Well-Being without Employment? Promoting the Employability of Refugees

Abstract

There are more than 25 million refugees in the world. Many of them try to reach the Mediterranean in order to enter Europe. Spain is one of the countries that receive refugees and have to integrate them. Many refugees have experienced persecution in their countries, as well as forced migration, rape, diseases, etc. Their integration requires support and coordination from the government, health services, and social agents. The first step in achieving this integration is getting a job, which is currently an important issue. Thus, we aim to analyze the employability of a specific group of refugees in Spain and then develop and implement an intervention program to improve their employability. Our framework is based on the Bioecological Model of Employability. The results obtained show that the program is effective in improving employability, and they highlight the importance of labor inclusion for refugees’ well-being. Moreover, the findings reveal the need to create labor market policies and further evaluations, diagnostics, and intervention programs that improve employability and other types of personal-community growth. It is necessary to focus on refugees’ needs and develop appropriate services.

Perceived employability in a situation of crisis: the influence of the external context and perceived financial threat

“…However, the results show variations in one of the perceived employability subscales – perceived employment protective behaviour. This Factor 1 of EAS covers people's perceptions regarding their persistence, responsibility, planning, organisation, maintenance, progress, self-efficacy and confidence (Llinares-Insa et al. , 2020).…”

“…With regards to perceived financial threat, an effect of time was observed: during the third data collection moment, people reported feeling a lower level of financial threat, which corresponds to the period characterised by the suspension of lockdown restrictions and the vaccination plan. However, it was also during the third moment of data collection that a negative but weak relationship was recorded between perceived financial threat and perceived employability and its subscales in the third moment of data collection, with only the EAS subscale of self-control being excluded, which refers to the perceived ability to control emotions such as anger and frustration (Llinares-Insa et al. , 2020).…”

“…Young adults are one of the groups most vulnerable to the effects of crises (Sorgente and Lanz, 2019), which seems consistent with the variations of perceived employment protective behaviours. Such perceptions are related to maintenance, self-efficacy and confidence (Llinares-Insa et al. , 2020).…”

“…However, the results show variations in one of the perceived employability subscalesperceived employment protective behaviour. This Factor 1 of EAS covers people's perceptions regarding their persistence, responsibility, planning, organisation, maintenance, progress, self-efficacy and confidence (Llinares-Insa et al, 2020). The variations were mainly recorded at the third moment of data collection, where perceived employability slightly decreased when compared with the average of the first two moments.…”

Immigrants’ Experiences on Integration While Attempting to Access the Labour Market: Implications for Social Work Practice

“…Immigrants have more precarious jobs and face higher job insecurity which in turn affects their health in a negative way (Liu et al 2019). Several studies claim that refugees are particularly vulnerable in the pursuit for work (Marbach et al 2018;Llinares-Insa et al 2020). Results from Germany show that labour barriers (bureaucratic distinctions between citizens and non-citizens, the structural system of legal regulations) impede immigrants' participation in the workforce (Täubig 2019) and thus threaten integration.…”