Economic integration of refugees. Do refugees find a job?

1. 21/03/17
www.itinerainstitute.org
@devosmarc

2. 21/03/17
Of hope and illusion
p.2

3. p.3

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The Belgian Health Care System p.4

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Hope
Jan 2015-Aug 2016: 57.076 asylumseekers
31.018 decisions, 18.967 refugee/protection status
granted = 61.15%
Emotion and ambition vs. labourmarket segmentation
reality in Belgium
Itinera in 2015: treat refugees as migrants
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.5

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Partial data – Employment participation
AVAILABLE DATA
3/4 refugees has no reported highereducation
1/5 is illiterate
= worst group profile on Belgian labourmarket
BEYONDDATA
Formal qualifications & theirrecognition
Mobility
Language, culture, networks, psychology
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.6

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Illusion, as faras we can tell
Caveat: no systematic tracking of recognized refugees
Of all refugees registered in centres & allowed to work,
only 3% has actually worked (a bit) in 2016
Only 1 in 4 of officially ‘highly qualified’ recognized
refugees has taken steps fordegree recognition
 Riskof total loss
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.7

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Why??
Time & the asylumprocess
Usual phases forintegration of migrants have perverse
effects forrefugees
Sense of urgency /collective will
No competitive advantage
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.8

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What to do?
p.9

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Lessons learned: Policy
Integration/activation services in sync with process of
asylum application, as much as possible
Match housing/education with employment opportunity:
‘labour’ > labour
Facilitate labourmarket access: transition support
services, as personalized as possibile
Alternatives forregularemployment /flexibility
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.10

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Lessons learned: Beyond Policy
A collective effort: civil society, social partners,
companies, media, …
Services require access to services
Refugee networks forrefugees
Communicate success stories
p.11Labourmarket integration of refugees

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Get real
Refugee integration is hard and takes time –
‘time2employment’
Collective sense of responsibility is needed
Political courage to make it a priority
The clockticks: targeted and temporary support
measures?
Labourmarket integration of refugees p.12

13. 21/03/17
marc.devos@itinerainstitute.org
@devosmarc
www.itinerainstitute.org