Topic of the Month Europe Must Act 2024
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The right to work and having a job that provides healthy and fair working conditions are issues that concern us all. This is because decent employment promises more than a source of income, it also brings independence, a sense of purpose, a source of stability and can be good for mental health.
Zooming in on refugees and asylum seekers, having access to decent work helps
people to become a part of their new community, as they not only begin contributing
financially but also enhance language skills and make friends.
However, despite the many benefits and the fact that many have the right to access employment, often, people on the move face significant barriers to obtaining decent employment. This can be for a variety of reasons, from legal and language barriers to intersecting racial[1] and gender discrimination[2].
Combined, these challenges to successfully entering the labour market lead to the denial of the important advantages of work as well as increasing the likelihood of exploitation, as people on the move are pushed towards working in the informal economy–where they are vulnerable to abusive working conditions and economic shocks that lead to job loss and poverty[3].
Here, Europe Must Act aims to dig a little deeper into the topic of employment for people on the move. In doing so, we not only hope to highlight the barriers and difficulties many face but also argue the many positives that employment has, dispelling all too common negative perceptions when it comes to this element of the world of work.
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References:
[1] Moa Bursell, The Multiple Burdens of Foreign-Named Men—Evidence from a Field Experiment on Gendered Ethnic Hiring Discrimination in Sweden,
European Sociological Review, Volume 30, Issue 3, June 2014, Pages 399–409, https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcu047
[2] Yuliya Kosyakova, Zerrin Salikutluk, Jörg Hartmann, Gender employment gap at arrival and its dynamics: The case of refugees in Germany, Research in
Social Stratification and Mobility, Vol 87, 2023, 100842, ISSN 0276-5624, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2023.100842.
[3] UNHCR, MUN Refugee Challenege, Background Guide: Refugees’ Access To Jobs And Financial Services, UNHCR.
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