While the refugee gap has been well‐documented in various contexts, gender‐specific dynamics that characterize this gap have been understudied and undertheorized. The refugee gap is the economic disadvantage that refugees face in comparison to other immigrants and the host community. 

Conventionally, it has been explained through the group’s language skills, educational experience, forms of family support, mental and physical health, as well as residential areas. A gendered analysis of these factors as well as a consideration of gender specific factors such as concerns for safety and socio‐cultural dynamics remain missing in the discourse. 

The project “The Refugee Gender Gap – a new concept for an old phenomenon” addresses this lack in understanding on how labor market participation of refugee women has been organized and what kind of specific challenges refugee women face to access and to succeed in the labor market. By empirically capturing the persistent refugee gap from a gendered perspective, a supporting theory of the “refugee gender gap” is developed.