tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/asylum-seekers-and-work-21360/articlesAsylum seekers and work – The Conversation2019-11-21T10:03:27Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1245542019-11-21T10:03:27Z2019-11-21T10:03:27ZPeople seeking asylum can have a better life – lift the ban on work<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302202/original/file-20191118-66937-1lmojiy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C97%2C6332%2C4221&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/female-warehouse-worker-helmet-safety-vest-679330939?src=ea77f526-27e8-4ece-8cc2-45ce89ade82d-1-33">metamorworks/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Seeking asylum is associated with many hardships. But one of the most significant is actually the challenge of finding meaningful ways to spend your time. People can find themselves waiting for an <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0308022615591174">asylum decision for many years</a>, facing multiple barriers, struggling to fill the hours in their days and feeling they exist on the margins of society.</p>
<p>Indeed, daily occupations – such as family life, self-care, work, leisure and community participation – are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2018.1492958">how many people find purpose</a>, express themselves and connect with others. Research shows that finding the right kind of daily occupation has the potential to help people cope with the major adjustments of asylum and successfully negotiate daily <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2012.717499">life in their new context</a>.</p>
<p>For people seeking asylum though, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1539449216668648">opportunities for work</a> are often <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf">restricted by asylum policies</a> in their host country. This – along with reduced access to education, leisure and social networks – can mean that accessing opportunities becomes <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2017.1373256">very difficult</a> and that people’s skills, experience and passions dwindle. All of which can lead to limited community integration, <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf">poor mental health and vulnerability to exploitation</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-uk-asylum-system-creates-perfect-conditions-for-modern-slavery-and-exploitation-to-thrive-113778">How UK asylum system creates perfect conditions for modern slavery and exploitation to thrive</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/lift-the-ban/">Despite repeated calls</a> for greater access to opportunities like work and education, successive governments in the UK have reduced access through populist policies designed to create a “<a href="https://www.freemovement.org.uk/hostile-environment-affect/">hostile environment</a>” for immigrants. This leads to a waste of the skills and potential of many people.</p>
<h2>Finding meaning and purpose</h2>
<p>In my <a href="https://research.tees.ac.uk/en/persons/claire-hart/studentTheses/">recent research</a> with people seeking asylum in Teesside in north-east England, I found that people wanted more than just “something to do”. Indeed, many people were searching for opportunities to “not only keep busy, but keep busy with purpose”. They described the frustration of “low challenge occupations” – such as watching television or cleaning the house – which fill time but offer little satisfaction. Instead they were searching for activities that presented opportunities to find meaning and purpose.</p>
<p>Which activities offer meaning and purpose will vary from person to person but, generally, people are motivated to do things that promote feelings of <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_what_makes_us_feel_good_about_our_work">productivity</a>), <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2013.764580">connectedness</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2019.1592011">continuity</a> and <a href="https://research.tees.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/6325913/THESIS_post_viva_amendments_.pdf">self-worth</a>. Meaningful occupations can give feelings of achievement and mastery. They can provide connections to family, networks and community, so that people feel valued. They can also provide continuity between past, present and future. Together this creates a sense of productivity, belonging and a consistent life path.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/302201/original/file-20191118-66937-8fv2zi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the ugly realities of the British asylum system lies in the work ban placed on people awaiting a decision on their asylum claim.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/political-graffiti-uk-time-when-antiimmigration-1797159?src=5d7d496e-e1ae-4535-86e2-9744da7aa42f-1-9">Chris Loneragan/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet, each of these crucial elements is undermined during forced migration. Policies and practicalities leave people without the means to feel productive through <a href="http://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN01908/SN01908.pdf">work or education</a>. The absence of family, networks and community <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2012.717499">undermines their sense of belonging</a>. Rapid change and <a href="http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/uk-public-opinion-toward-immigration-overall-attitudes-and-level-of-concern/">limited choice halt their feeling of continuity</a> and hostile attitudes leave them feeling devalued.</p>
<p>Meaningful occupations provide a means to resist these challenges, allowing people to hold onto a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14427591.2012.717497">sense of self and maintain wellbeing</a>. Projects promoting occupation for people seeking asylum are numerous. Activities can include <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/healthcare-network/2017/jun/28/nhs-therapeutic-gardening-help-refugees-trauma">gardening</a>, <a href="https://www.migrateful.org/2019/03/27/2695/">cookery</a>, <a href="https://soas.hubbub.net/p/storiesofhome/">creative writing</a>, <a href="https://thebikeproject.co.uk/pages/refugee">cycling </a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/apr/12/middlesbrough-refugees-football-community">football</a> – all of which foster meaning through structure, purpose, belonging and identity. </p>
<h2>‘More than just an asylum seeker’</h2>
<p>Occupations are so much part of everyday life that their value is often taken for granted. Humans are occupational beings. We use our daily activities to demonstrate our assets and strengths, connect with others and express our values. <a href="https://www.wfot.org/resources/human-rights">Access to occupation is considered a human right</a>. As previous research has highlighted, it enables people to “flourish, fulfil their potential and experience satisfaction”.</p>
<p>Through meaningful occupation, people seeking asylum <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1539449216668648">can experience</a> improved physical and mental health, maintain essential skills and integrate with their host community. It can also help to bring people together and provide opportunities for them to express their identity, to become “more than an asylum seeker”. Finding meaning in everyday life makes the hardships of asylum more tolerable. It also allows people to retain more of themselves to <a href="https://medium.com/becoming-alight/the-refugee-rethink-part-4-what-if-maslow-was-wrong-27eb49707548">take forward into their future</a>.</p>
<p>At a time when forced migration is at its <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/globaltrends2018/">highest recorded level</a>, more practical solutions to the lengthy, passive wait for asylum decisions must be found. This is important, as denying people opportunities is associated with many negatives. It is a costly, wasteful approach based on draconian and ill-considered policies, designed for their rhetoric rather than their common sense. The call for people seeking asylum to be allowed to work <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf">is growing</a>. But in the meantime, there must be easier access to a range of alternative occupations to help lessen the impact this limbo period has on people, their families and the wider community.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124554/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Helen Claire Hart received funding from United Kingdom Occupational Therapy Research Foundation to carry out this study.</span></em></p>People can find themselves waiting for an asylum decision for many years, facing multiple barriers and struggling to fill the hours in their days.Helen Claire Hart, Principal Lecturer (Research & Innovation), Teesside UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1259312019-11-04T19:03:42Z2019-11-04T19:03:42ZAsylum seekers left ‘desperate’ and ‘helpless’ when they try to find work in Australia<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/300014/original/file-20191104-88372-dnfa1c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C131%2C4000%2C2359&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Past experience doesn't always count for asylum seekers when they apply for work in Australia.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/Tero Vesalainen</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Finding work can be a challenge for new migrants to Australia who often arrive with limited English skills and lack local contacts.</p>
<p>But finding work for people seeking asylum can be even harder, as we found in a <a href="https://www.asrc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ASRC-Employment-Research-Report_W_FA.pdf" title="Towards an optimal employment strategy for people seeking asylum in Victoria">study</a> that looked at the experience some had in trying to find a decent job. </p>
<p>We surveyed 59 asylum seekers in Victoria, current employers of asylum seekers, and staff from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (<a href="https://www.asrc.org.au/">ASRC</a>), a not-for-profit organisation that supports people seeking asylum.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/asylum-seekers-have-a-right-to-higher-education-and-academics-can-be-powerful-advocates-121753">Asylum seekers have a right to higher education and academics can be powerful advocates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Some found their qualifications were ignored, others were left to take what are known as survival jobs, which is any job they can get just to earn a basic living. And the challenges they face can be compounded by the traumatic experiences in their past.</p>
<h2>The barriers to employment</h2>
<p>Access to <a href="https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/decent-work/lang--en/index.htm">decent work</a> is not only important for economic security, but also <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/ACC140BCC81D60CAB3B5CA6F57E1E87D/S1834490900000362a.pdf/forced_migration_social_exclusion_and_poverty_introduction.pdf" title="Forced Migration, Social Exclusion and Poverty: Introduction">health and well-being</a>. It’s increasingly being <a href="https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/18233HLPF_Decent_Work_for_Sustainable_Development_2018.pdf" title="Decent Work for Sustainable Development: Transformation towards sustainable and resilient societies">recognised as a human right</a>.</p>
