Refugee Housing

The Impact of Private Hosting on Ukrainian Refugee Integration

In Herpell et al. (2025), we examine how private hosting affects the integration of Ukrainian refugees during the ongoing displacement crisis. Using data from one of Europe’s largest non-profit matching platforms for private refugee accommodation, we implement a quasi-experimental design. Refugees matched with private hosts are compared to similar refugees who applied for hosting but were not matched, allowing us to isolate the causal effects of private hosting on integration outcomes.

Our results reveal that private hosting significantly improves social, psychological, and navigational integration but shows no discernible impact on linguistic, economic, or political integration. This study provides causal evidence on the effectiveness of private hosting in improving refugee integration, highlighting its potential to complement traditional public asylum reception and housing systems and to leverage civil society engagement for refugee integration during humanitarian crises.