Mainstream employment solutions failing refugees

A new report highlighting the factors that enable people from refugee backgrounds to gain employment has found that mainstream employment solutions have not been helpful.

‘When you look at the statistics, it’s pretty obvious that we have had limited success in supporting people from refugee backgrounds into employment’ says Tim O’Donovan General Manager of ChangeMakers Refugee Forum.

ChangeMakers’ report, People with refugee backgrounds can do the job: Refugee-background experiences of employment in Wellington, is based on interviews and focus groups with 17 people from refugee-backgrounds who have employment.

‘People from refugee backgrounds have told us that being unable to get a job is a major barrier to successful resettlement’ says Tim O’Donovan. ‘We wanted to identify the factors that enabled people from these communities to secure employment with the aim of informing policy and service delivery. In other words, what do we need to do more of to ensure that people from refugee backgrounds can realise their aspirations of participating fully in New Zealand life?’

Participants identified the need for individualised employment programmes and commended initiatives such as Refugee Services’ Pathways to Employment and MCLaSS’ ESOL Assessment and Access Service that enabled them to get a job. As participants noted:

‘The most important thing which has helped me find a job very quickly was... everything started from MCLaSS.’

‘It would have been very hard for me to find this work without Pathways support.’

Participants also saw volunteering, internships, and job placements as mechanisms of obtaining work experience. As one participant stated:

‘It was a starting point for me... to allow me to demonstrate those skills... and they gave me a chance. After I finished my internship I was offered a job.’

‘If we are serious about people from these communities participating fully, we need to support them to obtain meaningful employment,’ says O’Donovan. ‘Our research, and research from overseas, outlines what can be done to achieve this. Individualised support programmes enable people to identify their career aspirations and to develop a pathway to realise these aspirations.’

The report was launched at the National Refugee Resettlement Forum on 30th May 2012.

ENDS

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