Does granting refugee status to family-reunified women improve their integration?
Abstract
In most countries, men are the principal asylum applicants, while women are admitted through family-reunification procedures. Family reunification implies that women’s residence permits are contingent on remaining married to their husbands. Using a staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) Design, I document that granting asylum to family-reunified women improves their economic integration, increases the probability of divorce and decreases their risk of being victims of violence. I find significant impacts on victimization and economic integration regardless of whether the woman remains married or not. • Immigrant women more often hold family-reunification status than immigrant men. • I estimate the impact of having refugee status compared with family reunification. • Refugee status improves economic integration of family-reunified women. • Refugee status reduces the probability of intimate partner violence.