Sustainable Development Through Refugee Employment
While conversations about sustainable development tend to default to environmental debates, in reality sustainable development encompasses a much larger and broader aim: creating more inclusive, resilient, and equitable societies. … Embedding refugees into employment routes that allow for inclusion helps to foster more equitable economic growth and job opportunities. The long-term economic and social effects of employing refugees can contribute to reducing poverty and stabilising communities and regions over the long run and to creating more resilient societies and societies at large.
Linking Refugee Employment to Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal number eight, adopted by the United Nations, is to ‘sustain per capita economic growth in accordance with national circumstances and, in particular, at least 7 per cent of gross domestic product annually in the least developed countries … [and] to achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation … [and] to promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalisation and growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.’ In other words, by promoting employment for refugees, we stimulate a cascade of innovations that counts toward the achievement of many of the SDGs. The need for more refugee employment, not less, if sustainable development is to be realised.
For instance, SDG 8 – ‘sustain sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all’ – would be better served by helping refugees to enter the labour force. Employment provides decent work for refugees, in turn preventing them from accessing the unemployment benefit, generates further employment for them, also enhancing equality – an objective also embedded in SDG 10 – ‘reduce inequality within and among countries’.
And they also provide a boost to local economies when refugees enter the labour market paying taxes, spending and generating economic activity, which in places where there is a shortage of workers, or where older industries are contracting, can make economies more resilient. Fourth, we empower the global goal to ‘leave no one behind’ when refugees are able to work.
How Refugee Employment Contributes to Sustainability
Using refugees as labour brings multiple layers of sustainability. First, refugees gain economic independence, allowing them to be economically self-sufficient and create their own pathways towards stability and long-term prosperity – for themselves, their families and their communities. Second, it means fewer people remain dependent on short-term welfare or humanitarian assistance, leaving more funds to invest in other social services and programming.
Secondly, rubbing refugees the wrong way is also a chance to help address labour market shortages in key sectors. For instance, a significant proportion of them are professionals – doctors, engineers, chemists, teachers, IT specialists, journalists, and economic and social scientists – with a great deal to offer, given their university degrees and work experience.
The second reason for offering paid work, rather than support, is that it is socially sustainable, not only in the sense that the refugees become an income-source for their labour, but also in the sense that their poverty can be reduced via entry into employment. Refugees come with multiple labour-market barriers. Some can’t talk to employers in the local language, some have no local track record of employment, and it can be challenging to have a refugee’s qualifications credentialised in the new labour market. Some struggle with work identity and status. The process of ‘becoming employed’ is problematic for many. In letting people be employed, we create a more egalitarian and inclusive society, in which people come in and have a chance without risking further marginalisation or unrest. It’s this, too that creates the conditions needed for social cohesion.
The Role of Businesses in Sustainable Refugee Employment
But business can be a force to enable refugee employment as well, generating jobs anchors that are vital foundations of building sustainable development and improving the lives of both refugees and their host communities, as well as the wider economy. Hiring refugees can help to make business more inclusive, responsible and profitable, while also contributing to stability and a sense of belonging. Business that embraces diversity and has equal opportunity to compete and prosper will over time be the most innovative, competitive and profitable ones.
Third, they can hire refugees as part of an inclusive commitment to diversity (this encompasses including refugee employees in corporate social responsibility efforts, addressing labour compliance, and hiring practices). In addition, businesses can offer refugees training and development opportunities that enhance not only their current contribution but also their longer-term career prospects. Training and continuing professional development in these jobs forms the deep, sustainable ground needed for employees’ skills to grow and thrive as the continually changing shape of work inevitably evolved.
Furthermore, refugee employment is a way of inviting stakeholders into a company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) agenda. Faced by escalating expectations for companies to demonstrate their concern with social responsibility – with increasingly morally perceptive consumers as well as other stakeholders – hiring refugees provides one of the least painful routes for firms to show that the market too, not just the state, has a conscience.
Conclusion
Investing in incentivising and facilitating the integration of refugees into the labour market leads to economic growth, reduces inequality and generates more stable, inclusive, prosperous and determined societies capable of tackling the socio-economic problems that await citizens and host societies tomorrow.
Sustainable development means creating these opportunities for all, and refugees should be among their beneficiaries. Employing refugees is an important step to a more equitable, fairer, and sustainable development, with more opportunities for everyone.
