Over the last three months I’ve spent time with three different coding schools in The Netherlands, Jordan, and France and I have a very different conclusion. I’ve met about a half dozen refugees that are currently working for tech companies thanks to these code schools. I’ve vetted their outcomes and results and have seen some of their financials. No, they are not perfect organizations, nor do they have perfect outcomes. But this article is incredibly misleading.
It’s really frustrating to read this because it draws from two limited experiences and then paints a generalized picture. It’s lazy in its reporting, arrogant in its prose (“Creating an amazing refugee coding bootcamp isn’t hard”) and ultimately misinforms readers.
The code school for refugees concept is early and therefore not perfect. But it is one of the best approaches to helping refugees I’ve seen. When it works people go from living in a room with 10 people to making as much as $2,000-4,000 per month.
You mention that governments are paying the bill for their tuition. In some cases this is true. In other cases this is not. It depends on the school and their current stage. There are private donors who are giving their money, developers that are volunteering their time, and people who are passing up good salaries to give back. But your generalization also leaves out important context.
Today in Greece refugees get $150 per month in the form of a cash card. They also receive housing, asylum services, etc. Multiply that by 12 months and you have a cost per refugee of far greater than $1,800. If refugees stay in camps for 10 or 20 years as they are in areas of Africa and Asia that’s at least $18,000–36,000 over the lifetime of a camp. The concept behind a government sponsoring this tuition is also not perfect, but it is an experiment aimed at cutting that cost. The refugees that I know who are working as developers are currently net-revenue generators in their country.
Based on the early success of organizations like HackYourFuture in Amsterdam and RBK in Jordan—and there is no doubt that they have been successful so far—this experiment should continue to be run and measured in my opinion. The people and organizations should be held accountable. But this article does nothing to help refugees or add to that accountability. Please consider editing this story based on facts, extensive interviews, and rigorous reporting.
