WHAT’S PSYCHOLOGY GOT TO DO WITH IT: LABOUR MARKET INCLUSION OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

The present contribution seeks to advance psychological approaches in inclusion of persons with a disability or health condition in decent work. People with disabilities and mental ill health appear to be among the most neglected groups when it comes to integration into the labour market (ILO, 2018; WHO, 2011). Article 27 of the CRPD emphasises equal access to the labour market as a governmental obligation and obliges signatory states to take appropriate measures (CRPD, 2006). However, specific programmes and measures to promote the employment of people with disabilities based on a human image of "protean career attitude" (Fugate, Kinicki, & Ashforth, 2004) often achieve only moderate success despite the involvement of psychological services, as shown by the example of national concepts in Luxembourg (Limbach-Reich, 2019). Searching for reasons one can identify two main strands which, on the one hand, concern the perspective of people with disabilities in sheltered workshops with regard to the general labour market and, on the other hand, appear in the employers' insufficient recruitment practice (WHO, 2011). As the present study shows, for the majority of people in sheltered workshops this form of employment is the more attractive alternative under the given circumstances. Inclusion in the first labour market is only sought by a minority. The reasons given for the preference for a protected employment status are overstrain and negative experiences on the first labour market. At the same time, in an increasingly neo-liberal employment market, the willingness to employ people with disabilities seems to be only slightly pronounced. The majority of the population of disabled workers in a workshop are not considered attractive for the existing labour market, as they do not correspond to the propagated image of the individual oriented towards career advancement, entrepreneurship aspiration and self-optimisation (Seithe, 2013). In conclusion, it is demanded that psychology should review prevailing neoliberal assumptions about the human behaviour and become more politically involved. In particular, psychology has to ask itself whether, by pursuing inclusion in the labour market exclusively, it fails and contributes to blaming the victims, especially those with mental and psychological disabilities. If in the future there are fewer and fewer people available for paid work and unconditional basic income will rise (Harari, 2015; Kela, 2019), then psychology, in cooperation with other disciplines, must also face up to the challenges and develop approaches that make psychological well-being and self-actualisation possible beyond the overarching neoliberal employment rigor.