<p>Yet we found asylum seekers face layers of complex, structural barriers to employment. Some we spoke to had been relying on not-for-profit organisations for years to make ends meet.</p>
<p>Many described their job search as “desperate” and “helpless”.</p>
<p>Visa conditions of some had changed and their work rights denied for periods, often based on seemingly arbitrary factors such as how they came to Australia. For example, people who arrived by plane and are on a bridging visa can’t access concession courses at TAFE while those who arrive on boat can access concession rates.</p>
<p>Even years after first arriving, some are still struggling to find work, as one respondent explained:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Now I have been without a job for almost two years, and it is very difficult to get back into the workforce.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even participants with high-demand skills and qualifications have few opportunities to use them, hence they depend on survival jobs.</p>
<p>For example, one held a master’s degree and wished to pursue a PhD in Australia, but said he was struggling to access essential living services, let alone attain a scholarship. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I would love to teach and become a lecturer to contribute my quota in this country, but I have been relegated to warehouse job wasting my talent.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the managers from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre we interviewed referred to this as “de-skilling”. She said by virtue of entering Australia, most asylum seekers are automatically denied recognition of any of their skills, qualifications or experience and are forced to “work their way up from the bottom”.</p>
<p>She added: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I find it hard when I speak to (asylum seekers) on the phone about the fact that they are now working night shift in, say, a pharmaceutical company, when they are just (like), ‘This is not what I really want to be doing. I am a particle physicist’, or something, ‘from my home country’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These survival jobs are often financially unsustainable. Many respondents relayed stories of being underpaid and forced to work in exploitative conditions. For example, one said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I faced lots of racist people who took advantage of me and recruited me under normal pay because I am an asylum seeker.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Our study found this exploitation was rife across the sector, but as one respondent said, government policies didn’t help as they were “so punitive that it completely reduces people’s ability to feel like they can stand up for their rights”.</p>
<h2>Government cuts make it harder</h2>
<p>These are just a few of the many factors that trap asylum seekers into a vicious cycle of precarious livelihood. The situation was made worse by the recent government cuts to the <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/srss-cuts-factsheet/">Status Resolution Support Service</a> (SRSS).</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/With-Empty-Hands_FINAL.pdf" title="WITH EMPTY HANDS: How the Australian Government is forcing people seeking asylum to destitution">SRSS</a> is the only source of government-funded financial and social support available to asylum seekers, offering vital necessities including counselling for torture and trauma, subsidised medication and income support.</p>
<p>Cuts to the scheme in 2018 resulted in 1,200 people dropped from support, with another <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/srss-cuts-factsheet/">8,299 people</a> expected to become ineligible in the next year. The cuts reportedly <a href="https://www.asrc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/180419-The-ASRC-Report-Cutting-the-Safety-Net.pdf" title="Cutting the Safety Net">left people seeking asylum feeling destitute</a>.</p>
<p>The asylum seekers most hard hit by these cuts also had the lowest skills and qualifications. Unable to even find survival jobs or access social security or mental health support services, these people are forced to rely on not-for-profit organisations for help.</p>
<p>Despite these organisations’ best efforts to provide personalised training and support, they are flooded with demand beyond their capacity.</p>
<p>As a staff member explained, they are merely “doing the best with what they have”.</p>
<h2>What can we do?</h2>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.asrc.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/ASRC-Employment-Research-Report_W_FA.pdf" title="Towards an optimal employment strategy for people seeking asylum in Victoria">report</a> suggests some ways forward to alleviate these challenges. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-all-slept-in-the-car-five-of-us-young-refugees-talk-about-being-homeless-in-australia-121559">'We all slept in the car, five of us'. Young refugees talk about being homeless in Australia</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Most notably, given the inadequacy of federal policy responses, state governments should work with community organisations and employers to provide more targeted services to asylum seekers who have fallen through the cracks of SRSS cuts.</p>
<p>They should fund programs that help recognise their skills and provide support to get them ready for any employment opportunities.</p>
<p>This should help address some of the “de-skilling” and survival job challenges asylum seekers face, and help them contribute significantly to the local economy.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/125931/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The current article is an outcome of research commissioned by the Asylum Seekers Resource Centre. Kiros Hiruy has also received research funds from the Scanlon Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Megerssa T Walo was involved in the research project funded by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rebecca Hutton was involved in the research project funded by the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. </span></em></p>No matter how skilled or qualified they are, asylum seekerd say they’ve often forced to take whatever basic job they can just to survive.Kiros Hiruy, Senior Research Fellow, Centre for Social Impact, Faculty of Business and Law, Swinburne University of TechnologyMegerssa T Walo, Research Fellow, Swinburne Business School, Swinburne University of TechnologyRebecca Willow-Anne Hutton, Research Assistant, Centre for Social Impact, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1122542019-02-22T10:53:38Z2019-02-22T10:53:38ZWork ban forces asylum seekers into destitution – but we now have a chance to change this policy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/260198/original/file-20190221-195883-1iewd26.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ready to get to work. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/chef-tossing-stir-fry-over-large-448368769?src=n736LJkWU9cRPwnbYfdhEg-1-18">wavebreakmedia/ Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One of the ugly realities of the British asylum system lies in the work ban placed on people awaiting a decision on their asylum claim. The ban on working often forces people to rely on friends and family, or, worse, into destitution. This restriction is <a href="https://theconversation.com/is-access-to-work-really-a-pull-factor-for-asylum-seekers-57757">often justified</a> by the mistaken notion that it will limit the number of people claiming asylum in the UK. </p>
<p>Following a <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/lift-the-ban/">sustained campaign</a>, and two <a href="https://services.parliament.uk/Bills/2017-19/asylumseekerspermissiontowork.html">private members bills</a> spearheaded by Labour MP Catherine West and Liberal Democrat Christine Jardine, parliament will have an opportunity to challenge this damaging policy. </p>
<p>The current law allows people claiming asylum in the UK to work if, and only if, they have not received a decision on their asylum claim within 12 months. Even then they are required to apply to the Home Office for permission. If a person is permitted to seek employment, they may only take up positions on a list of <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/immigration-rules/immigration-rules-appendix-k-shortage-occupation-list">shortage occupations,</a> which includes roles such as petroleum engineer or software developer. This leaves many asylum seekers with a de-facto total ban on working.</p>
<p>The two bills, still currently being drafted, are likely to make relatively similar provisions with both reducing the length of the ban on asylum seekers working – it has been suggested to three and six months respectively. Both will also seek to allow applications to roles beyond those on the shortage occupation list. </p>
<h2>Barred from working</h2>
<p>Limitations on the ability to work have hugely corrosive effects on the lives of people claiming asylum. For example, Jaspal* a participant in my <a href="https://www.city.ac.uk/people/students/alex-powell">ongoing research</a> on LGBTQ+ asylum seekers, likened the treatment he received in the UK with the discrimination he endured in his country of origin. He told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Regardless of where you are, it is discrimination … I felt like I ran away from being persecuted for being gay and now I am being persecuted here just for claiming asylum. I didn’t do anything that was unlawful or anything. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Another person I interviewed, called Salim* claimed that the restriction on working partly fuelled anti-refugee rhetoric within the UK.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to work, to contribute, and be a part of society. But I am not allowed. You see all these people trying to claim that individuals fleeing the war in Syria are just here to take and the reality is that the UK government won’t allow them to contribute, they won’t allow me to contribute either. It’s ridiculous and it makes it very hard to survive. How are we supposed to survive?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What these two accounts make clear is that asylum seekers themselves view the current work restrictions as barring them from full participation in society, firmly identifying the policy as a form of discrimination and exclusion. This chimes with the findings of a report from the campaign coalition <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf">Lift the Ban</a>, which identified the working ban as a significant cause of social exclusion among asylum seekers.</p>
