Ashley Community Housing (ACH) is a social enterprise working to integrate refugee and migrant communities. We employ more than 100 staff in Bristol, Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Coventry of whom more than half have relevant direct lived experience. Access to work is an important part of the journey for many of our clients. But what sort of work?
The flow of refugees and migrants into the UK has become a controversial topic in recent years. Brexit, the Illegal Migration Act, the Rwanda plan and predictions of a ‘hurricane’ of migrants have all created a ‘hostile environment’, obscuring attempts to find evidenced-based solutions and overlooking the crucial link between migration and work.
Levels of migration into the UK have been high, with the 2021 census recording some ten million people in the country who were born elsewhere, compared with seven million ten years previously. This includes refugees and forced migrants, students, people arriving with skills visas, those reuniting with UK-based family members and several million migrants from EU member states who benefitted from the EU’s freedom of movement. There are, for example, over 900,000 Romanians now living in the UK. Asylum seekers and refugees coming via this route are in fact only a small proportion of the total – 78,000 applications in the last year. In addition, there are resettlement schemes for Syrians and Afghans as well as people (mainly women and children) who have escaped the conflict in Ukraine.
The UK has at the same time faced significant labour market shortages as well as low productivity and growth. Many factors have contributed to this including the impact of Brexit with the departure of some EU migrants, COVID-19 pandemic effects, people switching jobs or leaving the workforce altogether as well as an ageing population. Many refugees and forced migrants tend to be effectively excluded from the labour market and find themselves unemployed. Others are employed in precarious/insecure work below their level of capability and experience. For example, ACH estimates that around 35 per cent of our asylum-route refugee tenants are outside the labour market and need support to become ‘work-ready’. It is estimated that 40 per cent of Romanians are in employment below their level of capability.
Economic empowerment and autonomy are important drivers for the integration of migrants. Ensuring refugees and migrants have pathways to high-quality sustainable work is central to their wellbeing. It also reduces dependence on state benefits and public services as well as having wider advantages for the functioning of the labour market and society as a whole.
Refugee and migrant communities are complex and diverse with different needs. But common barriers to accessing decent work include a lack of aspiration, limited knowledge of job search and application processes, and of the culture of work, social capital and social networks. Lack of qualification equivalences and language limitations are also major factors. Obviously, communication is a vital element but language acquisition can be fetishised, often being ‘supply driven’ and not properly related to functional needs. Many refugees and forced migrants faced traumatic experiences in their home countries and harrowing journeys to get here. Those following the asylum route can face months in the UK asylum system leading to physical and mental health problems which may create further obstacles to finding work.
Yet the support offered is fragmented, ad hoc and sometimes poorly designed. Different refugee/migrant communities have different rights and opportunities in relation to being able to work and to access state support. A number of stakeholders are involved in this provision including the Home Office and Department of Work and Pensions at national level, Combined Authorities (with responsibility for skills) and local government (responsible for some elements of refugee resettlement) as well as the community and voluntary sectors.
ACH offers housing for asylum-route refugees whose status is determined, careers advice, training, functional language teaching, help with job searches, and advice on rights at work, as well as small business development and assistance for self-employment registration to wider refugee and migrant communities. For example, we have assisted more than 800 migrant entrepreneurs (from Ukraine, Hong Kong and Afghanistan, among others) in the West of England and West Midlands. We have provided training in functional language and culture of work for Hong Kong BNO nationals in Solihull, and online training and advice on rights at work with Lawyers Against Poverty and the University of Bristol. We are also working directly with employers, for example in the hospitality sector, to ensure pathways for the recruitment, retention and progression of our client groups.
Constraints in the provision of support for economic opportunity for refugees and migrants in our experience include a reliance on a plethora of different funding sources, each of which has specific limitations in terms of eligibility, geographical coverage, compliance and reporting requirements and timescale. There is also a lack of coherence and shared purpose between key stakeholders at national, local and regional levels.
We need mainstream providers of small business and employment support (such as Growth Hubs and Combined Authorities) to have a greater understanding of the specific needs of refugee and migrant communities. We need a recognition that one size does not fit all. We need community-level organisations – especially drawing on lived and learned experience – to be given a key role in design and delivery. We need co-production with key stakeholders and in close liaison with the communities concerned. We need a holistic package to include economic opportunity along with housing and the opportunity of engagement in civic society.
The future of work can continue to be one in which very significant numbers of refugees and migrants remain on the margins of the labour market, with an inevitable impact on housing and access to education, health care and other public services. An alternative future could be one with targeted support tailored to specific needs through which we can see progression pathways to decent work on a systematic basis. This would lead to greater wellbeing and social inclusion for the communities concerned, as well as contributing to regeneration at local level and wider economic growth.
Fuad Mahamed founded ACH 15 years ago and is the CEO.
David Jepson is a director and policy advisor and has worked with the organisation for six years.
Image credit Jamie Hunt via Unsplash