29/9/2016

AsylumseekersinUK'facelongestwaitforworkpermitinEurope'|UKnews|TheGuardian

Asylum seekers in UK 'face longest wait for

work permit in Europe'
Restrictions stopping asylum seekers from working in Britain are increasing their dependency on welfare,
report nds
Patrick Kingsley Migration correspondent
Thursday 29 September 2016 11.34BST

Britain is one of the worst countries in Europe at integrating asylum seekers into the labour
market, unnecessarily increasing their dependency on the welfare system, 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 qualications to apply.
Even when asylum seekers are granted refugee status, researchers found that they are
eectively discouraged from seeking work. The limited 28-day window which they have to
nd private accommodation is too short for them to nd 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
benets rather than employment, the report says.
This dynamic means that they are less able to contribute to the British economy, Joscha
Schwarzwlder, one of the reports authors, said in an interview. One reason for letting
asylum seekers work is that they will not have to rely on social benets 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
diculties in nding 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Moe, who asked for his surname not to be published, continued: The problem for me is that
Im a freelancer. If I continue to turn down client requests while I wait for my application, I
wont have any clients by the time my application is processed. Its been almost six months
since I applied, and I havent even been assigned a case worker, which is the rst step in the
process after the initial screening.
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AsylumseekersinUK'facelongestwaitforworkpermitinEurope'|UKnews|TheGuardian

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 rst
crucial step in enabling refugees to integrate, he said. Its 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 oered 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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Topics
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