Migration and flight significantly shape society, the labor market, and institutions. Integration is a multidimensional process that goes far beyond formal residency rights. Real access to education, qualification, and employment is crucial, as well as social inclusion, health, well-being, and societal participation. Particularly for young refugees, interrupted educational paths and institutional transition barriers (e.g., in accessing secondary schools, recognition of prior education, or in interfaces between systems) can have long-lasting effects on educational and employment biographies. At the same time, it is evident that integration can also be strengthened through civil society channels such as volunteer work—when organizations are not only "open" but actively create structures that reduce linguistic and social barriers and enable participation.

The Center for Nonprofit Organizations and Social Impact collaborates closely with the Research Institute for Refugee and Migration Research and Management (FORM) in this field. Through cooperation and regular exchange, we connect labor market and social policy perspectives with interdisciplinary refugee and migration research, translating scientific evidence into practical impulses for policy, administration, provider organizations, and funding bodies.

What We Achieve in This Research Field

• Support Programs and Systemic Barriers: We investigate how support programs, systemic barriers, and societal conditions influence the labor market opportunities, education, and social integration of refugees.

• Civil Society Participation & Role of Organizations: We analyze how volunteer work supports integration, what barriers and success factors exist at the organizational level (e.g., outreach, support, buddy systems), and what impacts arise for volunteers, organizations, and society.

• Knowledge Transfer & Policy-Oriented Recommendations: In collaboration with practical partners, we develop evidence-based recommendations for the further development of programs, governance structures, and interfaces between systems.

Reference Projects:

Integration through Labor Market Programs: The Impact of Youth Colleges Vienna on the Social Integration of Refugees

Educational Interruptions of Asylum-Seeking Youth

Study on Volunteer Work by People with Migration Backgrounds