Lives On Hold

How Wait Times Impact Refugees: Evidence from Switzerland

• Average wait time: 665 days

• 65 more days of waiting = -23% drop in refugee employment compared to average rate.

• 10% reduction in wait time = $5.6 million in annual savings

Asylum seekers are trapped along a path of despair: fleeing horrific circumstances at home, undertaking a perilous and often deadly journey, and then ultimately being met with resistance and exclusion in the resettlement process. After arriving in Europe and while waiting for an asylum decision, asylum seekers find themselves in a legal and social limbo in which their lives are essentially put on hold, and they operate under the threat of deportation in the case that their asylum claim in denied.

To assess the impact of wait times on refugees, the Immigration Policy Lab analyzed administrative data from over 17,000 individual asylum cases in Switzerland, finding that the increased waiting has a deleterious impact on the prospects of refugees.

Source: “When Lives Are Put on Hold: Lengthy Asylum Processes Decrease Employment Among Refugees.” Science Advances, 2016. All estimates presented based on a study sample.