Many believe that refugees are a nuisance to the economic system of their new country. Refugees could be perceived negatively due to people’s fear of losing their job, fear for their safety and their family’s safety and for the economy as a whole. However, this is the wrong outlook.
The real impact
Refugees are a positive asset for countries that accept them as they usually bring experience, professionalism, ideas and a different culture with them which can enhance the country. Instead of taking our jobs, refugees become clients/consumers when arriving into their new country. This is because they will need to start a new life and so restart by buying what they have lost in their home country from local and national shops. Philippe Legrain explains roles taken by a refugee in society can vary from investors, workers, innovators, entrepreneurs, taxpayers and consumers.
A question you may be asking yourself is, when it comes to the time a refugee looks for a job, will my job be at risk? The answer to this is: not necessarily. Dany Bahar states migration economists agree this is not the case, due to a difference in the labour force of refugees and locals. Due to language barriers and other difficulties related to being forced to move out of their country, refugees will tend to go for jobs where the native language is not required. Another argument is that in many cases, refugees have careers the country is in shortage of, therefore not conflicting with locals.
Refugees are also enrolled in entrepreneurship activities. Dany Bahar states that in the U.S, while immigrants represent 15% of the population, they represent 25% of entrepreneurs. They further state that this is probably due to their risk-taking life experiences due to the refugee situation where they were forced to leave their homes full of uncertainties, leading to a creation of 1.5 million jobs every year in the U.S alone.
Refugees can also help to change the world or a nation. The World Economic Forum recognises five refugees that changed the world. These names consider scientists such as Albert Einstein, who has won a Nobel Prize and Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google.
In São Paulo, we have a great example of their entrepreneur skills. As stated in one of our previous articles (National Day of the Arab Community), refugees have a great impact in Sao Paulo, and were responsible for changing the way business was done. Therefore, São Paulo gained when it opened its doors to refugees a few years ago as doing so helped the development of the city in which now they are citizens. This is a key example of how important refugees are to the city of São Paulo.
As stated in G1, Cindy Huang considers that it is up to the government if refugees and immigrants will be a weight or an opportunity. Huang further states that more job opportunities will be generated around these refugee communities, reaffirming the above, that there is not much conflict between the locals and refugees.
How can we do our part to help the refugees?
Therefore, the quicker refugees settle into a country, the quicker they will become part of the society and will contribute to many different areas, and we can do our part by welcoming and not having a preconception about the burdens they can bring to our society.
Despite the benefits to the economy and the fact that they will not simply ‘take our jobs’, as human beings, we must lend a hand to our fellow human beings, helping them in this difficult time they have been impacted by.
At Compassiva, we help refugees to integrate in Brazil. We do this through graduation diploma revalidation, Portuguese classes and much more! You can help us provide these services through a one off donation or monthly donations. Learn more here: doe.compassiva.org.br.
References:
https://www.oecd.org/migration/refugees-are-not-a-burden-but-an-opportunity.htm
https://compassiva.org.br/25-de-marco-dia-nacional-da-comunidade-arabe/
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/5-refugees-who-changed-the-world/
