The theoretical framework is based, on the one hand, on theories that explain the integration model in each country, which are assimilation and multiculturalism. On the other hand, it is based on the intersectionality theory, which explains the multiple-discrimination that a person can experience. The selected three theories are essential to formulating the research hypotheses, which will subsequently be tested throughout this study.
4.1. Assimilation and multiculturalism
The socioeconomic inclusion of female refugees is shaped by the integration model that is adopted by the host country. Scholars distinguish between multiculturalism and assimilation as the main models of immigrant integration. Assimilation, on the one hand, means that the process through which a migrant absorb completely the host country’s culture and identity (Joppke, 2007). Assimilation can occur spontaneously or forcibly when a country forces a migrant to erase their original culture, language and religion in order to replace them with the host country’s culture and identity. However, Brubaker (2001) narrows down the definition of assimilation to include the integration programmes that make non-EU immigrants become more similar to the native population. Still, it can be argued that his definition is not completely accurate since learning
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Multiculturalism is based on the recognition of the ethnic and cultural diversity of refugees and that requires tackling all direct and indirect discrimination in the labour market. Nevertheless, during the last decade, many European countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, France and the United Kingdom, have shifted their immigrant integration approach from multiculturalism to assimilation based on claims that multiculturalism has failed in integrating refugees in many EU Member States (Joppke, 2007; Koopmans 2003,