News Finding: They predicted the employment rate would have been 73 percent higher among asylum seekers who arrived in 2013 if they had been assigned to the places the algorithm identified as optimal.
Paper Finding: In Switzerland, for example, we find that the ability to speak French (i.e., among French-speaking African refugees) results in a larger payoff for refugees assigned to Frenchspeaking cantons than for those assigned to German-speaking cantons ( fig.
News Context: The group found that if the algorithm had selected locations for refugees' resettlement, the average employment rate among those refugees would have been roughly 41 percent higher. They predicted the employment rate would have been 73 percent higher among asylum seekers who arrived in 2013 if they had been assigned to the places the algorithm identified as optimal. In Vaud, employment prospects are higher for anyone who speaks French.
Paper Context: This indicates that there are synergies between places and people; certain characteristics will make a refugee a better match for a particular location. In Switzerland, for example, we find that the ability to speak French (i.e., among French-speaking African refugees) results in a larger payoff for refugees assigned to Frenchspeaking cantons than for those assigned to German-speaking cantons ( fig. A separate model was fit for subgroups of refugees assigned to each location, thus yielding different models for each location and allowing for the discovery of refugee/location synergies.