<p>But this is only part of the picture. Even more concerning are the cases in which people are forced into destitution by their inability to work or claim adequate state support. Asylum claimants are eligible <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/asylum-in-the-uk.html">for just £5.39 subsistence</a> payment a day in support. This means many struggle to cover their basic needs. In November 2018, the Equality and Human Rights Commission <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/making-sure-people-seeking-and-refused-asylum-can-access-healthcare-what-needs">revealed</a> that many asylum seekers are being forced to choose between eating or paying to attend essential medical appointments. </p>
<p>The Lift The Ban report documented that 52% of the 246 people the coalition surveyed were <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf">forced to rely on food banks</a> at some point during their claim. This is made worse by the fact that many asylum seekers are <a href="https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/en/publication-download/making-sure-people-seeking-and-refused-asylum-can-access-healthcare-what-needs">being forced to wait months</a> before they can start receiving their subsistence payment. The reality is that in many cases, asylum seekers are simply being <a href="https://www.refugee-action.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Lift-the-Ban-report.pdf%22%22">forced into destitution and desperation</a> by the ban on working.</p>
<p><iframe id="cMxoL" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/cMxoL/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<h2>Chance for change</h2>
<p>Things do not have to be this way. The criteria under which someone is designated a refugee are outlined under the <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/3b66c2aa10">Refugee Convention of 1951</a>, amended by a <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/ProtocolStatusOfRefugees.aspx">1967 protocol</a>. The core criteria are that the claimant cannot, or is not willing, to return to their country of origin because they have a well-founded fear of persecution relating to their race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. </p>
<p>Accounting for this, all asylum seekers are potentially traumatised people who have come to the UK requesting sanctuary. Many will have suffered horrific wrongs, while others will be fearful of what the future might hold. The wait for an asylum claim, often in extreme poverty, only <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/sonal-ghelani/government-in-dock-destitution-and-asylum-in-uk">exacerbates the anxiety</a>.</p>
<p>The UK has a moral and legal duty to help these people – but is instead currently forcing them into destitution and desperation. This must change. The bills currently before parliament offer the chance of a brighter future – let’s hope that other MPs are willing to welcome that future.</p>
<p><em>*Names have been changed to protect anonymity.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Powell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Two bills currently before the British parliament seek to reduce the 12 month ban on asylum seekers from working.Alex Powell, PhD Candidate, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1078922018-12-13T19:12:24Z2018-12-13T19:12:24ZHow people seeking asylum in Australia access higher education, and the enormous barriers they face<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249592/original/file-20181210-76968-wa7nw7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">There are about 30,000 refugees in Australia, and just over 200 of them have been able to study at a university.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Accessing higher education is critical for many people seeking asylum. It’s not simply a means of acquiring the qualifications and skills necessary for <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/New-Community-Journal-55-Education-denied.pdf">employment</a>. It’s also essential to living <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/New-Community-Journal-55-Education-denied.pdf">a meaningful life</a></p>
<p>Despite this, people seeking asylum are among Australia’s most educationally disadvantaged. This is largely due to restrictive federal government policies. In response, a growing number of universities and community organisations have enabled access to higher education for some people seeking asylum. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universities-need-to-do-more-to-support-refugee-students-97185">Universities need to do more to support refugee students</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Hartley_PeopleSeekingAsylum.pdf">first nationwide study</a> into this found more than 200 people seeking asylum have been able to study at university through scholarships and other supports in recent years. But most of the approximately 30,000 people seeking asylum living in Australia continue to face enormous barriers in accessing higher education.</p>
<h2>Who are the people seeking asylum?</h2>
<p>Most people seeking asylum in Australia are those who arrived by boat since 13 August 2012. This was when the Australian government introduced a system of third country processing, but not all people seeking asylum were sent to offshore detention on <a href="https://www.humanrights.gov.au/our-work/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/projects/transfer-asylum-seekers-third-countries">Nauru or Manus Island</a>. It also includes people who arrived earlier and didn’t have their protection visa application finalised by 18 September 2013, the date <a href="https://theconversation.com/operation-sovereign-borders-dignified-silence-or-diminishing-democracy-21294">Operation Sovereign Borders</a> commenced. </p>
<p>There are approximately 30,000 people in this situation in Australia. If they’re deemed eligible for protection, they’re issued <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getting-help/legal-info/visas/tpv-shev-faqs/">one of two temporary visas</a>: </p>
<ol>
<li>a three-year <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getting-help/legal-info/visas/tpv-shev-faqs/">Temporary Protection Visa</a> (TPV) </li>
<li>a five-year <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/getting-help/legal-info/visas/tpv-shev-faqs/">Safe Haven Enterprise Visa</a> (SHEV). </li>
</ol>
<p>While they wait for their protection claim to be finalised, most are issued a temporary <a href="https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/visas/getting-a-visa/visa-listing/bridging-visa-b-020">bridging visa</a>.</p>
<p>In our research, “people seeking asylum” refers to those who are either awaiting the outcome of their refugee application and living in the community on a Bridging Visa, or people found to be a refugee and granted a TPV or SHEV.</p>
<p>More than half of the 30,000 people received a decision on their refugee claim by October 2018. Over <a href="https://www.homeaffairs.gov.au/research-and-stats/files/ima-oct-2018.pdf">11,000</a> people continue to wait. The majority have left countries such as Iran, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Pakistan to seek protection in Australia. </p>
<h2>What are some of the major barriers to higher education?</h2>
<p>From 13 August 2012 for up to three years, people seeking asylum were denied the right to work in Australia and only given minimal government income support. Not able to meet their basic needs, this <a href="http://apo.org.au/node/38122">forced people into destitution</a>. While most have been granted the right to work, many are still significantly financially disadvantaged. </p>
<p>The temporary nature of visas for people seeking asylum means their only pathway to higher education is through admission as a full-fee paying international student. The average undergraduate degree costs <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/punjabi/en/article/2017/11/01/how-do-i-pay-my-studies-australia">over A$30,000 </a> per year without government subsidies. This makes accessing higher education financially impossible for most. </p>
<p>Being issued a temporary visa also creates difficulties in accessing alternative pathways. These include <a href="http://enablingeducators.org/enablingtypology/typology/">enabling courses</a>, government-funded English language classes, and other <a href="http://apo.org.au/system/files/4305/apo-nid4305-80706.pdf">supports</a> for successful transition into higher education.</p>
<p>People seeking asylum are also not eligible for income support programs such as <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/newstart-allowance/who-can-get-it">Newstart Allowance</a>, <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/youth-allowance">Youth Allowance</a>, and <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/austudy/eligibility">Austudy</a>. People on a Temporary Protection Visa or Safe Haven Enterprise Visa also face barriers in accessing the <a href="https://www.humanservices.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/special-benefit">Special Benefit</a> welfare payment. They can only receive income support if they’re taking a vocational course likely to improve their employment prospects, and to be completed in 12 months or less. </p>
<p>The recent removal of <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/latest/srss-june-25-cuts/">Status Resolution Support Services</a> (SRSS) income and casework assistance for people seeking asylum on a bridging visa means they’re expected to support themselves if they want to continue their studies. This puts students at even greater risk of <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/publications/reports/srss-economic-penalty-full/">financial destitution and homelessness</a>.</p>
<p>Our research found the stresses of adjusting to academic life, financial difficulties, and living in extremely uncertain situations have a significant negative impact on students’ mental health. These concerns, combined with <a href="http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/view/700">ongoing trauma</a> from past experiences, separation from family, and mental health impacts of detention act as further barriers to higher education.</p>
<h2>Map of asylum seekers accessing Australian higher education</h2>
<p>Our research found <a href="https://www.ncsehe.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Hartley_PeopleSeekingAsylum.pdf">23 universities</a> across Australia have introduced scholarships for students in this situation. Other supports include bursaries and stipends, part-time employment opportunities attached to scholarships, computers, and access to alternative entrance pathways.</p>
<hr>
<p><iframe id="qJhQ2" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qJhQ2/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<hr>
<p>As of October 2018, this has enabled 204 people seeking asylum to study at an Australian university. But there are a lot of others who have not been able to access a scholarship and/or meet the university entry requirements.</p>
<h2>Why should Australians care?</h2>
<p>The determination and commitment of these students to their studies is evident in our research and needs to be celebrated. This is despite the fact they’re living in situations of extreme uncertainty and receiving minimal support compared to most other students in Australia.</p>
