How do refugees find work?
Refugees and other marginalised people often find it very hard to find work. But this is only one of the many obstacles that they must overcome. The article below about an asylum seeker in New Zealand tells a story that is all too common. It will be published within a larger volume of research that is being undertaken with the Canterbury Refugee Resettlement and Resource Centre (CRRRC).
A former asylum seeker from the Middle East* now living in Christchurch speaks about his frustration about finding meaningful employment in the city.
University-educated and qualified Mohamed** had a change in circumstances two years ago that forced him to seek asylum in New Zealand. At the time of seeking asylum he was effectively without a place of residence, because he could not return to the country where he’d grown up, had employment, and where his parents came from. He did not have a passport from that country, since it is not generally allowed for foreigners to obtain citizenship there. He had the passport of this birth, but he had never lived in this country. Nor was it safe.
Mohamed is a computational biologist (a scientist who deals with genetics data) and although he has found work as a data entry operator, it is well beneath his educational qualifications. It took him about a year to find the work.
That Christchurch is a small city, probably lacking the demand for highly qualified people, and lacking a network for new people, are some of the challenges he faced in finding employment. He also comments: “Besides, employers are not very keen on taking on board anyone with international experience, they prefer the so-called Kiwi experience.”
Mohamed also says: “I would guess that the smaller cities will not have to sort of jobs that align with my skills and the bigger cities, like Auckland, have different challenges that make them unappealing.”
Unlike most refugees, language was not a barrier to him obtaining employment. Mohamed speaks and writes English fluently.
To enable refugees to find work more easily he advocates that the government introduces incentives and tax cuts. German universities are doing this and something similar could be done in New Zealand, he says.
According to a report in The Times Educational. Supplement,***, more than 60 universities in Germany are providing education, language tuition, and financial assistance to help refugees become students.
*not from Syria
** Name has been changed
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