Refugees and asylum seekers have to wait for the longest period of time to get their work permission a report has found.
Under British law, asylum seekers must wait for 12 months before applying for a work permit – the longest waiting time in Europe, according to research from the Migration Policy Centre (MPC) in Italy, and Bertelsmann Stiftung, a German thinktank.
Even after the 12-month threshold, they are often unable to access the labour market because they cannot be self-employed or set up a business. They can also only apply for jobs within a small band of professions for which many lack the qualifications to apply.
Even when asylum seekers are granted refugee status, researchers found that they are effectively discouraged from seeking work. The limited 28-day window which they have to find private accommodation is too short for them to find work and then earn the wages they would need to pay for a deposit on a rental contract.
"Due to the brevity of this period, there is a strong incentive to secure housing and out-of-work benefits rather than employment," the report says.
This dynamic means that they are less able to contribute to the British economy, Joscha Schwarzwälder, one of the report's authors, said in an interview. "One reason for letting asylum seekers work is that they will not have to rely on social benefits and there will be less costs for the budget," he said.
"Another argument is that early access to the labour market is key also for the longer-term labour market integration. In other words, if asylum seekers remain inactive for a prolonged period of time because they are prevented from accessing the jobs market, they will have more difficulties in finding employment once their asylum claim has been settled. Hence, a preventive approach might also create more costs in the longer term."
Moe, a Syrian graduate currently seeking asylum in the UK, agreed that the restrictions made him less likely to be able to contribute to the British economy in the long term. "I was told: 'Do not work. Do not even do voluntary work,'" he said.
Moe, who asked for his surname not to be published, continued: "The problem for me is that I'm a freelancer. If I continue to turn down client requests while I wait for my application, I won't have any clients by the time my application is processed. It's been almost six months since I applied, and I haven't even been assigned a case worker, which is the first step in the process after the initial screening."
Stephen Hale, the CEO of Refugee Action, a charity that helps to integrate refugees in Britain, said a lack of English lessons was also hindering the process (pdf). "English lessons are the first crucial step in enabling refugees to integrate," he said. "It's hugely frustrating for many refugees in Britain that there is a severe shortage of English classes. The annual cost of English classes is around £1,600. This is repaid in just six months when refugees gain employment at the national average wage."
The MPC report also suggested that the Swedish and German policy of allowing asylum seekers to work early on in their application process was key to easing them into the formal economy. It also encouraged more training schemes for refugees, which it said led to better employment rates, and found that places that offered more secure housing tended to see higher refugee employment. It also found merit in Scandinavian schemes that provide economic incentives to employers who give jobs to refugees.
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