<p>Without access to higher education, people seeking asylum have less access to <a href="https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/New-Community-Journal-55-Education-denied.pdf">employment opportunities</a>, which means they’re less able to contribute economically to their own livelihoods and their host society. In this case, that would be Australia’s economy. It also exacerbates <a href="https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/mcs/article/view/4969">social exclusion</a> from the broader community. </p>
<h2>What can be done to open up access to higher education?</h2>
<p>University and community organisations responsible for scholarships and other supports for these refugees need to be praised. But further measures need to ensure these students receive supports necessary for success in their studies. This includes offering alternative entrance pathways – such as enabling programs or diploma pathways – and having a <a href="https://srhe.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13562517.2017.1332028#.W_ykMafMycI">dedicated university staff member</a> to support students.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-a-photo-research-project-gives-refugee-women-a-voice-in-resettlement-policy-98165">How a photo research project gives refugee women a voice in resettlement policy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Federal government policies present the most significant barriers to people seeking asylum in accessing higher education. These also need to be addressed. People found to be refugees should be issued permanent visas as they were before. The processing of these visas has taken a long time – some have been waiting more than five years. The process needs to be faster but also fair to ensure that people seeking asylum <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-australia-decides-who-is-a-genuine-refugee-72574">receive sound decisions</a> on their refugee claims.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107892/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lisa Hartley receives funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Caroline Fleay receives funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). She is also a Board Member, Refugee Council of Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rachel Burke receives funding from National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sally Baker receives funding from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE).</span></em></p>Federal government policies are the biggest barriers to people seeking asylum in accessing higher education in Australia.Lisa Hartley, Senior Lecturer, Centre for Human Rights Education, Curtin UniversityCaroline Fleay, Senior Lecturer, Curtin UniversityRachel Burke, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of NewcastleSally Baker, Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/947912018-05-09T10:53:23Z2018-05-09T10:53:23ZDispersing refugees around a country puts them at an immediate disadvantage – why this matters for integration<p>The estimated number of people worldwide displaced by conflict and violence reached an unprecedented <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/publications/fundraising/5a0c05027/unhcr-global-appeal-2018-2019-full-report.html">68.9m</a> at the end of 2017. </p>
<p>A relatively minor fraction of these people have reached the European Union. Between 2014 and 2016, the 15 Western European members of the EU – known as the EU15 – received <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/statistics/country/5a8ee0387/unhcr-statistical-yearbook-2016-16th-edition.html">2.6m asylum applications</a>. Over the same three years, the resident population with recognised refugee status increased from one million to 1.8m. </p>
<p>With refugee integration a question of utmost importance for the EU, new research I’ve been involved in, looking at previous refugee waves, is showing how government policies to disperse refugees around host countries can have a negative impact on their future employment levels.</p>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.cream-migration.org/publ_uploads/CDP_16_17.pdf">new research paper</a>, Tommaso Frattini, Luigi Minale and I analysed data from the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/microdata/european-union-labour-force-survey">European Labour Force Survey</a> on almost 70,000 immigrants to one of the 15 Western European members of the EU (EU-15) in either 2008 or 2014. This included more than 5,000 refugees. </p>
<p>We designated as “refugees” all those who reported “seeking international protection” as their main reason for arrival in a host country, while all those choosing another reason, such as work or family, were defined as “migrants”. We were then able to compare the employment status of refugees and migrants who had the same characteristics – such as gender, age, education, or area of origin – who live in the same host country and who immigrated at the same time. </p>
<p>We found the existence of a substantial and persistent “refugee gap”. According to our estimates, refugees were 11.6% less likely to have a job and 22.1% more likely to be unemployed than other migrants with very similar characteristics. Their income, occupational quality and labour market participation were also relatively weaker. Refugees also tended to be at a disadvantage in other important dimensions, such as health, mental health and social integration.</p>
<p>We were then able to look further at their integration by analysing how this gap evolved with the duration of residence in the host country. We found that refugees started with a very large employment gap upon arrival, but that they gradually converged towards the labour market outcomes of comparable migrants. This assimilation process, however, is extremely slow: it takes refugees almost 15 years to catch up with the employment rate of other migrants. </p>
<p>Such a multidimensional gap is hardly surprising. The forced nature of their migration generally implies that refugees were exposed to violence and traumatic experiences, undertook <a href="https://theconversation.com/no-direct-flight-new-maps-show-the-fragmented-journeys-of-migrants-and-refugees-to-europe-67955">perilous and strenuous trips</a> towards safe havens and had little time to plan their movements and relatively limited control on the choice of their final destinations. Nevertheless, the size and the persistence of the gap we observed and the fact that it is ubiquitous across EU countries is quite alarming. </p>
<p>Our research, however, bears a second, potentially more positive message: asylum policies matter in shaping refugee’s outcomes, and they can bridge these gaps, as well as widen them.</p>
<h2>Dispersal policies</h2>
<p>We looked closely at the impact of dispersal policies, adopted by several European countries in recent years. Although each dispersal scheme has its own distinct features, these policies commonly require a person seeking humanitarian protection to settle in specific locations across the receiving country. The aim is typically to prevent the formation of <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119007000940">ethnic enclaves</a>, and to place asylum claimants away from larger cities that already host large foreign-born populations. Dispersal policies are still in place in Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and the UK. They were also implemented in Sweden between 1985 and 1994 and in Denmark between 1986 and 1998. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-not-to-resettle-refugees-lessons-from-the-struggles-of-the-vietnamese-boat-people-63678">How not to resettle refugees – lessons from the struggles of the Vietnamese 'boat people'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Our results point at a prevailing detrimental effect on the labour market integration of “dispersed” asylum seekers. We found that people seeking humanitarian protection who arrived in countries that had dispersal policies in place had substantially worse employment outcomes – even ten to 15 years after their arrival – than those who were instead not subject to “dispersal”.</p>
<p>In order for dispersal policies to have a positive impact, there should be a good match between an asylum seeker’s skills and the demand for those skills in the area where he or she is relocated. Unfortunately, decisions on where to send refugees are often based on the availability of convenient housing for refugees and asylum seekers. This is a problem because cheap accommodation is available where housing demand is low, which is almost inevitably in areas that are economically disadvantaged, experiencing depopulation and offering poor employment opportunities. </p>
<p>In the UK, for instance, local authorities hosting “dispersed” asylum seekers are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/09/its-a-shambles-data-shows-most-asylum-seekers-put-in-poorest-parts-of-britain">substantially poorer</a> than those who do not host them. These are not exactly the locations where one can expect to observe a fast integration of new entrants in the labour market. Especially if asylum seekers, as happens in the UK, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-economic-case-for-allowing-asylum-seekers-to-work-and-giving-them-more-cash-69250">are prevented from working</a> while their claim is being processed.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/degrading-living-conditions-for-asylum-seekers-are-fuelled-by-privatisation-53923">Degrading living conditions for asylum seekers are fuelled by privatisation</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The cost of failed integration</h2>
<p>In the wake of the most recent surge in people seeking humanitarian protection, most European host countries quickly introduced some sort of allocation mechanism across their territories. Germany – the EU country that received the <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Asylum_quarterly_report">highest number of asylum seekers</a> in the last few years – is initially allocating them to areas that have more public buildings, such as former army barracks, that can be converted in reception centres, or larger shares of private and social housing that are empty. Unsurprisingly, these areas tend to have higher unemployment rates than the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/e1c069e0-872f-11e7-bf50-e1c239b45787">average in Germany</a>. </p>
<p>Yet our results show how careful governments must be when designing such dispersal policies. An excessive emphasis on short-term considerations – such as the willingness to quickly address the housing needs of asylum seekers and to do it at the lowest possible price – may severely hinder long-term integration prospects for refugees. </p>
<p>Governments should therefore think carefully about the employment opportunities in the areas where they send refugees. Failed integration not only causes direct harm to them and to their communities of origin but may also reinforce negative attitudes among voters in host societies, making life even harder for future asylum seekers.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/94791/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Francesco Fasani receives funding from Nuffield Foundation for the grant "Asylum policies in Europe and the refugee crisis".
