As per UN High Commissioner for Refugee data, there are approximately 70.8 million people around the world who have been forced to fly from their home country with 1 person is displaced every two seconds.
What does it mean for global demography and business?
Some countries might face major challenges to integrate refugees in their economy and society due to overload population. Yet, refugees also offer a significant opportunity for the host country given the many skills and aptitudes they bring. They also play a crucial role in creating conditions for sustainable employment, UNHCR reported.
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In many countries, employers have made decisions to connect with, support, and integrate refugees in the workplace. This has been particularly noticeable in countries at the forefront of a recent upsurge in refugee arrivals in Europe. Countries which have a long tradition in receiving resettled refugees also give an effort to developing this untapped talent pool. By doing this, both corporate social responsibility and the economy will improve, demonstrating potentials of refugee employment.
So, are you ready to hire talented refugees? If yes, let’s learn more about them, read on…
A refugee is any person who cannot return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. They can also be referred to as someone who is compelled to leave their country of origin due to indiscriminate violence or other events seriously disturbing public order or is someone who experienced a threat of life, safety or freedom as a result thereof.
A refugee who has applied for protection and is awaiting the determination of their status in a host country is referred to as an asylum seeker. Commonly, employers will hire asylum seekers because they are more eligible in terms of documents to be employed in a host country.
Refugees also bring talents and skills with them when fleeing from their torn-country. According to a media release published at Deakin University, refugees have the following potential for the workforce.
Albeit refugees can bring above potentials to the business marketplace, they are also subjected to barriers to employment issues. Tent’s guide for employers found that there are some gaps for refugee job seekers when it comes to applying for a job. These gaps often make an employer question their credibility and skills.
For the aforementioned barrier, UNHCR has developed detailed actions to close the gap between refugees and employment. The action includes acknowledging employers about refugees potential, job readiness for both employer and refugees, job and employment training for refugee talents with employer’s needs.
Further, employers and hiring managers should understand that:
1) the gap on their CV might be a reason for rejection, a result of the unavoidable process of fleeing an unsafe environment followed by lengthy asylum process.
2) Refugees might be unfamiliar with the interview process or online tests required by many organisations during selection.
3) Sometimes skills and experience might not seem matched to the job advertised, therefore, refugees often look for lower-skilled jobs that are suited for their immediate needs, in order to improve English language ability, for instance.
“Partner with an organisation that understands the sector – this is hugely important. People from vulnerable backgrounds often need extra support and we just don’t have the HR capacity to give it.” – Hiliary Jenkins
To hire refugees, you can partner with a specialist agency, such as Career Seekers, Organisation for Refugee Employment, Advocacy, Training and Education Centre for Refugee, or Refugee Talent organisation. This option will ease your way to hire the refugee talent you need.
After successfully recruiting refugees, the HR department needs to complete the pre-employment checks to confirm that the hired refugees have the right to work. All document will outline an individual’s leave to enter or remain or leave granted outside of the rules and it will state their right to work in the host country. Documentation might not necessarily state that an individual is a refugee. HR also required to conduct normal hiring procedures such as onboarding new staff.
Here are the examples of documents you need to consider:
Note: You might want to refer to the local community for more detailed documentation.
In addition, providing additional upskilling is often required to ensure employment is found and then sustained. You might also want to conduct on-the-job training and onboarding program to assist new hires in their new workplace.
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