Many countries are considering reforms to their asylum procedures, particularly those policies that equip refugees for the labour market and manage their financial support. This column brings together evidence from four decades of Danish refugee policies and identifies two policies whose benefits have outweighed their costs: allowing refugees to choose where they settle, and labour market programmes that increase investment in language skills. Policies that emphasise early job-training, regulate access to welfare benefits, or use permanent-residency incentives, on the other hand, create long-run disadvantages for some migrants.