Grace & Goode | Social Business Consulting

Barriers & Biases

The various socio-political barriers at work include:

• Credential Recognition: The process of verifying foreign advanced degrees in the UK is insufficient and has left many highly skilled refugees in the country underemployed.  

• Cultural Biases: Prejudice against refugees, fears over foreigners taking jobs, language barriers and a lack of community and cultural integration are considered to be contributing to the issue of underemployment.

• Lack of Professional Networks: Refugees are new to the country and often lack the local experience and professional networks that are critical to securing high level employment.

• Bureaucratic Hurdles: There is a lack of access to information, career services and progressive regulatory policies to support highly skilled refugees with securing appropriate employment.   

Implications

This type of market failure can have significant negative social, political and economic implications, some of which the UK is already experiencing, including:  

• Underutilization of a skilled workforce and underemployment, which in turn can have adverse effects such as economic inefficiency, slower technological advancement and reduced global competitiveness.

• Underemployment and unemployment of skilled refugees can also lead to an increased reliance on the social welfare system and increased government spending.

• Marginalization of refugees can lead to long-term socio-economic disparities, which can hinder social cohesion and erode the principles of social fairness and justice. Disenfranchisement can also lead to increased poverty, social unrest and political radicalization. 

Solution

Beyond Borders is a collaboration between the UK government, the private sector and select non-profits with an impact thesis that aims to increase the productivity of the country’s STEM sector through the improved and accelerated integration of highly skilled refugees into the country’s knowledge economy. The first step in preparing to design the new program involved conducting thorough research, including looking at benchmark programs from other countries that share similar contexts to the UK.

Two established programs that were looked at and incorporated into the Beyond Borders intervention include: 

• GeoMatch: A refugee placement software that utilizes a machine learning tool to match refugees with communities where they would most likely thrive. The tool has been successfully used in both the US and Switzerland, where projected employment measures increased by almost 40% and 75% respectively by applying the algorithm. The GeoMatch initiative is also supported by partners in The Netherlands, Canada and Norway. The solution is budget-friendly and can optimize for any integration priority – such as employment – and work with a country’s given constraints and refugee preferences.

• Duo for a Job: An intercultural employment mentoring program offered in Belgium, France and the Netherlands that supports young immigrant job seekers with finding employment opportunities. The successful program was established in 2013 and places 75% of its mentees in a job, internship or training program and sees 80% of its mentors returning. From an awareness and advocacy perspective, Duo for a Job draws on its experience to effectively contribute to the development of policy and practices at local, national and international levels designed to support social cohesion and the professional integration of refugees and immigrants. 

The Beyond Borders program resembles a mix of the benchmarked solutions and includes features designed to overcome the specific biases and barriers discussed above. Key features of the program include:

• Utilization of technology to streamline the credential recognition process for both refugees and employers.

• Implementation of the GeoMatch tool using professional employment matched to demand for STEM and other knowledge economy jobs as the integration priority.

• Implementation of intercultural profession-specific mentoring programs modelled after Duo for a Job to help highly skilled refugees understand the local context, build professional networks, receive relevant career counselling and secure employment opportunities.  

• Development of supporting policies, career development services and training programs to reduce bureaucratic hurdles, cultural barriers and other career-related gaps including: (1) policies that encourage private sector engagement via incentives, (2) career development services such as networking events that showcase refugee success stories, resume writing and mock interviewing, community integration support and employment placement programs and (3) a range of related training programs from cultural sensitivity and diversity training for employers to language and job-specific training for refugees.

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Note: While the circumstances presented here are based on fact, Beyond Borders is not a real program and this case was completed with four team members (A. Fallatah, R. Mahbubani, R. Singh, F. Udukwu,) as part of my practical coursework requirements for the Executive Masters in Social Business and Entrepreneurship program, which is jointly run by the London School of Economics’ Department of Management and the Marshall Institute.    

Sources:

1. Campaign for Science and Engineering. (2023). The Skills Opportunity: Building a More Innovative UK.
2. Psoinos, M. (2007). Exploring Highly Educated Refugees’ Potential as Knowledge Workers in Contemporary Britain. Equal Opportunities International, 26(8), 834–852.