Minutes of Refugees’ Sharing Information Meeting: Finding work in the International Development and Humanitarian Relief sector, in the UK and overseas.
Date: October 31st, 2013
Venue: At Stockwell Resource Centre, 1 Studley Road, Stockwell London SW4 6RA
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Present: Abdirahman Ahmed (Human Rights law and international development), Mebrahtu Ateweberhan (Marine Biologist and conservationist, employed), Benti Debella (Agronomy and Food Security), GM (International development and interpreting, employed as interpreter), FA (Pharmaceutical scientist, background in public health/international development) Ahmedin Ali (facilitator, employed by Oxfam as Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods and Cash Transfer Team Leader, Jordan) and Sarajuddin Isar (Political Science researcher)
Minutes by: Isar
The objective of this meeting was to exchange information and views on different aspects and challenges of employment for refugee professionals in the UK job market, in the field of international development, which could help tackle these challenges and increased the chances of employability for these refugees. The meeting also aimed to learn the experience of Ahmedin Ali who has recently been successful in being employed by OXFAM.
Mr. Ahmedin Ali was kind enough to present his experience and information with regards to his recent job in OXFAM. He discussed how he managed to get the job and also touched upon some of the growing challenges of refugee professionals in the UK job market. He discussed the challenges he faced as a refugee when he started his job. He also advised that a number of strategies would be helpful in tackling some of the challenges of employability. He mentioned that establishing online network through mobile, computer and other means of communication would initially be supportive. Refugees should try to have some kind of voluntary job engagement before getting any kind of paid jobs. It would also help to seek jobs with smaller organisations first and then target the bigger names. Refugees should develop their assertiveness and be more confident in seeking more challenging jobs.
His presentation was followed by open discussions and sharing experience from all participants of the meeting. Some concerns that were raised included but not limited to:
- Highly professional refugees find it hard to get employed.
- Refugee status makes a different with respect to normal citizens and other immigrants.
- Immigrants from other countries are more easily employable than those of the professional refugees.
- Refugees are 6-8 times less employed than other segments of the population.
- Employers are often unaware about the suitability of refugee professionals for their jobs, thus often ignore them at the very first step.
- Being unemployed for a while creates a gap in career which further risks the employability of refugee professionals.
Isar proposed that in order to make much out of this meeting, it would be best if a group email network should be created. He asked that everyone at the meeting should introduce himself/herself giving some more details about their background and the kind of job they are looking for. This was because once the group is created, and once it is known who is looking for what, then any kind of job opportunity, which could potentially match the background of each group member, would be shared through the email network.
The participants then gave more details about their background and job interests. All participants were potentially strong professionals from a range of areas including research, environmental studies, humanitarian affairs, pharmacy, international development, nutrition services, law, conflict, governance, security, political economy, finance and others. It was decided that upon creation of email network, everyone should share information and job opportunities, which could be relevant to these areas mentioned.
Date: October 31st, 2013
Venue: At Stockwell Resource Centre, 1 Studley Road, Stockwell London SW4 6RA
Time: 5:30 – 7:30 pm
Present: Abdirahman Ahmed (Human Rights law and international development), Mebrahtu Ateweberhan (Marine Biologist and conservationist, employed), Benti Debella (Agronomy and Food Security), GM (International development and interpreting, employed as interpreter), FA (Pharmaceutical scientist, background in public health/international development) Ahmedin Ali (facilitator, employed by Oxfam as Emergency Food Security and Livelihoods and Cash Transfer Team Leader, Jordan) and Sarajuddin Isar (Political Science researcher)
Minutes by: Isar
The objective of this meeting was to exchange information and views on different aspects and challenges of employment for refugee professionals in the UK job market, in the field of international development, which could help tackle these challenges and increased the chances of employability for these refugees. The meeting also aimed to learn the experience of Ahmedin Ali who has recently been successful in being employed by OXFAM.
Mr. Ahmedin Ali was kind enough to present his experience and information with regards to his recent job in OXFAM. He discussed how he managed to get the job and also touched upon some of the growing challenges of refugee professionals in the UK job market. He discussed the challenges he faced as a refugee when he started his job. He also advised that a number of strategies would be helpful in tackling some of the challenges of employability. He mentioned that establishing online network through mobile, computer and other means of communication would initially be supportive. Refugees should try to have some kind of voluntary job engagement before getting any kind of paid jobs. It would also help to seek jobs with smaller organisations first and then target the bigger names. Refugees should develop their assertiveness and be more confident in seeking more challenging jobs.
His presentation was followed by open discussions and sharing experience from all participants of the meeting. Some concerns that were raised included but not limited to:
- Highly professional refugees find it hard to get employed.
- Refugee status makes a different with respect to normal citizens and other immigrants.
- Immigrants from other countries are more easily employable than those of the professional refugees.
- Refugees are 6-8 times less employed than other segments of the population.
- Employers are often unaware about the suitability of refugee professionals for their jobs, thus often ignore them at the very first step.
- Being unemployed for a while creates a gap in career which further risks the employability of refugee professionals.
Isar proposed that in order to make much out of this meeting, it would be best if a group email network should be created. He asked that everyone at the meeting should introduce himself/herself giving some more details about their background and the kind of job they are looking for. This was because once the group is created, and once it is known who is looking for what, then any kind of job opportunity, which could potentially match the background of each group member, would be shared through the email network.
The participants then gave more details about their background and job interests. All participants were potentially strong professionals from a range of areas including research, environmental studies, humanitarian affairs, pharmacy, international development, nutrition services, law, conflict, governance, security, political economy, finance and others. It was decided that upon creation of email network, everyone should share information and job opportunities, which could be relevant to these areas mentioned.
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