Wrapping up discovery
This blog is part of a series on the Refugee Social Enterprise project at British Red Cross, the introduction to which, you can read here.
Over the past 5 weeks we have returned from working on COVID-19 projects and are back to working on the refugee social enterprise project, which was paused due to the global pandemic in March 2020.
We had to re-start and do a second discovery. Equipped with our initial pre-COVID research findings, we felt we needed to understand how COVID-19 had shifted the needs and priorities for refugees, asylum seekers and the organisations supporting them in the employment sector.
To do this, we focussed our research on three different areas:
1. Employability programmes
2. Refugee and asylum seeker needs
3. Market opportunities
We spent the last 4 weeks speaking to 6 charities and organisations working within the refugee employment space, 6 refugees and 4 leaders of women’s groups to understand user needs and how these have shifted due to COVID-19. We asked refugees to reflect on their experience as asylum seekers to capture this insight.
We found some significant common insights from both individuals and organisations.
Shared Themes
From talking to both asylum seekers, refugees and organisations supporting with employment needs, we found 5 common shared themes:
- Broad range of employability support available for refugees and asylum seekers
- A person-centered approach is the best
- Employers won’t hire without UK work experience
- Biggest challenges are access to and knowledge of technology and language abilities
- Covid-19 has drastically changed the refugee employment sector
Broad range of employability support available for refugees and asylum seekers
There is a broad range of support for refugees and asylum seekers, however, often, the support is either for asylum seekers or refugees, rarely for both. Furthermore, it is often difficult for people to access as much of it is either online, not advertised and people do not know what to search, or it is accessed on a referral basis.
Organisations supporting refugees and asylum seekers provide employment skills through:
•Work clubs
•Acting as a middle partner or recruiter between the employer and user
•CV writing workshops
•Interview practice
•Accredited courses
•Providing references
However, many refugees still find it challenging to secure employment and asylum seekers, volunteering opportunities.
Below are some of the significant barriers and potential pathways or gaps that we have found from our research.
*All names have been changed to maintain anonymity.
A person-centered approach is best
Regardless of the focus group, a person-centered approach to support is essential. There is lots of support available out there to both refugees and asylum seekers, however, without the individualised aspect it is very difficult for people to access or trust it.
“Quality is determined by a personalised approach, 1:1 mentoring and an action plan for each individual journey…we offer personalised modular programmes which are assessed on skill level and motivation to work” Charity
Mentoring builds social networks which help to improve confidence, share experiences and they also help people find jobs.
“I loved my mentor as they helped me planning for my future and as I had no family when I arrived in the UK they were a really important person to talk about my plans to” Saed, Refugee
“Social networks are what get people into opportunities” Sayda, Refugee
“Sharing stories, to inspire each other. Peer mentoring approach to helping people find work” Amina, Refugee
The biggest gap still in the employment space is women. We found that women are far less likely to be financially independent or to get work out of an employment programme.
“The biggest gap would be to work with women who state ‘I have never worked before’ despite having run a household and raised children…we have supported women with understanding financial independence and setting up their own bank accounts” Charity
“There are not enough programmes focused on women, we have found that women who exit from our employability programme are half as likely to get a job, as men” Employment Network
Employers won’t hire without UK work experience
Both users and employers said that the biggest barrier to employment is a lack of UK work experience. Employers are very reluctant to hire someone who does not have a UK reference or UK work experience.
“Work placements are the biggest gap in the market — it’s what people need to gain experience” Employment Network
“They won’t hire you unless they know you can do the job — but how can I show this, unless they give me a chance?” Peter, Refugee
Where employment is not always an option, volunteering is an essential pathway — especially for asylum seekers — to gain a UK reference, experience of volunteering in the UK and to show no gaps on the CV.
“Starting conversations earlier is more helpful — so that they are not starting from zero” Charity
“Really really important to do volunteering, the gap on our CV is what is slowing people down, volunteering helps to fill that gap and helps you give good examples of work in interviews in the future” Peter, Refugee
Biggest challenges are access to and knowledge of technology, cultural and language related
UK employers require an excellent level of English regardless however, one of the biggest barriers refugees face is knowing the technical language required for employment roles.
Technology was been a barrier for some members with charities having to upskill their members remotely.
“We have found we need to upskill people in technology, as it has changed a lot since they might have last used it” Charity
With language, corporates mentioned that the biggest challenge has been refugees knowing the technical language of the role, rather than English.
