FAQs

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A REFUGEE AND AN ASYLUM SEEKER?

A refugee is someone who has been forced to flee his or her country because of persecution, war or violence. A refugee has a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group. They cannot return home or are afraid to do so. In the UK, refugee status is given to anyone that can prove to the UK Government that they meet this definition.

Refugee

✓ Has been granted leave to remain in the UK

✓ Can access welfare benefits

✓ Has the right to work

Asylum-seeker

✓ Is applying to be recognised as a refugee and granted the right to remain in the UK

✓ Can access accommodation and limited subsistence from the Government

✘ Does not normally have the right to work in the UK 

CAN A REFUGEE LEGALLY WORK?

Anyone who is granted permission to remain in the UK as a refugee or who is granted humanitarian protection has unrestricted access to the labour market. A refugee may demonstrate their work entitlement through their Biometric Residence Permit or Immigration Status Document (an older form of document issued to refugees and certain other categories of migrant prior to the introduction of the Biometric Residence Permit).

WILL GIVING A REFUGEE A JOB MEAN TAKING A JOB FROM A NATIVE PERSON?

What economists say

Most migration economists agree that the presence of more foreigners in the labour force doesn’t hurt natives, mainly because natives and foreigners typically have a different set of skills and compete for different types of jobs—a fact recently corroborated using data on refugees resettled in the U.S. Moreover, native workers often do better in the presence of more migrants in the labour force because in response to more competition, natives usually specialize in better-paid jobs that migrants cannot always compete in (for instance, jobs that require perfect domain of the local language). 

Number of refugees

Even where they may take a job that a native person might have had, it must be remembered that refugees make up a tiny proportion of people, (just 0.6% of the UK population in 2019). 

We all benefit

It should be argued that we all benefit when refugees are in work, as they add to the tax receipts of the country and come off state benefits, meaning more money can be spent on other state provided services.

Many successful and famous people have refugee backgrounds

In a rare public statement Banksy said: "We're often led to believe migration is a drain on the country's resources, but Steve Jobs was the son of a Syrian migrant. Apple is the world's most profitable company, it pays over $7bn a year in taxes – and it only exists because they allowed in a young man from Homs”

Overall refugees tend to be more entrepreneurial and often end up creating jobs for native people. 

Many successful business people have refugee backgrounds including: the co-founder of Google (Sergey Brin), Marks and Spencer (Michael Marks), former CEO of Coca Cola (Roberto Goizueta) and the Chairman of Intel Corp. (Andrew S. Grove) 

Then there’s the big business thinkers - George Soros and the father of Post-War Management Thinking Peter Drucker - management consultant, educator, and author. 

Many famous people too have refugee backgrounds for example; singers - Freddie Mercury and Rita Ora, dancer - Mikhail Baryshnikov, artists -Marc Chagall and Salvador Dali, and Olympic gymnast - Nadia Comaneci.

Not forgetting politicians such as; Lord Alf Dubs in the UK, Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger in the US.

Other significant thinkers include: Albert Einstein, the Dalai Lama and Hans Bethe, Physicist and Nobel Laureate.

And let’s not forget! Superman was created by comic book artist Joe Shuster and writer Jerry Siegel, both the sons of Jewish immigrants.