Publications & Documents

Norway’s foreign-born population has tripled since 2000, and the share of migrants among the population has seen one of the largest increases across the OECD, mostly driven by labour migration from EU countries. Most migrants from non-EU countries, in contrast, are refugees and their family members. High qualification levels and labour market participation of the native-born raise the question of an adequate benchmark for integration outcomes, especially for the low-educated refugees and their families. Against this backdrop, Norway puts significant investment into integration, and a number of recent reforms have been aimed at strengthening the system. This review, the third in a series on the skills and labour market integration of immigrants and their children, provides an assessment of these reforms and the remaining challenges. It includes an overview of Norway’s integration services – and the many substantial changes in recent years – as well as challenges in access and uptake of integration offers, activation programmes and outcomes of native-born children of immigrants in Norway. Earlier reviews in this series looked at integration in Sweden (2016) and Finland (2018).

This review provides policy recommendations on how to improve the Korean pension system, building on the OECD’s best practices in pension design. It details the key features of the Korean pension system and identifies its strengths and weaknesses based on cross-country comparisons. The Korean pension system consists of a mandatory pay-as-you-go public scheme, occupational schemes and voluntary individual schemes. The review also covers the first layer of old-age social protection in Korea. This review is the eighth in the series of OECD Reviews of Pension Systems.

While the COVID‑19 crisis had a disproportionate impact on immigrants during the first months of the pandemic, the longer run effects are more mixed. Employment rates of foreign-born people are up, back to or near pre-crisis levels for most countries. However, long-standing weaknesses in access to training remain, and immigrants are still more likely than the native-born to catch the disease, to develop severe symptoms, and to face higher mortality risks. Following a first OECD policy brief published after the first wave (OECD, 2020), this policy brief provides new evidence on the impact of the pandemic on immigrant integration in terms of health, labour market outcomes and training, as OECD countries start to recover from the crisis.

Russia’s large-scale aggression against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has forced millions of Ukrainians to flee the country. This historic mass outflow, unseen in Europe since World War II, has sparked an unprecedented mobilisation of institutions and host communities in OECD countries to offer support. Effective communication constitutes an essential tool for co-ordinating this crisis response, enabling Ukrainian refugees to access relevant information about their rights and services provided to them, while also helping to prevent particularly vulnerable migrants from becoming victims of human trafficking and other crimes. In parallel, many hosting countries have used targeted communication to co-ordinate individual and civic society support and to inform the public about crisis responses, migration and integration policies. This policy brief examines communication strategies and best practices across the OECD countries in the current crisis context, drawing from results of a series of OECD NETCOM meetings.

The historic mass outflow of people fleeing the unprovoked Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has placed significant pressures on the reception capacities of OECD and EU countries. Ukrainian refugees face a variety of settlement-related challenges. Perhaps the most pressing of these challenges is access to housing. OECD countries have rallied private citizens, NGOs, the private sector and government services to provide housing, but regardless of the short-term solutions identified, the transition to more durable accommodation is a looming challenge. This brief presents an overview of specific policy decisions taken by these countries regarding the short-term housing of refugees from Ukraine and challenges identified to date. It seeks to identify relevant considerations for those countries that are beginning to adapt their thinking regarding Ukrainians’ prospects for longer-term stays.

The unprovoked war of aggression of Russia against Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has generated a historical mass outflow of people fleeing the conflict, unseen in Europe since World War II. While there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the potential length of stay of these refugees in their host countries, many of the working-age adults will seek to work during their stay. This brief reviews the distribution of Ukrainian refugees across European countries and their demographic characteristics. It discusses the existing evidence about the labour market integration of refugees, and applies this information to the case of Ukrainian refugees to provide estimates of the number of active and employed Ukrainian refugees in European countries by the end of 2022 and compares these results to the impact of previous large inflows of refugees, in particular the 2014-17 arrivals.

To support its most vulnerable citizens in the context of the Russian large-scale aggression against its territory, Ukraine needs both immediate actions and long-term policies. The war is exacerbating pre-existing disadvantages of children, women, elderly people, and people with disabilities. In the short term, actions are urgently needed to rebuild critical assets for providing adequate housing and access to quality basic services for all. Significant medium-to-long term employment and social priorities pre-existing to the invasion must also be addressed, such as youth unemployment and access of internally displaced persons to public employment services.

In recent years, Georgia has undergone important economic, social and political transformations. Given the significant emigration of the Georgian population and the recognition of the contributions of the diaspora, Georgian authorities are seeking to better understand this pool of talent residing abroad, which has great potential to contribute to the economic and social development of Georgia. This review provides the first comprehensive portrait of Georgian emigrants in OECD countries. By profiling Georgian emigrants, this review aims to strengthen knowledge about this community and thus help to consolidate the relevance of the policies deployed by Georgia towards its emigrants.

In recent years, Ghana has undergone major economic, social and political transformations. Given the significant emigration of the Ghanaian population and the recognition of the contributions of the diaspora, Ghanaian authorities are seeking to better understand this pool of talent residing abroad, which has great potential to contribute to the economic and social development of Ghana. This review provides the first comprehensive portrait of the Ghanaian diaspora in OECD countries. By profiling Ghanaian emigrants, this review aims to strengthen knowledge about this community and thus help to consolidate the relevance of the policies deployed by Ghana towards its emigrants.

In recent years, Indonesia has undergone major economic, social and political transformations. Given the significant emigration of the Indonesian population and the recognition of the contributions of the diaspora, Indonesian authorities are seeking to better understand this pool of talent residing abroad, which has great potential to contribute to the economic and social development of Indonesia. This review provides the first comprehensive portrait of the Indonesian diaspora in OECD countries. By profiling Indonesian emigrants, this review aims to strengthen knowledge about this community and thus help to consolidate the relevance of the policies deployed by Indonesia towards its emigrants.