Abstract Iranians are considered the most successful refugee group in the Netherlands in terms of integration. However, their path towards inclusion is not without struggles. This paper highlights organizational and societal limiting factors that are often forgotten in research and policy on refugees’ integration in the job market and on inclusion in general. The data presented are based on 20 years of research on narratives from Iranian refugees – mostly women – about their struggles towards societal and organizational inclusion. This article critically discusses the implications of dominant discourses and policies on the integration of refugees in the past and present to enable reflection for the future. The empirical data show how the consistency of normalized images of refugees hinders their path to long‐term inclusion. The data analysis is situated within the theoretical discussion on refugees’ integration in the labour market, connecting bodies of literature from refugee studies, organization studies and integration studies.