Unveiling the Canvas Ceiling: A Multidisciplinary Literature Review of Refugee Employment and Workforce Integration

• Author: Eun Su Lee,Duc Cuong Nguyen,Betina Szkudlarek,Luciara Nardon
• Published date: 01 April 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12222
• Date: 01 April 2020

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 22, 193–216 (2020)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12222

Unveiling the Canvas Ceiling:A

Multidisciplinary Literature Review of

Refugee Employment and Workforce

Integration

Eun Su Lee,1Betina Szkudlarek,1Duc Cuong Nguyen1and Luciara Nardon2

1University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney, Sydney,NSW 2006, Australia 2Sprott School of

Business, Carleton University, Ottawa, K1S 5B6, Canada

Corresponding author email: eunsu.lee@sydney.edu.au

Increasinglevels of displacement and the need to integrate refugees in the workforcepose

new challenges to organizations and societies. Extant research on refugee employment

and workforce integration currently resides across various disconnected disciplines,

posing a significant challenge for management scholars to contribute to timely and

relevant solutions. In this paper, we endeavour to address this challenge by reviewing

and synthesizing multidisciplinary literature on refugeeemployment and workforce in-

tegration. Using a relational framework, we organize our findings around three levels

of analysis – institutional, organizational and individual – to outline the complexity

of factors affecting refugees’ employment outcomes. Based on our analysis, we intro-

duce and elaborate on the phenomenon of the canvas ceiling – a systemic, multilevel

barrier to refugee workforce integration and professional advancement. The primary

contributions of this paper are twofold. First, we map and integrate the multidisci-

plinary findings on the challenges of refugee workforce integration. Second, we provide

management scholarship with a future research agenda to address the knowledge gap

identified in this review and advancepractical developments in this domain.

Introduction

Scholars and practitioners alike increasingly recog-

nize the importance of socially responsible busi-

ness practices and inclusive workplaces (see George

et al. 2016; Shore et al. 2018). This recognition in-

cludes greater attention to the integration of various

marginalized groups into the workforce (e.g. Moeller

and Maley 2018). Despite these commendable devel-

opments, refugees are often left out of such discus-

sions. This is surprising since the challenges of the

humanitarian crisis occupy media headlines across

the world. At the end of 2018, the world’s refugee

population was over 25.9 million, the highest figure

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since the inception of the UNHCR in 1950 (UNHCR

2019).

While integrating refugees into the workforce is

challenging, it is one of the most critical steps in

the overall integration of refugees into the receiving

society (Feeney 2000). Existing research shows that

many refugees are unemployed(Mikhael and Norman

2018), under-employed (Krahn et al. 2000; Vi-

nokurov et al. 2017), under-paid (Carlsson and Rooth

2016; Yu et al. 2007), working in the informal econ-

omy (Crush et al. 2017a), or dependent on public

assistance (Hansen and Lofstrom 2009). Research in-

dicates that refugees are precluded from finding em-

ployment commensurate with their experience and

expertise (Junankar and Mahuteau 2005; Krahn et al.

2000; Mahuteau and Junankar 2008).

Despite urgent calls to study the inclusion of

refugees into the mainstream workforce (Barak

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194 E.S. Lee et al.

2016) and repeated calls for management scholars

to address the opportunities and challenges of

global migration (Buckley et al. 2017; Kornberger

et al. 2018), prior research points to particular

challenges in studying refugee employment issues.

First, relevant theorizing and effective strategies for

refugee workforce integration require an in-depth

understanding of the distinctive nature of this group

(Szkudlarek et al. 2019). Unlike skilled migrants and

expatriates who choose to relocate for professional

reasons (Crowley-Henry and Al Ariss 2018; Guo and

Al Ariss 2015), refugees are forced to flee their home

countries, and their admission into a new society is

not based on a match between their skills and the

needs of the job market (Kaabel 2018; Malkki 1995).

The refugee experience, therefore, differs consider-

ably from that of other expatriate and migrant groups,

with many refugees encountering an array of legal,

socio-economic, psychological and physiological

challenges that negatively impact their workforce in-

tegration and job performance (e.g. Agb´

enyiga et al.

2012; Bevelander and Lundh 2007). Second, refugee

research is fragmented by a myriad of disciplinary

silos. Such fragmentation poses significant hurdles

for management scholars in conducting informed

research that builds on existing knowledge and

adequately utilizes work in other disciplines. These

interrelated findings across various disciplines point

towards the need to reviewand systematize the multi-

disciplinary insights on refugee employment in order

to propose insightful research designs and provide

relevant solutions.

With the above in mind, in this review we aim to

address the following research question: What are

the factors impeding refugee workforce integration?

Developing a clearer and more comprehensive un-

derstanding of the factors hindering refugee work-

force integration, we identify numerous implications

for management scholarship that will stimulate fu-

ture research with the aim of finding workable solu-

tions. The main objectives of this paper are therefore

twofold: first, to reviewand map out studies from var-

ious disciplines, including ethnic and migration stud-

ies, management, social work, sociology, psychology

and political science; and second, to elaborate on fu-

ture research directions for management scholarship

to guide well-informed and relevant research in this

domain.

Based on our review, we develop the concept of

the canvas ceiling to denote the multilevel system of

barriers distinctive to refugees’ struggle in their quest

for workforce integration. The canvas ceiling repre-

sents the combination of latent structural and cultural

nuances that negatively impact refugees’ access to

commensurate employment and consequent profes-

sional advancement, thereby perpetuating workforce

inequality. The notion of the canvas derives from the

temporary shelters made of canvas in which many

refugees stay.Unlike the glass (cf. Cotter et al. 2001)

and bamboo ceilings (cf. Hyun 2012), which pre-

dominantly impede minorities’ career opportunities

within an organization, the canvas ceiling encom-

passes institutional-, organizational- and individual-

level challenges that refugees encounter in accessing

and advancing quality employment within the receiv-

ing society. The concept of the canvas ceiling thus

brings to the surface the interrelated multilevel com-

plexities of refugee workforce integration highlighted

in this review.

We begin by clarifying the terminology around

refugee integration and describing the methods used

in this review. Before mapping the research terrain,

we set the scene by describing the current status of

the literature on refugee workforce integration. We

then present the multidisciplinary findings using a re-

lational framework across three levels of analysis –

institutional, organizational and individual – followed

by a discussion of implications and a future research

agenda.

Refugees and refugee integration

terminology

Research on refugees spans multiple fields of

scholarship (Voutira and Don ´

a 2007), resulting in

varying definitions and overlapping concepts. Most

fields apply the 1951 UN Convention definition of

a refugee, as a person who has fled from the home

country crossing international borders because of

a well-founded fear of persecution (Shiferaw and

Hagos 2002), or the 1969 OAU Convention defini-

tion, which extends the inclusion criteria to those

linked to ‘external aggression, occupation, foreign

domination or events seriously disturbing public

order’ (Arboleda 1991, p. 194). Legal scholars,

however, suggest that these definitions are outdated,

partial and circumscribed (Doyle 2008; Moldovan

2016; Shacknove 1985; Vaughns 1998) because they

fail to capture specific situations facing refugees (e.g.

environmental refugees displaced by climate change)

in contemporary international socio-political and

environmental contexts (Moldovan 2016; Rankin

2005; Wood 2014). Moreover, despite adopting

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