The Taliban takeover in Afghanistan earlier this month has prompted hundreds of thousands of people to flee from the country. According to figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency, more than 550,000 Afghans have been internally displaced since January. This is in addition to the 3 million people who were already uprooted at the beginning of the year. More than 12,000 people have been evacuated via Kabul airport this month with countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Turkey, France and Italy, amongst others, helping refugees get to safety.
The refugees fleeing Afghanistan currently add to the over 82 million forcibly displaced people around the world. IZA World of Labor author Pieter Bevelander has found that only a small portion of the world's refugees has managed to seek asylum in developed countries and find some kind of sanctuary. He believes that given the current and future increasing inflow of refugees into developed welfare states and to diminish individual and societal costs, more in-depth knowledge about the integration of refugees into a host country's labor market, including policy evaluation, should be prioritized.
"Given the long-term gap in labor market integration experienced by refugees, host countries are missing out on the potential economic gains offered by refugee immigration. In turn, this gap can fuel poverty and segregation among refugees and increase societal costs," Bevelander writes.
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