See details at the following lik:
<a href="https://sites.google.com/site/apeurc/home">https://sites.google.com/site/apeurc/home</a></span></em></p>New research confirms a ‘refugee gap’ in employment levels, which is exacerbated if refugees are dispersed around a country.Francesco Fasani, Reader (Associate Professor), School of Economics and Finance, Queen Mary University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/761512017-04-17T19:52:11Z2017-04-17T19:52:11ZRefugees need support to continue their careers – here’s how it can be done<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/165172/original/image-20170413-25862-22ryts.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A German Railway AG program helps refugees with career orientation and helps integrate them into the country's employment system.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA/Martin Schutt</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Many refugees expect their new country not only to provide safety and security: they also want the opportunity to start a new life. However, many are unable to use the skills and knowledge they have brought with them and gain work equal to their experience.</p>
<p>Over the past 18 months, we have researched the careers and capabilities of refugees who have arrived in Australia in the last ten years. From the 277 people surveyed, we found around 60% had post-secondary qualifications, more than 50% had good-to-very-good English language proficiency, and only 4% had worked in unskilled or semi-skilled positions before coming to Australia.</p>
<p>But, since coming to Australia, 80% were either unemployed, working in volunteer roles, or in unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.</p>
<p>Together, these findings have important implications for the support agencies tasked with helping refugees obtain employment.</p>
<h2>What did we find?</h2>
<p>Those who participated in our study highlighted their desire to find meaningful employment that allowed them to use their skills and prior experience.</p>
<p>One young man shared his story about how his tertiary-educated parents, who arrived in Australia around three years ago, were now working in low-skilled jobs that are not commensurate with the types of employment they had in their home country. </p>
<p>He said he would not like to work in a low-skilled occupation like many refugees. Instead, he wants to “jump over the broom”, obtain university qualifications, and get a job where he can use his skills. He did not want to be confined to a job where he could not use his education – as his parents had been forced to do when arriving in Australia.</p>
<p>Our research investigated the factors that foster people’s career adaptability: that is, their willingness and ability to adapt to new work environments. Career adaptability is valuable because it influences someone’s job-search behaviours and predicts transitions into employment. </p>
<p>Our research identified four main drivers of refugees’ career adaptability: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>English proficiency; </p></li>
<li><p>cultural intelligence (the ability to relate and work effectively across cultures);</p></li>
<li><p>having a proactive personality; and</p></li>
<li><p>having social relationships with others outside their immediate network of family and friends.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Our research found language barriers and problems with the recognition of overseas qualifications leave many trapped in low-skilled jobs. </p>
<p>We also found that working in a low-skilled occupation can serve as a “survivor” job: that is, a job that provides just enough income to live on but few possibilities for career development. This may not be problematic for someone in the short term. However, remaining in such a job influences future employment prospects.</p>
<h2>What needs to be done?</h2>
<p>In addition to helping refugees improve their English proficiency and knowledge of Australian culture, our findings suggest support agencies should also help refugees build networks in the wider community. These networks are likely to provide refugees with greater information about career choices.</p>
<p>Assistance to refugees can be provided in several ways. </p>
<ul>
<li><p>Support agencies can consider establishing mentoring programs, where refugees are matched with mentors from the business community. This can help refugees think about their career options and search for employment. </p></li>
<li><p>The agencies may also work closely with business organisations to provide opportunities for refugees to gain work experience and broaden their skill sets. In addition, the appointment of suitably qualified employment caseworkers could provide career counselling and guidance. </p></li>
<li><p>Finally, support agencies should consider working with higher education institutions and professional bodies to formulate appropriate strategies for recognition of prior qualifications, and provide pathways to access to both tertiary and vocational training. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>Such practices will help refugees obtain meaningful employment and better integrate into Australian society.</p>
<p>Currently, support agencies tasked by government with finding employment for refugees typically focus on placing them in low-skilled occupations, rather than supporting longer-term career aspirations.</p>
<p>Australian society needs to better assist humanitarian migrants and those still awaiting determination of their refugee applications find commensurate employment. Doing so will ensure they are not marginalised, don’t feel discriminated against, and are more able to integrate and contribute fully to Australian society.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/76151/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Karen Dunwoodie is affiliated with the Lentara Uniting Care Asylum Seeker Project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alex Newman receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susan Webb does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Many refugees are unable to use the skills and knowledge they have brought with them and obtain work equal to their experience.Karen Dunwoodie, PhD Candidate, Monash UniversityAlex Newman, Associate Dean (International), Faculty of Business and Law, Deakin UniversitySusan Webb, Professor of Education, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/692502016-11-29T14:19:10Z2016-11-29T14:19:10ZThe economic case for allowing asylum seekers to work – and giving them more cash<p>Most asylum seekers in the UK do not have the right to work. But our <a href="https://asylumwelfarework.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/welfare-costs-working-paper.pdf">new research</a> has calculated that allowing asylum seekers to get a job while they wait for their application to be processed, could save the government up to £173.6m and help prevent vulnerable people from living in destitution.</p>
<p>In order not to violate its <a href="https://justice.org.uk/asylum-human-rights/">human rights commitments</a>, the government is obliged to provide welfare support to asylum seekers. <a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">Welfare payments</a> are delivered through a separate system to the payments provided to unemployed citizens, and are set purposefully low. The government <a href="https://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2014-03-17a.13.2#g32.0">justifies</a> the low level of support by arguing it won’t act as “pull” factor for economic migrants who might claim asylum in order to access benefits. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/asylum_support_inquiry_report_final.pdf">Charities</a> and some <a href="https://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/jt200607/jtselect/jtrights/81/81i.pdf">parliamentarians</a> who support asylum seekers have been critical of this policy and have been arguing for many years that asylum seekers should both have the right to enter the labour market, and should receive welfare payments in line with at least 70% of Jobseeker’s Allowance. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/iris/2014/working-paper-series/IRiS-WP-1-2014.pdf">Poverty</a> and destitution are very common among asylum seekers and refused asylum seekers in the UK. Refused asylum seekers can apply for what’s called “<a href="https://www.gov.uk/asylum-support/what-youll-get">Section 4</a>” support if they are complying with certain Home Office rules, which include somewhere to live and a cash allowance.</p>
<p>The asylum support rate is currently £36.95 for asylum seekers and £35.39 for refused asylum seekers who comply with certain rules. This is currently calculated based on the weekly expenditure of the poorest 10% of British households, minus any non-essential purchases. Asylum seekers are living on an income which is just a third of the income of the poorest 10% of British households.</p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-zq7g8" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/zq7g8/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="363"></iframe>
<p>In <a href="https://asylumwelfarework.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/is-access-to-the-labour-market-a-pull-factor-for-asylum-seekers-long.pdf">research</a> published in the spring of 2016, we looked at whether there was any evidence that access to benefits and the labour market was acting as an economic “pull factor” for migrants coming to the UK. We found no empirical support for this assertion. Other <a href="https://stillhumanstillhere.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/ra_the_destitution_trap2.pdf">research</a> has found that the threat or experience of destitution for refused asylum seekers does not lead to increased deportations.</p>
<p>Low levels of welfare support and barriers to working are thought to encourage those who are here to leave, though in practice they mostly increase levels of poverty and destitution. This is particularly the case for people whose application for asylum has been refused and they are waiting for an appeal decision or to be deported. The impacts of such deprivations upon asylum seekers include <a href="https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/research_docs/thechildrenssociety_idontfeelhuman_final.pdf">mental health problems</a>, high levels of <a href="http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/asylum_support_inquiry_report_final.pdf">hunger</a>, <a href="http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0002/6402/When_Maternity_Doesn_t_Matter_-_Ref_Council__Maternity_Action_report_Feb2013.pdf">maternal</a> and <a href="http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/Documents/college-social-sciences/social-policy/iris/2014/working-paper-series/IRiS-WP-1-2014.pdf">infant</a> mortality, and <a href="http://www.redcross.org.uk/%7E/media/BritishRedCross/Documents/What%20we%20do/UK%20services/Greater%20Manchester%20destitution%20report.pdf">difficulty</a> navigating the legal process. </p>
<h2>The current cost of asylum support</h2>
<p>In our <a href="https://asylumwelfarework.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/welfare-costs-working-paper.pdf">new research</a> we explore the cost implications for the public purse of denying the right to work to asylum seekers, and refused asylum seekers who cannot be returned. Using <a href="https://data.gov.uk/dataset/control-of-immigration-statistics">Home Office data</a>, we have calculated that the total cost in accommodation and support payments to asylum seekers and refused asylum seekers is £173.6m, rising to £233.5m if staffing and administration costs are included. </p>
<p>With no changes to the rules on working, if all asylum seekers in receipt of support were entitled to approximately 70% of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/jobseekers-allowance/overview">Jobseeker’s Allowance</a> rate – assuming there is no change in their right to work – the asylum support bill for 2014-15 would have been £14.5m higher, as the second graph shows. If asylum seekers were entitled to the full level of income support on Job Seekers Allowance, the cost would increase by £36.2m. </p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-onOai" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/onOai/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="221"></iframe>
