Why work for refugees is a win-win

Many MENA host countries restrict refugees’ right to work as they struggle to employ their nationals, which include the largest unemployed youth populations in the world. Yet doing more to integrate refugees into their labor markets can minimise costly humanitarian aid and increase economic prosperity, turning a perceived burden into opportunity.

Worldwide, over 26 million refugees have fled their countries to escape persecution. Many lack access to clean water, homes, and health care; vulnerability exacerbated by Covid.

The MENA region alone hosts 6.6 million refugees from Syria – the largest refugee population in the world. Millions have fled conflict in Yemen, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and Palestine. While the EU struggles to integrate more than 2.4 million refugees and asylum-seekers, Jordan, a country of just 9.8 million people, hosts 2.8 million refugees, Lebanon hosts nearly one million, and Turkey hosts 3.6 million.

Refugees are not temporary guests. On average, they spend 20 years in exile before returning home. Yamama Mousa, a Syrian young woman who fled to Jordan, says: “I am not planning to leave Jordan at all, because I consider it my second home.”

Countries are not required to accept refugees. But if they do, they must recognise that refugees have rights. Ahmad Awad, founder and director of the Phenix Centre for Economic and Informatics Studies, says: “We should deal with these humanitarian and social phenomena as existing reality, and respect their rights based on international standards. One of their most important rights is the right to work.”

The 1951 Refugee Convention provides the right to employment, recognising that “without the right to work, all other rights are meaningless”. MENA countries have signed onto the Arab Convention on Regulating Status of Refugees in the Arab Countries, confirming the Refugee Convention and undertaking “to refrain from discriminating against refugees as to race, religion, gender and country of origin”.

In practice, however, refugees often have very limited work rights and “are effectively barred from accessing safe and lawful employment for at least a generation”.

While Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan sacrifice to generously host Syrian refugees, these are not wealthy countries and the volume is overwhelming. To protect jobs for nationals, even generous host countries limit the professions that refugees can enter. Jordan, for example, seeks to protect national workers by closing professions such as education, medicine and engineering – and even jobs in call centres, warehouses, auto repair, drivers, reporters, guards, hairdressers, and many others. Refugees are restricted mainly to construction, agriculture and manufacturing.

Some Syrians in Jordan are finding ways to survive, working in low-skilled, low-wage and informal jobs outside their profession and below their education level. These jobs do not offer reliable income or benefits. Many others are simply unemployed.

If refugees cannot work, they need humanitarian assistance. This aid is costly and cannot continue indefinitely. Refugees need income and also seek the dignity and opportunity that come from having a job. Moreover, host countries need residents who contribute to economic prosperity. Many refugees bring skills with them.

Ms. Mousa holds a business administration diploma from Syria and has a passion for cosmetology. Unemployed in Jordan for years, she says: “At the beginning, I didn’t even have a dream or goal for my life.” Then, she found a programme run by Education For Employment-Jordan (EFE-Jordan). She landed a job in a spa, “the best place I have ever worked in my life. It has provided me with many things like a work permit, social security and health insurance”. Now, Ms. Mousa has a major goal: “In the future, I am thinking of opening my own business that includes many nationalities.”

Refugees face many obstacles, including the lack of available jobs, difficulty getting a work permit, and not living in cities where jobs are available. In addition, 80 percent of Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are concerned about getting into trouble with the authorities if they work. Women refugees face additional barriers: lower pay, lack of safe transportation and child care, and harassment.

In order to enable more refugees to contribute to the economy, host countries can open up professions to refugees, while ensuring a balance with nationals. They can also provide incentives for refugees to move to secondary cities where businesses struggle to fill positions for semi-skilled and highly skilled workers.

The German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ) is running an “Employment Oriented Vocational Training in Skilled Crafts” programme in Jordan in partnership with the Ministry of Labour and employers. Technical advisor Rabeah Al Haj Hassan explains that the skilled craft sector is in high demand for talent, and provides opportunity for women to freelance from home while balancing domestic responsibilities. She remarks: “You have to avoid any kind of discrimination between Jordanians and refugees. Youth are youth. You have to talk to them in the same way. They have the same talents, the same feelings.”

EFE-Jordan provides job programmes for youth like Ms. Mousa with GIZ and other partners. So far, the non-profit has trained nearly 2,000 Syrian refugees for work, as well as refugees from Iraq, Libya, Yemen, South Sudan and Somalia, alongside Jordanian nationals. EFE-Jordan’s CEO Ghadeer Khuffash remarks: “At EFE-Jordan, we feel that it is our responsibility to help other Arabs who live in Jordan as well.”

Ms. Mousa shares advice to other refugees searching for work: “Do not feel you are an expat, a stranger. They are very good people and they are supportive. Do not say ‘I don’t have any skills’. You need to work on yourself and get training in the areas that you love. I really help myself, my family and my host community. This helps all parties, that we are engaging together.”

Refugees are people, like anyone else, who want to work to improve their lives. Like Ms. Mousa, they are more than refugees. Empowering them to work legally in host countries will convert a missed opportunity into a value add.

Jasmine Nahhas di Florio is senior vice president Strategy, Partnerships & Communications at Education For Employment, a non-profit working to connect MENA’s youth to the world of work.