Presenta: Christian Pescher, Universidad de los Andes.
Abstract:
Over 100 million people worldwide are subject to forced displacement. During the “refugee crisis” in 2015/2016 over 1 million refugees came to Germany. From the perspective of the German labor market, many of these refugees are low-skilled. This research addresses two research gaps. First, while there is a growing amount of quality literature on the integration of high-skilled migrants, the integration of low-skilled refugees remains largely unexplored in the marketing and management literature. Second, while much literature analyzes what employees can do to perform well in their job, this study takes a reverse perspective and analyzes how the job affects the lives of migrant employees. This study is the first large-scale empirical study in business to focus on low-skilled migrants and the first business study to empirically examine how job type – particularly customer-facing roles – affects the subjective well-being of refugee employees. To perform this study, we leverage a unique, representative large-scale panel dataset on refugees in Germany. Our findings reveal three insights: (1) refugees with jobs report significantly higher happiness levels than those without; (2) having a customer-facing roles, which foster regular interaction with Germans, amplifies this effect; and (3) this effect is particularly nuanced for single refugees, i.e., refugees without partner; thus, for refugee employees, having a customer-facing job substantially mitigates the emotional costs of loneliness. These results hold across initial robustness checks. By illuminating the non-monetary value of customer interaction for low-skilled workers, our study extends the nascent literature on integration and employment, while contributing to the emerging “better marketing for a better world” paradigm. We offer actionable insights for firms, suggesting that assigning refugees to customer-facing roles can benefit both business and society. We also challenge policymakers to reframe entry-level service jobs as powerful tools for social cohesion and psychological well-being.