<p>When set within the context of a £146 billion <a href="http://visual.ons.gov.uk/welfare-spending/">welfare bill</a> in 2014-15 (excluding pensions) these figures appear relatively low: £36.2m would add 0.02% to the total. Bringing asylum support up to the level of about 70% of Jobseeker’s Allowance would add just 0.01% on to the total welfare bill. </p>
<h2>What if asylum seekers could work?</h2>
<p>We might imagine that if asylum seekers were allowed to work the asylum support bill could be zero. But it is not realistic to assume that all asylum seekers would be 100% employed. However, even if we assumed that just 25% of all asylum seekers had a job, then we calculated that the asylum support bill would drop from £173.6m to £130m. This would save a quarter of what it spent last year.</p>
<iframe id="datawrapper-chart-sxipW" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/sxipW/2/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="300"></iframe>
<p>If we calculate the net costs to the public purse of doubling asylum support so that it is almost in line with the level of Jobseeker’s Allowance, as well as factoring in that a quarter of asylum seekers would be employed as so wouldn’t need support, this could lead to a saving of around £70m a year. </p>
<p>Though recent governments have sought to minimise welfare provision for the unemployed and promote work as being positive for both individuals and wider society, asylum seekers are maintained in a position of welfare dependency, and those who have had their application refused are often destitute. Given the lack of evidence that levels of welfare support, or access to jobs act as a “pull” for asylum seekers to come to the UK, maintaining asylum seekers in situations of poverty can only be politically, not financially motivated.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Mayblin receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Poppy James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It could save the British government up to £173.6m in savings in asylum support.Lucy Mayblin, Assistant Professor, University of WarwickPoppy James, Posdoctoral Research Associate, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/577572016-04-25T11:08:45Z2016-04-25T11:08:45ZIs access to work really a pull factor for asylum seekers?<p>With a new <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/immigration.html">Immigration Bill</a> making its way through the House of Commons, MPs will be asked to vote on whether asylum seekers can work in the UK as they wait for their claims to be processed. </p>
<p>An <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2015-2016/0096/amend/ml096-I-Rev.pdf">amendment</a> to the Bill in the House of Lords provides for asylum seekers to be able to start work if they have been waiting for six months or more for a decision on their application for asylum. It is likely that this amendment will not pass the Commons. </p>
<p>Currently, asylum seekers must wait 12 months before they can apply for the right to work. If it is granted, they are then restricted to jobs on the “Shortage Occupations List”. This list is extremely restrictive: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/308513/shortageoccupationlistapril14.pdf">example jobs</a> include engineers, secondary school maths and chemistry teachers – and ballerinas and nuclear medicine technologists. The shortage occupation list rule effectively <a href="http://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01908">bans most asylum seekers</a> from working in the UK.</p>
<p>The work restriction was introduced in 2002 and for the past year <a href="http://asylumwelfarework.com/about/people/">we</a> have been analysing the political debates on this policy at the University of Sheffield. We found that for 13 years, ministers and Home Office spokespeople have repeatedly given the same reason for this policy: if asylum seekers are given the right to work, more asylum seekers will choose the UK as a destination country. But this is not backed up by research. </p>
<h2>Is work a pull factor?</h2>
<p>We have undertaken a systematic review of both qualitative and quantitative research undertaken since 1997 looking at the factors determining asylum destination country. None of the 30 studies we looked at found a long-term correlation between labour market access and the choice of destination. Quite the contrary: the most <a href="http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/3/95.abstract">up-to-date research</a> concludes that access to work has little, if any, effect on variations in asylum applications</p>
<p>Countries which allow asylum seekers to access the labour market do not attract more asylum applicants. We have ranked European countries according to labour market access for asylum seekers and then compared the number of asylum applications received for each country. The ranking is based upon the point at which asylum seekers are able to enter the labour market – for example, after three or six months. It also takes into account the extent of restrictions on their access, such as to particular sectors or shortage occupations. EU countries for which such information was available are ranked from the most open (Sweden) to the most restrictive (the UK). </p>
<p>As the graph below shows, we found no clear correlation between access to the labour market and the number of asylum applications a country received.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/FWlan/1/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="663"></iframe>
<p>This is because many complex factors are involved in the migration journeys of asylum seekers. They do not have perfect access to all information, and their choices are not made solely on the basis of economic benefit. Because of this complexity, it is extremely difficult for researchers to identify a single variable which acts as the primary “pull”. However, it is significant that repeated studies have come to the same conclusions.</p>
<p>According to the available data, the main pull factors are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1369183X.1999.9976671">presence</a> of family and friends in destination country – they <a href="http://www.ners-sunderland.org.uk/content/hors243.pdf">want</a> to be near familiar people. </p></li>
<li><p>The <a href="http://voxeu.org/sites/default/files/file/Hatton%20Seeking%20Asylum.pdf">language</a> spoken in the destination country – privileging countries with a <a href="http://www.refugeecouncil.org.uk/assets/0001/5702/rcchance.pdf">familiar language</a>.</p></li>
<li><p>A <a href="https://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open/file/db1a2308-a332-4944-92d4-98cd737a856a/1/Understanding%20the%20experiences.pdf">belief</a> that the destination country <a href="http://rsq.oxfordjournals.org/content/34/3/95.abstract">respects human rights</a> and the rule of law in general.</p></li>
<li><p>Colonial <a href="https://www.ciaonet.org/attachments/7603/uploads">ties</a> between country of origin and destination – which is clearly related to the first three pull factors. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>It is unlikely that access to the labour market for asylum seekers encourages economic migrants — whose primary motivation is migrating for work as opposed to escaping war or persecution – to apply for asylum. There is no research explicitly focusing on the pull factors for so-called “bogus” asylum seekers, those who migrate for work but nevertheless make an application for asylum. Yet, of the studies that we reviewed, the <a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/geographyAndEnvironment/whosWho/profiles/neumayer/pdf/Article%20in%20International%20Studies%20Quarterly%20%28Asylum%29.pdf">statistical research</a> finds no long-term correlation between labour market access and the number of bogus asylum seeker applications. </p>
<h2>Too simplistic</h2>
<p>Introducing complexity and uncertainty are not part of the political repertoire: the simple story always wins. The Home Office and immigration ministers refer to the “pull factor”, probably because it is very simple and easy to comprehend. It is very easy to communicate to the public and to Lords and MPs who may not have any expertise on asylum. But in reality, it is not possible to say with any certainty that one single policy – or factor such as access to work – acts to pull or deter potential asylum applicants. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, a general hostility to immigrants means that a policy that aims to crack down on any category of immigrant is likely to be well received by the public. According to <a href="http://www.migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/briefings/uk-public-opinion-toward-immigration-overall-attitudes-and-level-concern">opinion polls</a>, asylum seekers are among the most reviled of all immigrant groups. The existing policy of forbidding asylum seekers to work aims not to take away a pull factor, but rather to make it look like the government is restricting the rights of asylums seekers. </p>
<p>The risk of giving asylum seekers the right to work is not, then, that the number of asylum applications will increase – but that there will be public anger at the gifting of privileges to immigrants. But this is an issue beyond politicking – the lives of people who have fled war and persecution are at stake.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57757/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Mayblin receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council. This article does not reflect the views of the research councils.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Poppy James does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>MPs are considering a change to a policy that bans asylum seekers from working for 12 months.Lucy Mayblin, Research Fellow in the Politics of Asylum, University of SheffieldPoppy James, Posdoctoral research associate, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/495912015-10-26T19:15:23Z2015-10-26T19:15:23ZAsylum seekers could be our next wave of entrepreneurs<p>In the last 12 months Maria Sorkhi started a photography business, Sima Mahboobifard began selling leather bags, the Dendo brothers - Rony, Luay and Duraed - began their photography and videography business, while Bassam Jabar set up a business to sell his art work. </p>
<p>At first glance these are just everyday stories of entrepreneurs in Australia. What sets them apart is that they have only been in Australia since 2013. They arrived not as wealthy business migrants, but as penniless refugees from Iran and Iraq.</p>
<p>Newly arrived refugees are at first glance the most unlikely candidates to start up a business less than two years after arriving in Australia. They have no capital, no credit history, no assets to mortgage, and no security, lacking the financial capital necessary for a startup. </p>
<p>These refugees all have stories of displacement from their homelands and are recognised as refugees under the UN Convention. They are not economic migrants.</p>
<p>Their educational qualifications are <a href="https://theconversation.com/work-remains-a-mirage-for-skilled-but-stymied-asylum-seekers-49134">often not recognised</a> meaning they often can’t get a job or, if they do, get one well below their ability. Most have no social networks of established family and friends to provide capital, advice and support, lacking the social capital that many non-refugee immigrant entrepreneurs in Australia have been able to draw on. Newly-arrived refugees also have little or no knowledge of the Australian rules and regulations and red tape that all new entrepreneurs must overcome. They also have little familiarity with the local market and business opportunities – informal knowledge so critical to new entrepreneurs. Their English-language fluency is usually not strong.</p>
<p>Refugees face the highest unemployment rates of non-Indigenous Australians. The traditional model to assist budding entrepreneurs is that they enrol in MBA courses. Here they study economics, finance, accounting, marketing and management to gain all the business knowledge that starting-up a business requires. </p>
