Highly skilled refugees overlooked in the UK labour market

‘Scroungers’ (22%), ‘invaders’ (21%), ‘criminals’ (18%) – just some of the highly divisive words people here in the UK believe the media represent refugees as. A shocking new survey has uncovered the stereotypical attitude the UK has towards some refugees which could be stifling their chances of fulling potential in this country.

The study by humanitarian tech organisation Techfugees found a staggering 95% of Brits are failing to recognise the full potential refugees can bring to the workforce, with the misunderstanding believed to be largely down to media portrayals.

This refugee day, Techfugees is working to change perceptions to show that in reality, refugees already make a huge contribution to the UK in every working sector; but the tech sector is one that is often overlooked. A 2016 study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) found that immigrants are three times more likely to be entrepreneurial in the start-up sector than people born and brought up in the UK. Yet only 2% of Brits associate refugees with science or technology jobs, and only 1.8% think of them as working in coding.

Aston spoke to Mike Butcher MBE, founder and CEO of Techfugees.

Photo by Glenn Carstens Peter on Unsplash