Ayodeji Stephen Akinnimi Earns Doctorate on Labor Market Integration of Asylum Seekers

Ayodeji Stephen Akinnimi successfully defended his doctoral dissertation at the University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) last October. In “Keeping a Job: Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Temporary and Non-Regular Employment” he explores how refugees access the German labor market since the easing of restrictions in 2015. Temporary agencies have hitherto been thought to act as a stepping stone for refugees into regular employment. Akinnimi observes a different pattern in his study, however, revealing how immigration controls and employment regulations combine to force asylum seekers, in particular those whose work permit has been revoked and asylum claim rejected, into the informal labor market. Three sites are central to his ethnographic study: day-job markets, scrapyards run mainly by operators with a migrant or refugee background, and temporary agency client workplaces. Social ties emerge as essential to both formal and informal employment, and even more so for those without prospects to remain, who rely on contacts to stay active in the formal sector and secure both their residence status and livelihood. Akinnimi’s supervisor was Karen Shire. He joined the International Max Planck Research School on the Social and Political Constitution of the Economy (IMPRS-SPCE) in 2019 and is currently a research associate at the UDE’s Institute of East Asian Studies.