Identifying pathways for refugee integration and employment in the UK and Brazil

For migrants and refugees, contact with state, charitable and commercial organisations when settling into ‘host’ societies and entering the labour market significantly shapes their experiences. Since 2016, Dr Peter Lugosi from the Oxford Brookes Business School, Dr Clara Della Croce and Dr Sonia Morano-Foadi from the School of Law and Social Sciences have been researching how refugees transition into employment. This work has now been extended through a British Academy Newton funded project involving Dr Thiago Allis from the University of Sáo Paulo, Brazil.

This research evaluated how institutions, such as faith-based and charitable bodies, provide consolidated services, including housing advice, job mediation, coaching and counselling; and how their work is complemented by networks of smaller, specialist organisations.

Moreover, the research highlighted migrants’ innovativeness in creating new opportunities through hospitality and tourism, particular food-based enterprises. Operating restaurants, cafes, bars and other foodservice outlets, provide unique opportunities for migrants to draw on their rich cultural knowledge, and to extend their capacities whilst establishing sustainable lives. Beyond enhancing the livelihoods of individuals, these ventures are helping to transforms the experiences of wider networks of migrants. Refugees and their enterprises are also contributing to the visitor economies of destinations such as Sáo Paulo and transforming cities.

The insights from this work are being used to identify good practice that can enhance the lives of migrants across the world.