<p>But there’s more than one way to facilitate an enterprise. And <a href="http://www.sirolliinstitute.com/">successful entrepreneurship programs have shown</a> attributes such as passion, determination, intelligence, and resourcefulness are just as important as business skills.</p>
<p>Refugees, like many immigrant minorities, move into entrepreneurship because of blocked mobility: starting a business is perhaps their only point of access to the Australian economy because of formal or informal racial <a href="http://people.anu.edu.au/andrew.leigh/pdf/AuditDiscrimination.pdf">discrimination in the labour market</a>. </p>
<p>Indigenous entrepreneurs also move into entrepreneurship in response to racial discrimination, but in their case it also constrains their activities as entrepreneurs: one <a href="http://www.csu.edu.au/research/ilws/research/summaries/ps/determingsuccessindigenousbusiness">recent national study</a> found only 9 of 248 Indigenous entrepreneurs had been able to access bank finance.</p>
<p>Australia has a strong tradition of refugee entrepreneurs. Westfield founder Frank Lowy, one of Australia’s richest men, was a 15 year-old refugee from a war-devastated Slovakia. </p>
<p>Huy Truong arrived in Australia on a small fishing boat carrying him and 40 other Vietnamese people in 1978 at the age of seven. His father was an ethnic Chinese businessman with an import business. In 1999 Truong set up the gifting site wishlist.com.au with his wife and sisters, which was sold to Qantas in 2012. Truong is now a private equity investor. </p>
<p>Tan Le is another boat person from Vietnam. Le co-founded the company Emotiv - a producer of headsets that read brain signals and facial movements to control technology in computer games or apps. She then co-founded SASme, a pioneering business that provided platforms for the SMS applications market and employed 35 employees worldwide. </p>
<p>The refugee entrepreneurs introduced in the first paragraph will probably never achieve such business success. They are the first cohort of graduates of the Ignite small business startups initiative established in 2013. </p>
<p>To date 129 refugees from 25 countries have entered the program – seven out of ten are males. Most come from countries in the Middle East, with most from Iran (33), Iraq (20) and Syria (10). Businesses range from clothing alterations, fashion design and hat retail to car/motorcycle sales, carpentry and joinery, services, art and import businesses. To date around 30 new businesses have been established or are nearly there.</p>
<p>Another successful program assists micro business startups for women of refugee and migrant background. The Brotherhood of St Laurence Stepping Stones initiative saw 60 women from the Australian business community recruited, trained and matched with program participants.</p>
<p>Next year Australia will see the arrival of 12,000 Syrian refugees in addition to some 13,000 existing refugee arrivals. The Sydney Ignite model and the Melbourne Stepping Stones programs are tried and tested and should be rolled out in urban and regional centres across Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49591/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jock Collins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Against the odds, a growing group of refugees have managed to succeed in business.Jock Collins, Professor of Social Economics, UTS Business School, University of Technology SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/491342015-10-25T19:13:41Z2015-10-25T19:13:41ZWork remains a mirage for skilled but stymied asylum seekers<p>By the time I met Grace, she had been in Australia on a <a href="https://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Visa-1/051-">bridging visa</a> for about 18 months. Part way into the interview, she reached for a stack of papers in her bag. “Let me show you something… this is from the bank,” she said. On her account statement, Grace showed me the recurring payments she was receiving from a non-profit agency that was disbursing basic living allowances to asylum seekers living in the community. She was receiving about A$450 per fortnight.</p>
<p>Asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas receive a <a href="http://www.humanservices.gov.au/customer/services/centrelink/status-resolution-support-services-payment">basic living allowance</a> paid at approximately 89% of the relevant Centrelink Special Benefit (usually Newstart). </p>
<p>Grace told me that after the interview, she would be meeting with her case worker to query why her last scheduled payment — one week before Christmas — had not gone through.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“So they asked me to bring a bank statement to show that I wasn’t paid, so that I’m not lying[…] It’s frustrating. I appreciate they help me, but if I can stand on my own, I wouldn’t have to go through this. I wouldn’t have to live with my friend. Meanwhile I have a debt in school — I don’t even have my certificate. It’s just… everything is bad.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In 20 research interviews conducted from December 2014 – April 2015, I heard many similar stories from asylum seekers — of frustration, indebtedness, and worry. As part of a study led by the <a href="http://www.bsl.org.au/knowledge/">Research & Policy Centre</a> of the Brotherhood of St Laurence, <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/dina-bowman-1965">Dr Dina Bowman</a> and I interviewed asylum seekers participating in a Brotherhood <a href="http://giventhechance.bsl.org.au/">employment program</a>. We asked questions about what it’s like to be looking for work in Australia as an asylum seeker, why a secure job is important, and what forms of support have been helpful.</p>
<p>For people forced to migrate and seek protection under Australia’s <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/BudgetReview201415/Migration">humanitarian program</a>, their future position in the labour market is uncertain. Humanitarian and refugee migrants typically fare worse than other migrant categories. <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Latestproducts/3418.0Main%20Features12009-10?opendocument&tabname=Summary&prodno=3418.0&issue=2009-10&num=&view=">Recent ABS data</a> on migrants’ income levels show that even after 10 years in Australia, humanitarian migrants struggle to earn more than A$20,000 per annum, well under the current national minimum wage (at full-time hours). The most recent <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/AUSSTATS/abs@.nsf/Lookup/3416.0Main+Features2June%202010?OpenDocument#anchor6">Census data shows</a> that only 17% of humanitarian migrants were working full-time, compared with 50% of skilled migrants.</p>
<iframe src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gk50h/5/" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" webkitallowfullscreen="webkitallowfullscreen" mozallowfullscreen="mozallowfullscreen" oallowfullscreen="oallowfullscreen" msallowfullscreen="msallowfullscreen" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>For migrants who are unable to find work, the longer they remain unemployed, the worse they fare in later years of settlement. <a href="http://library.bsl.org.au/jspui/bitstream/1/3881/1/The%20Labour%20Market%20Integration%20of%20Immigrants%20in%20Australia_TLiebig_2007.pdf">OECD research</a> has shown that getting a job early — particularly within the first six months of arrival — is critical for the ability of migrants to integrate in the longer term.</p>
<h2>Competing policy priorities</h2>
<p>Low rates of economic participation for people like Grace are taking place in the context of several competing policy objectives. While governments simultaneously try to get people “<a href="http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stories/2014/12/22/morrison-pledges-to-get-people-off-welfare.html">off welfare and into work</a>” and grant work rights to thousands of new asylum seekers, there are limited support programs that can assist humanitarian migrants to compete in the open labour market.</p>
<p>The passing of the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Bills_Legislation/Bills_Search_Results/Result?bId=r5346">Asylum Legacy Caseload Bill</a> in late 2014 included an announcement that the immigration minister would begin granting work rights to asylum seekers living in the community on bridging visas. This led to nearly <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/national/more-than-20000-asylum-seekers-receive-work-rights-after-years-living-in-forced-destitution-20150924-gjtvnx.html">23,000 asylum seekers being granted work rights</a> between January and September this year.</p>
<p>In March this year, former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Employment Minister Eric Abetz <a href="https://ministers.employment.gov.au/new-jobactive-services-help-more-job-seekers-work">clarified the government’s policy position</a> on welfare and employment:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“All of the government’s policies are focused on getting people into work because the best form of welfare is a job.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But for asylum seekers in the community, there are few employment support options. Asylum seekers on bridging visas (with or without work rights) are ineligible for government-funded employment services. Those moving to a <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/Trav/Refu/Illegal-maritime-arrivals/temporary-protection-visas">temporary protection visa</a> (TPV) are eligible and may have their needs assessed by Centrelink, but the <a href="https://www.employment.gov.au/components-and-results-job-seeker-classification-instrument">level of support</a> provided through the public system is unclear. With inadequate support and limited social networks that might connect them with potential employers, asylum seekers are unlikely to overcome the multiple, complex barriers they face in the job market.</p>
<h2>Making sense of unemployment</h2>
<p>Without assistance to find work, asylum seekers develop their own explanations to make sense of why they have not succeeded. The findings from our interviews suggest the main explanations are precarious migration status, and the attitudes and recruitment practices of employers.</p>
<p>One interviewee, Nabeel, was particularly concerned about a condition on his visa which stated that “work rights would be reviewed every three months”. Given this, how could a prospective employer be sure an asylum seeker would be able to work for any reasonable length of time, regardless of their suitability for a particular role?</p>
<p>Perceived discrimination, and sometimes overt racism, also emerged from the interviews as possible explanations for asylum seekers’ experiences. Grace told me she had wanted to resume her previous career in accounting and finance once she had received her work rights. But in speaking to fellow migrants:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I was told that jobs here…are for the white people. So even when I go to the banks, I never see any black [bank tellers…] I would have loved to go with accounting because I’ve gone a long way, but I also saw that it’s not possible.”</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Many asylum seekers have skills and experience</h2>
<p>Though not classified as “skilled migrants”, many asylum seekers do have skills and experience that have potential value in the labour market. Nabeel told me he couldn’t make use of his experience as a salesperson and accounts manager with an automotive firm. His wife — a bank clerk by trade — is also unemployed in Australia.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s the loss of this country. Because I am young, I can do everything. My wife is also very qualified, but she is spoiled here because we don’t have a status, as well, Immigration put a three month review [on our work rights]. We are just surviving ourselves on Centrelink money. So it’s the loss of this country.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Of the asylum seekers I spoke with who <em>were</em> working, almost all had jobs that didn’t match their experience back home. Some had postgraduate degrees — in business management, architecture, psychology, geology, or engineering. But these pre-migration qualifications did not seem to translate into the Australian context. </p>