“It’s technical language that is relevant to the job, as opposed to level of English that is important” Employment Network
Tailored programmes can help to counter this barrier as well as courses specific to careers.
“Tesco and Hilton offer sector-based training as part of their employability programmes…training specific to a job role someone is aiming for is essential, for example customer service” Employment Network
Covid-19 has drastically changed the refugee employment sector
Two immediate shifts have happened within this space since COVID-19. Firstly, everything has gone online and secondly, there has been a shift to focus on community and individual based needs rather than just employment.
“We closed for 2 weeks, and then restarted again, with all our support being online instead of face-to-face” Charity
Organisations have become increasingly focused on their communities’ immediate needs and livelihoods to ensure their members did not slip into poverty.
“Our focus shifted from employability to livelihood interventions and supporting our alumni when we learned that over 50% were in serious financial hardship” Employment Organisation
For individuals COVID has brought a general anxiety much bigger than just their future and employment needs.
“I have stopped looking for work at the moment because I am really worried about getting ill from COVID…I also have heard there is less work out there as my friends shifts all got cancelled” Ama, Refugee
Going online has however, provided unique opportunities to try new types of support.
“We set up a women’s support group on Zoom, which has been very popular. It has young women dialling in from 3 cities across the UK…this would just not have been possible face-to-face” BRC Service
Employment programmes and charities insights
There were some significant themes coming up from speaking with employment services, who all seemed to suggest that partnership working, with charities, employers and networks of refugees and asylum seekers was the best space to work within.
For some refugees and asylum seekers, a reduction in confidence and exploitation has been a common theme in their experience of the UK job market.
Working in Partnership
One of the largest gaps we found is that, pre-existing employment pathways are dependent on partnerships between corporates, employers and charities. The Refugee Employment Network is trying to fill this gap linking organisations that work with refugees to corporates.
“Breaking Barriers provide a ‘pre-employment programme’ and then connect the corporate with ‘employment ready’ refugees” Corporate Employer
But partnerships are still highly reliant on charities doing the employment support and pastoral support. Corporates were open about their concerns about pastoral support refugees need, which is why there continues to be this reliance on charities to provide the pre-employment and pastoral support.
“Managers can get worried about how much time it might take to support a work experience placement” Corporate Employer
User Needs Insights
Lack of Confidence and Exploitation
Speaking with refugees and asylum seekers, one common insight was that they felt less confident after repeated rejection.
“I applied for thousands of jobs and got nowhere…then rejection starts to affect your confidence” Mary, Refugee
For those who had been working, they found that they did not necessarily understand their employment rights and how much they should be working or what was expected of them.
“After hundreds of applications, I got my first job working nights shifts in a warehouse. I was working 60 to 70 hours a week and getting two hours sleep because it took me 2 hours to travel to work” Sayda, Refugee
Particularly in young people, they constantly felt rejected, not only of job offers, but also with their aspirations.
“When I arrived in the UK and they asked me what I wanted to do, I said, a pilot. And the lady I spoke to being a sales assistant at Primark was more realistic.” Peter, Refugee
Market Research
Finally we looked at how the market, specifically businesses had adapted to COVID-19.
Many face-to-face businesses and services closed temporarily during lockdown and some did not survive, due funding shortages.
However other businesses, education and services were able to continue by putting their offer online. Migrateful have put their cooking classes online, and Nemi Teas explored the online retail space. Recruitment agencies that match refugees with cooperates also shifted their services online.
Although COVID has presented a barrier with technology, if we are able to navigate around it inclusively, then it also presents a unique opportunity to explore more innovative ideas.
Wrap Up
Revised problem statement
From all our research we have identified a few major gaps and common themes as noted above. From these we have revised our problem statement to the following:
How might we build a service that:
1.Improves the wellbeing (social isolation, mental health) of:
asylum seeking and refugee women, not in employment or volunteering by supporting them into work experience or volunteering
2.In the medium term is self-sustaining
3.In the long term makes a profit to invest back into RSRFL services
Design Principles
From our insights we have come up with the following design principles to shape our project:
Designed with, not for, refugees and asylum seekers
Promotes independence and growth
Valuable professional development
Confidence-building
A safe space
Flexible to people’s situations
Person-centred support
Easy to access
Inclusive use of technology
Provides support in partnerships
Challenges racist stereotypes of refugees
Next, we will be running ideation sessions with a broad range of people who work with refugees and asylum seekers or are refugees and asylum seekers themselves, using the design principles as a guide. You can follow our blog here to find out how we run these sessions.
