Changing the Narrative: How Refugees Are Breaking Stereotypes Through Employment
The portrayal of refugees (and often asylum seekers) by the media, few of them as anything other than helpless victims in need of assistance, can feed into stereotypes that rob refugees and asylum-seekers of their skills, resilience and contributions. Reality, however, is that refugees are hardworking and hard-skilled individuals who possess the human capital to benefit their neighbours in their new communities. A refugee can be anything: a carpenter, a solidarity worker, a mathematician – anything. Through work, refugees defy negative stereotypes and lead the public to reimagine them as more than just vulnerable refugees. Showcasing success stories and contributions from refugees should be leveraged to reframe the public and the political perspective of refugees as contributors to the labour market and society overall.
Overcoming Stereotypes Through Employment
One of the most enduring misconceptions about refugees is that they are a drag on social services. In fact, refugees’ most common aspiration is to work, earning a living and supporting themselves, and also contributing taxes and economic activity to their new home country by joining the workforce and spending their wages.
Work gives refugees a chance to show their skills and work ethic, shattering the notion they lack the qualifications or drive to succeed. Many arrive as college graduates, with experience in their fields that spans decades. But refugees can face additional barriers, such as not speaking English or having their qualifications dismissed. Overcoming those hurdles, refugees often excel at their jobs and play key roles in their workplaces.
For example, Noor was a teacher in Afghanistan before resettling in Australia. Recognition of her qualifications for teaching in Australia was difficult to obtain and she was unable to obtain a teaching role. With the help of some advice from a local refugee employment agency, Noor secured employment in a school as a teaching assistant. Her qualifications were eventually recognised and she is now a highly effective full-time teacher working with students and colleagues. Noor’s story shows refugees succeeding at work, while appearing and performing in ways that challenge common stereotypes of refugees arriving as helpless dependents.
The Power of Refugee Success Stories
Stories of successes such as Noor’s can help to transform the tone of the debate around refugees too. If the public has seen refugees – who can enrich our economies through their innate dedication and ambition, their sharp wit, their injection of culture, spirit and vitality – thrive in our workforce, then it’s harder to characterise a refugee as someone who ‘sponges off the state’ and ‘just sits around in cantinas all day drinking vodka’. These types of stories show refugees as active and capable human beings, a far cry from a victim begging for handouts, and really help us to see all the ways in which refugees demonstrate a powerful drive and commitment to succeed.
An encouraging story about a refugee’s success can also encourage other refugees who have just started out in their new country. A positive example of someone who has achieved their professional aims despite coming from a similar background can spur other refugees to strive for success, too. A negative immigration policy does not have to translate into comprehensive ban on immigration This is why we need diverse and representative narratives about refugees; stories that will allow others to see aspects of the refugee living in their new communities, such as celebrating festivals together or performing in plays and musicals. Such stories can help to reconcile the assistance migrants receive with their own motivation to succeed. With the right support and social capital, refugees can achieve their goals and contribute to their immediate communities.
How Employers Can Help Change the Narrative
Labour is about how employers can help refugees defy stereotypes and change the larger narrative (as opposed to charity, which still frames refugees in the narrow terms of pity). Employers that give refugees productive, meaningful employment-that-pays facilitate an opportunity for refugees to show what they are made of: their skills and work ethic – which confirms what their refugee brothers and sisters all over have been saying to their co-volunteers and new friends: that refugees are workers, customers, neighbours.
Employing refugees also sends a message to existing staff that employers take diversity, inclusion and corporate social responsibility seriously. This can have a positive impact on reputations and help to shift perceptions in the public’s mind by focusing on the way that refugees can make a positive local, national and global contribution to our economies and societies.
Alongside jobs, employers can assist refugees with mentorship, training and professional-development resources, stepping up for them in ways that enhance their performance in a role and help them grow on that job, and in their career generally. If refugees succeed and are promoted into leadership roles, more refugees start recognisably occupying positions of power – and the refugee employment story changes a bit more.
Conclusion
Employment is a powerful medium for dismantling these negative stereotypes and writing a new script about refugees’ contributions to society. As refugees go to work and showcase their agency by being skilled, resilient, dedicated workers, they challenge the notion that refugees are a drain on a system. In fact, refugees are a welcome and necessary addition to the workforce and their larger communities.
Employers, policymakers and the public must further support and shape a new story in which refugees have the opportunity for success, to break stereotypes, and to help all of us build a better society that maximises the talent all humans have to offer.