<p>A <a href="http://www.crc.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/19728/2011_The_Economic_Civic_and_Social_Contributions_of_Ist_and_2nd_GenerationHumanitarian_entrants.pdf">landmark study</a> on the economic and social contribution of humanitarian migrants to Australia by the late Graeme Hugo confirms that these groups often experience “occupational skidding” or deskilling. </p>
<h2>“Not just dishes”: asylum seekers have strong incentives to work</h2>
<p><a href="http://mams.rmit.edu.au/tq2bgckavb421.pdf">Previous research</a> has shown how humanitarian migrants are often concentrated in low-skill, low-paying service sector jobs, with few opportunities for advancement. One interviewee, Isaac, described his job as a kitchen-hand as being mostly about “talking to dishes”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I can learn [if] given a chance, not just putting on dishwashing. Dishwashing — you can’t communicate, you just communicate with dishes[…] They think of money but I need networking. Involve [us] in other things, not just dishes. How will you learn communication?”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Earning a living is far from the only motivation for asylum seekers to find employment. Interviews revealed the importance of work for learning and development opportunities, social engagement, and a sense of stability, independence and dignity. As Grace told me:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“It’s very, very good to be independent. There’s nothing as dignifying as that. You always put your head up, because you’re independent.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Various <a href="https://theconversation.com/very-loyal-productive-workers-the-same-people-we-fear-as-refugees-43401">community sector organisations</a> and past <a href="http://www.border.gov.au/LegacyPagesandAboutUs/Documents/connections.pdf">government publications</a> have promoted the motivation and loyalty of humanitarian migrants in attempts to sway employers to consider this overlooked source of workers (with <a href="http://www.hospitalitymagazine.com.au/food/news/bridging-hospitality-employment-gaps-by-giving-asy">some success</a>).</p>
<h2>The way forward?</h2>
<p>Work is critical to the successful settlement and integration of humanitarian migrants in Australia. Yet there is an obvious policy gap in the lack of adequate employment support available for asylum seekers. Assisting migrants to understand and navigate the Australian job market, recognising their skills and experience, and working with employers to reduce negative perceptions and recruitment risks are all key strategies that can give asylum seekers a chance. </p>
<p>However, relying on small community sector initiatives to fill big policy gaps is not a sustainable solution. With Australia <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-09-09/refugee-intake-plan-who-will-come-to-australia/6762278">set to accept</a> an additional 12,000 people forcibly displaced by the conflict in Syria and Iraq, it is time to address the policy nexus between welfare, employment, and humanitarian migration.</p>
<p>*Names have been changed to protect the identity of those interviewed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49134/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John van Kooy works as a Senior Research Officer in the Research & Policy Centre at the Brotherhood of St Laurence. This research is part of a broader study on asylum seekers and employment led by John van Kooy and Dr Dina Bowman.</span></em></p>Governments that want to get people ‘off welfare and into work’ should consider offering them the same employment support granted to other unemployed people.John van Kooy, PhD Candidate, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/484282015-10-09T10:18:24Z2015-10-09T10:18:24ZAs Syrian refugee crisis spreads to Europe, lessons from Turkey<p>In the first week of September, the Syrian refugee crisis finally came to Western Europe. </p>
<p>Thousands of refugees who had been bottled up in Hungary started heading for the Austrian border, on trains, buses and finally on foot. Most are on their way to Germany, which has declared that <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/germany-migrant-crisis/">all refugees are welcome</a> and expects as many as 800,000 within the year. That is around 1% of the German population, with Austria and Sweden set to take a similar proportion. </p>
<p>The moral case for taking these refugees is overwhelming. Many informed commentators have also convincingly argued that there are important economic benefits that come with accepting refugees (for example <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21664136-europe-should-welcome-more-refugees-and-economic-migrantsfor-sake-world-and">The Economist</a>, researchers <a href="https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/central-europe/2015-09-27/self-interested-approach-migration-crises">Michael Clemens and Justin Sandefur</a> and journalist <a href="https://thebrowser.com/articles/why-we-should-welcome-migrants">Simon Kuper</a>). </p>
<p>It is of course too soon to start measuring the economic impact in EU countries, but this crisis is not new.</p>
<p>Syrian refugees started arriving in Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey in late 2011. Turkey is currently hosting over <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=224">1.9 million</a> of the <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/regional.php">4 million</a> Syrians who have fled war, while Lebanon has about <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=122">1.1 million</a> and Jordan houses <a href="http://data.unhcr.org/syrianrefugees/country.php?id=107">630,000</a>. In Turkey, that’s 2.5% of the population.</p>
<p>So what’s been the impact in the countries such as Turkey that have borne the brunt of the crisis since the Syrian civil war began?</p>
<h2>Turkey: costs and opportunities</h2>
<p>In a <a href="http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/08/24946337/impact-syrians-refugees-turkish-labor-market">recent working paper</a>, World Bank senior economist Ximena Del Carpio and I investigate the impact the flood of refugees has had on the Turkish labor market. While Turkey has been very generous in providing immediate care for the large inflow of refugees, it now faces the challenge that the overwhelming majority of refugees no longer live in camps but rather in the wider Turkish society. In this area, it has been less generous, creating both costs and opportunities for Turkish workers.</p>
<p>Turkey has not given the Syrians in Turkey official refugee status and stopped short of issuing work permits to all but a few. As a consequence the economic impact has been felt in the large informal sector, which goes untaxed and unmonitored. Informal employment accounts for around 30% of paid employment in Turkey, and an additional 15% of employment consists of unpaid family workers.</p>
<p>We found evidence of large-scale displacement of Turkish workers in informal jobs. Three groups are particularly hard hit: women, the low educated and workers in agriculture. This is particularly bad news for women as it perpetuates their already very low labor force participation. Currently only one-third of the female working-age population is active in the labor market, though at least some of that is on account of women being encouraged to stay in school for longer.</p>
<p>At the same time, a significant number of Turkish workers seem to have been able to take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the arrival of refugees. We found this resulted in the creation of more formal, higher-paid jobs for Turkish workers. Also, average Turkish wages among the employed have been rising due to the inflow of refugees. We show that this is the result of a combination of occupational upgrading and lower-wage Turkish workers being displaced from the local labor market.</p>
<h2>Importance of refugee integration</h2>
<p>Our work highlights the crucial role played by a countries’ efforts to integrate refugees in labor markets. </p>
<p>The Turkish decision not to issue work permits has meant that the costs are being borne disproportionately by some of the poorest and underrepresented Turkish workers. It also means that Turkey may miss out on the benefits that the most high-skilled and entrepreneurial refugees can bring, as these are encouraged to move westward. For Western European countries with their smaller informal sectors and extensive welfare states, a rapid integration of refugees into labor markets is essential. The current procedures are typically <a href="http://www.dw.com/en/when-refugees-want-to-work-in-germany/a-18737104">lengthy</a>, and suggestions to speed up this process are <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/02/us-europe-migrants-germany-politics-idUSKCN0R228420150902">controversial</a>.</p>
<p>Policy needs to also recognize that not everyone will gain from an inflow of refugees. The fears of the 56% of Turkish people who agree with the proposal asserting that “<a href="http://www.hugo.hacettepe.edu.tr/HUGO-RAPOR-TurkiyedekiSuriyeliler.pdf">Syrians take our jobs</a>” are not baseless. </p>
<p>At the same time, even as the situation seems dramatic at the moment, the impact on Western host countries should not be exaggerated. Of the 15 million international refugees, <a href="http://unhcr.org/556725e69.html">86% reside in developing countries</a>. Jordan and Lebanon are hosting Syrian refugees numbers equivalent to 10% and 25%, respectively, of their population. That is truly dramatic. The UNHCR – the UN Refugee Agency which administers most refugee camps worldwide – in particular needs to be far better <a href="http://www.unhcr.org/pages/49c3646c119.html">funded</a>.</p>
<h2>A precarious consensus</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, while the current political climate favors a generous treatment of refugees, it is a precarious consensus. The underlying tensions are starkly visible in Austria, which in the absence of a workable EU policy is functioning like a distribution center for refugees. </p>
<p>In September alone, <a href="http://derstandard.at/2000023306734/200-000-Menschen-auf-der-Flucht-passierten-im-September-Oesterreich">210,000</a> refugees entered Austria, primarily on their way to Germany. In the capital, Vienna, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-04/150000-march-in-vienna-in-solidarity-with-asylum-seekers/6826718">huge crowds</a> marched in solidarity with these refugees. At the same time in a city where the left has ruled for over a century – aside from the Austrofascist and Nazi years, 1934-45 – the populist far-right is close to becoming the strongest party. Voters <a href="http://mobil.derstandard.at/2000023136283/Umfrage-Auslaenderthema-motiviert-auch-Wien-Waehler">main concerns</a> are jobs and solutions to the refugee crisis. </p>
<p>Turkey has been dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis for years, and its experience yields valuable lessons. Countries and the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/looking-for-a-global-growth-strategy-support-refugees/2015/10/01/e446e2b4-66d1-11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html">world</a> as a whole likely benefit from a generous treatment of refugees. While there will be those who lose economically from an influx of refugees, opening our borders and showing compassion to refugees in need is the right thing to do. </p>
<p>So is taking seriously those who bear the economic burden.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/48428/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mathis Wagner worked as a short-term consultant for the World Bank on issues related to this article. </span></em></p>The refugee crisis that just arrived in Europe has been affecting Turkey for more than four years.Mathis Wagner, Assistant Professor of Economics, Boston CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.