International Journal of Comparative Sociology. Claudia Peroni, Camilla Devitt, Daniel Faas, published February 2025
Abstract:
Does the management of asylum systems by non-profit as opposed to for-profit organizations affect workers’ experiences and satisfaction? This study explores this question through interviews with workers and other stakeholders involved in the daily implementation of asylum policy in Italy and Ireland: Italy has a public system managed by civil society actors, whereas Ireland subcontracts management to for-profit actors.
We find that job satisfaction is generally high; however, a non-profit system improves workers’ experiences by providing value-based meaningfulness and interconnectedness with other public services, whereas a for-profit system provides less support in terms of available networks, regulation, transparency, and accountability.
We argue that each system is the product of its state’s administrative tradition, which also shapes workers’ conceptualization of job satisfaction; however, a for-profit implementation model is ill-suited to asylum policy, especially when located within a broader context of marketized state services.