Action, Reaction and Resignation: How Refugee Women and Support Organisations Respond to Labour Market Integration Challenges during the Covid-19 Pandemic
研究了奥地利难民妇女和支持组织在新冠疫情期间面临的劳动力市场融入挑战及应对策略，发现疫情加剧了数字技能需求，并引发了行动、反应和无奈三种回应。
Even without the impact of a global pandemic, refugee women face obstacles to their integration into the labour market. Complex integration challenges are situated across different, yet interwoven, levels. These include restrictive policies at the institutional level, limited funding for support measures at the organisational level and a lack of skills at the individual level. Many of these are gendered and specifically affect women. Some might be further intensified by Covid-19. However, the pandemic's effect on the labour market integration of refugee women has yet to be explored. This paper examines specific challenges support organisations and refugee women have faced during the pandemic and their responses to these. Following a process perspective, we utilise a qualitative methods approach with semi-structured interviews. We collected our data in Austria, a European country that hosts numerous refugees and has an elaborate support network. Results show that the external shock of the pandemic amplified the importance of developing digital skills to support post-pandemic labour market integration. In addition, the pandemic exacerbated challenges for refugee women and support organisations. This led to ‘action’, ‘reaction’ and ‘resignation’ responses. We discuss these, and provide avenues for further research and practice.