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14 September 2016

Hiring refugees - What are the opportunities and challenges for employers?

Resulting from a joint consultation process with employers, started by the OECD and UNHCR, the paper identifies the main challenges faced when employing refugees. As sobering fact, many employers do not see an immediate business case for hiring refugees or asylum seekers. Particularly among larger companies, the main motivation for employing refugees is currently corporate social responsibility, rather than meeting labour needs.

While many employers are willing to support refugees through training and internships, hiring – especially into more skilled occupations – has so far been limited. Employers cite several reasons for the slow up-take of employment of refugees and asylum seekers, including uncertainty about refugees and asylum seekers’ rights to labour market access, uncertainty about their skills and qualifications, lower productivity due to a lack of destination-country language skills, and a public opinion that is sceptical about hiring refugees or asylum seekers.

Appropriate policy responses proposed to address these challenges include:

  • assessment of asylum seekers’ and refugees’ skills, ideally in co-operation between employers and the public employment service, with subsequent upskilling and a specific focus on shortage occupations;
  • more transparent and more accessible information on refugees’ right to work, the recognition of foreign qualifications and the availability of training support for refugees, including through one-stop shops and hotlines;
  • stronger co-operation between public employment services and social partners, to facilitate the matching process between refugees’ skills and local demand; and 
  • ongoing support after initial work placements to ensure long-term employability.
Paper
English
(664.79 KB - PDF)
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Details

Authors
OECD and UNHCR
Geographic area
EU Wide
Contributor type
International organisation
Original source
Posted by
Thomas Huddleston
Author

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