It takes refugees up to twenty years to have similar employment as the native born. In the first five years after arrival in the host country only one in four refugees is employed. After ten years in the country, the employment rate is about 56%, three points less than other groups of migrants and at least nine points less than the native born. Being unemployed for a long time makes it difficult for a native person to regain access to the labour market, but for a refugee it is quite impossible. That’s what is written in a report by the OECD and the Employment DG of the EU Commission.
The difficult access to the labour market for refugees ( often skilled)
Refugees are concentrated in a small number of countries: Germany, France, Sweden and the UK . 10% of refugees live in Belgium and Austria. In 2014 there were 1.8 millions refugees residing in 25 countries of the European Union. Already in the previous years Germany counted 660,000 refugees and the UK 300,000. Sweden shares the highest number of refugees among all categories of migrants, followed by Croatia and Belgium. Furthermore, in most countries refugees are more likely to be men. One out of five of those who arrived in Europe in 2015 aged between 15 and 64 has tertiary education. But the level of education is different for different countries of reception: two thirds of the refugees who arrived in Spain have tertiary education, while only 15% of refugees in Germany, Croatia and Italy have a similar background.
An average of 60% of refugees with a bachelor’s degree are overqualified compared with their job positions, at least twice as much as the native born and economic migrants. The reason can be found in the difficulty for employers to evaluate qualifications issued by foreign countries and the lack of documentation on refugees’ degrees. There is not enough knowledge about the host country among refugees. Fewer than 45% of them affirms to have a deep knowledge of the country. Knowledge of the host country’s language is fundamental for gaining access to the labour market and to the society, and language learning tends to improve with stays of longer durations in the host country. But this issue needs careful consideration given that, according to the study, even with an intermediate level of the language refugees could have more job opportunities (at least 10% more).
In general, based on the the data collected, it seems that one out of five economically active refugees is unemployed and one out of eight has been unemployed for one year or more and one out of fourteen for a period of two years or more. That means that it is extremely difficult for an unemployed refugee to re-enter the labour market . For women, finding a job is a true challenge, with a level of employment of about 45%, 17% less than a men . Between women and men there is also a gap of at least twenty points in the level of activity : respectively 77% versus 57%.
Furthermore, refugees tend to naturalise more than other groups of migrants, taking the nationality of the host country after ten years of residence; and in that case they have a level of employment twelve percentage points higher than most other migrants who moved to the country only to work and study.
It takes refugees up to twenty years to have similar employment as the native born. In the first five years after arrival in the host country only one in four refugees is employed. After ten years in the country, the employment rate is about 56%, three points less than other groups of migrants and at least nine points less than the native born. Being unemployed for a long time makes it difficult for a native person to regain access to the labour market, but for a refugee it is quite impossible. That’s what is written in a report by the OECD and the Employment DG of the EU Commission.
