The topic of migration and forced displacement takes central attention in national, regional and global policies. However, the debate is often confounded by a political and populist narrative that is not grounded in evidence. As such, this policy brief highlights the research
evidence base and aims to propagate its conclusions amongst policy makers as well as private stakeholders to mobilise action and factual discussions around this emotive topic. While we recognise the political sensitivities around migration-related policies, in this policy brief we describe some of the recent evidence supporting feasible policy solutions to improve integration of refugees in labour markets and promote healthy attitudes towards them to bolster and preserve social cohesion. The set of interventions we put forward range from using technology to match labour market supply and demand for refugees to adopting holistic active labour market programmes for refugees and redesigning the asylum process with a focus on integration, with frontline cities playing a key role to promote better
reception processes and faster asylum-decision processing. Through a number of tools governments, business and civil society should actively leverage research and evidence to counter disinformation about refugees, a task that has become even more urgent during the COVID crisis.