Employers

Employment is a vital part of the integration process and has been a key element of all previous strategies to promote the effective integration of refugees into the UK. Their success has depended on the willingness of employers to make use of the skills and experience that refugees bring with them.

A significant proportion of refugees come from professional backgrounds.  Well educated and in positions of responsibility, they are often the first to be targeted by oppressive regimes. Teachers, for example, have been targeted in Zimbabwe as MDC supporters and many have fled the country.  The voluntary sector has developed specific initiatives to help, amongst others, doctors, nurses, teachers and accountants back into their professions here in the UK.  A crucial component of these initiatives is providing relevant work experience placements so that the individual can demonstrate their skills in a UK context.

Employability Forum research:

'Making a Difference' highlights experiences of refugees in employment in the UK, and those of their employers.

'Employing refugees: Some organisations' experience' was produced in partnership with the Institute of Employment Studies. It explores the attitudes of employers towards refugees and highlights the main issues, based on a series of interviews with individual employers.