Over five million Ukrainians have fled their country, and most 68,000 have made it to Canada. When they haven't already, most will start seeking employment within their new countries soon. When confronted with this, it's important that employers are ready to hire refugees in a way that benefits everyone.
Our research sheds light on the experiences of newly hired refugees while offering best practices for employers. Based on the experiences of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran from 28 German companies, we discovered the very best ways employers can integrate refugee employees into the workplace.
Our findings reveal that some refugee employees are unintentionally marginalized when their employers offer an excessive amount of support. This occurs because the employers see themselves as humanitarians as well as their refugee employees as victims – not as fully autonomous human beings.
One Syrian refugee employee told us how he felt about his boss: “She wants to control everything in my entire life. I can not stand it any longer. If I had known that before, I would have never started the task.”
Although well-intended, sometimes employers can unintentionally undermine the company of refugee employees. Because refugees already experience many challenges while seeking employment, managers should avoid adding more barriers while possible.
Humanitarian managers
We discovered that refugees' experience in work relied on how managers viewed and understood them, producing three distinct types of employers: humanitarian, lecturer and pragmatist managers.
Humanitarian managers portrayed refugees as helpless victims and focused on their vulnerabilities. Employers adopting this lens focused too much on preventing refugees from failing, including inappropriately intervening within their private family or financial issues instead of building their relevant capabilities.
For example, one employer admitted he'd hired refugees according to his Christian principles, but later realized at least one didn't have the best skills for his job. “I can only deploy him for unskilled labour.”
While the humanitarian approach can be helpful for recognizing refugee employees' specific needs compared to non-refugee employees, it's problematic because it downplays the ability of refugee employees to manage their very own lives.
Lecturer managers
The second group of manager was lecturer managers. The primary objective of these managers was to reduce the risk of refugees becoming a societal burden.
Lecturer managers would police refugees' behaviours to ensure they were compliant with local cultural norms. One executive described how he'd force his refugee and domestic employees to invest time together during breaks while he thought it was perfect for these.
The overreaching support provided by both humanitarians and lecturers often made refugee employees feel patronized and undervalued by undermining their self-reliance and autonomy.
Some refugee employees wound up wanting to leave their jobs because of lecturer managers. One employee described his experience: “The organization is everywhere in my life. Personally i think like I am caught in a box.”
Further, many humanitarian and lecturer managers felt let down when their extraordinary efforts weren't adequately recognized by those these were attempting to help.
Pragmatist managers
The third group of manager – pragmatist managers – struck an account balance between viewing refugee employees as victims and valuing their strong work motivation and also the skills and data they coded in their house countries. This approach was most likely to result in positive outcomes for the refugees and their workplaces.
Managers in this category helped refugee employees develop their careers by providing targeted support for work-relevant issues, for example reducing language barriers, educational and data gaps.
The refugee employees we interviewed strongly preferred dealing with pragmatists. For example, one Syrian refugee in Germany stated:
“I am so grateful. I was worried about my future within Germany. I lost the idea in my abilities. She [supervisor] achieved that my belief within my abilities has returned. She was always saying to me: 'You can achieve it! You have to try. Believe in your abilities!'”
Strategies for successful hiring
We recommend four actions employers may take to support refugee employees without victimizing them and allowing them to control their own lives.
- Avoid seeing refugees only as victims. Employers should value refugees' talents whilst recognizing when you should show empathy and compassion. For example, pragmatist employers were generous when offering tools or training to build refugee employees' capacity at work.
- Be responsive to refugees' individual needs. Not every refugees have the same needs, and they are not defined entirely by their status as refugees. One employee will benefit from language training, while another may be ready for leadership training. A one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be successful.
- Recognize refugees' agency over their own life decisions. Those who are forced to seek asylum lose control over their lives, and most try to regain it as soon as they possibly can. Employers' efforts ought to be directed towards career development initiatives, instead of attempting to solve all problems on behalf of their refugee employees. Employers are free to offer support for their employees, however they must permit them to decline any support they don't want. Employers must trust refugees to be aware what is the best for themselves.
- Be selective while hiring. Employers should fill open positions with refugees who have the abilities and expertise necessary for the job, or even the potential to develop them. Our study discovered that some employers, motivated by altruism, offered refugees jobs despite being unqualified, resulting in bad outcomes for everybody.
Ultimately, no matter how educated or skilled refugees are, they face unique challenges in their workplace integration. When done right, managers can play a vital role in helping refugee employees thrive in their new workplaces, rather than robbing them of their autonomy.
This article is republished in the Conversation. Browse the original article.
