Hire a Breadwinner: the Benefits of Working with Refugees
Refugees face many challenges when they arrive in the UK, but one key obstacle to integration and improved wellbeing is high levels of unemployment. 78% of UK-born residents are employed, but, on average, in the EU, only 56% refugees are employed.
Unconsciously discriminatory employment practices, and a lack of knowledge about the legality of hiring refugees, can mean that employers do not hire refugees. We want to change that.
Our training programmes upskill refugees to make them better prepared to enter the UK workforce and settle into their new life.
What are the benefits of hiring refugees?
There are multiple benefits for welcoming refugees into your workforce. Firstly, our refugees are dedicated and enthusiastic, and are excited and appreciative to find opportunities to work and build their skills in the UK. Similarly, 73% employers in the US reported that refugees had a higher retention rate than employees from other groups. Employment also provides the chance to build social and professional connections; this is essential as moving to a new country to seek asylum often leaves refugees isolated.
Diverse teams are also 33% more likely to be profitable than less-diverse teams, so hiring refugees, who come from a huge variety of backgrounds, can be beneficial to your profits too. In addition, diversifying your workforce can also help decrease unconscious bias in your other employees, and help them develop communication and empathy with people from other cultures or backgrounds.
Our experience at Breadwinners is that refugees are talented individuals and quick learners. As many have experienced extremely challenging situations on their journey to the UK, they are incredibly resilient and adaptable. Refugees also often speak other languages as well as English, which can, of course, be an asset in many roles.
Hiring refugees is also a great thing to do for your community and to support a group who can face active discrimination when looking for jobs. If you are a socially-minded business, hiring refugees is an easy and effective way to put your money where your mouth is.
Why should I hire a Breadwinner?
Refugees who have graduated from our programmes have experience with customer-facing work at our market stalls (the Risers and Breadwinners programmes) and online sales experience (the Proofers programme). We also help our young people improve their language and communication skills, and improve their understanding of UK workplace culture.
When young people arrive in the UK seeking asylum, they often have not worked before, so working with Breadwinners means they have valuable experience that makes them better prepared to work in the UK.
Is it legal to hire refugees?
There’s often a lot of misunderstanding around the legality of hiring refugees in the UK. Refugees who have been granted settled status in the UK can legally work in the UK with no restrictions. Anyone who has graduated from our Breadwinners and Proofers programmes is a refugee with settled status who can complete paid work.
Someone who has arrived in the UK seeking asylum, but has not yet been granted refugee status, cannot usually complete paid work. However, they can apply for a permit to work if they have been waiting for their claim to be approved for over 12 months and are not responsible for the delay. Our Risers programme caters to young people seeking asylum who cannot yet take on paid work; after graduating, our Risers may be able to go on to work in a paid role.
Get in contact
If you are ready to look into hiring refugees or have a role that you think could be a good fit for our Breadwinners, then please send us an email at hello@breadwinners.org.uk.