Uneven Rules: The Struggle for Refugee Family Reunification

We examine a policy change for family reunification of refugees. The policy strongly restricted family reunification for subsidiary-protected refugees and allowed convention refugees to apply without those restrictions only immediately after receiving protection. Regular family reunification almost stopped for subsidiary-protected refugees. However, we find suggestive evidence of a nearly offsetting increase in irregular family reunification. Convention refugees expedited their reunifications and overall increased the likelihood of sponsoring family members. Moreover, we find positive labor market effects for convention refugees but not for subsidiary-protected ones.