is that well executed integration measures can improve immigrants’ labor market attachment, speed up the process of entering employment, and improve the quality of attained jobs. Still, thorough analyses of ALMPs’ effects on immigrants are scarce, and the results are inconclusive. Labor market institutions, immigrant populations, and the history of immigration are different even among the Nordic countries, which is why the results are not directly applicable to the Finnish context and there should be more causal research on the topic from Finland. To achieve this, the Finnish government should start experimenting with ALMPs but also implement possible new policies in a way that enables convincing causal analysis on policy effects.

Publication Information

Kiviholma, S., & Karhunen, H. (2022), Systematic Review of Active Labor Market Policies’ Effects on Immigrants’ Employment, Publications of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment 2022:27.

• ISSN: 1797-3562 (Online)
• ISBN: 978-952-327-638-3 (Online)