Antoine SavaryEuropean Commission DG HOME Affairs

General picture on refugee integration: refugees do 'catch up' but it takes time

Employment rate by immigrant categories and duration of stay in European OECD countries, 2008

Asylum seekers and Refugees: not in the same position / entrepreneurship Labour market integration is the most important determinant for migrants’ economic

independence, and a precondition for a positive economic impact of migration. Giving early access to the Labour Market is therefore crucial, as soon as the asylum claim

has been lodged.

For Refugees: full access to labour market. This is valid for employed or self-employed

For Asylum seekers: no immediate/automatic access to Labour Market

As a general rule for Asylum seekers:

- Possibility for MS to delay the access of Asylum seekers to the Labour Market up to 9 months after the date of application and to impose additional conditions (e.g. labour market tests, work permit, limitation in time)

- MS have the possibility to shorten that delay under national law: e.g. SE: immediate access, DE: 3 months

For asylum seekers who would like to start self employed activities, situation in Member States can be worse than for employees. Three case scenario:

• Same situation as for employees (e.g. SE, SI, SK, ES) – must have access to Labour Market without additional conditions

• Access to labour market + additional conditions: obtention of a professional card (BE)

• No possibility to have a self employed activity for asylum seekers: F, DE, NL, EL, IT = no possibility to start setting up a business

Asylum seekers and Refugees: not in the same position / entrepreneurship

- Create the conditions for refugees to use their skills (refugees have higher skill levels than the general population in origin countries)

- Enabling refugees to become language-proficient, to get their educational and professional credentials recognised and in some cases to complement their skills with additional training – Tailor made approach is needed as cultural/educational backgrounds are very diverse

- To give asylum-seekers early access to labour market and allow them developping self-employed activities (by removing barriers to self-employment).

- Create adequate conditions for entrepreneurship. Also valid for asylum-seekers/refugees: removing administrative obstacles to entrepreneurship can prove even crucial for asylum-seekers and refugees than for EU MS citizens

- Facilitate access to finance, crucial issue for migrants including refugees – key factor to set up a business, including through microcredit

Asylum seekers/Refugee integration: what must/can be done to develop entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship is quite developed in migrant population in OECD countries

- Entrepreneurship more developed in migrant population than native (12.7% of migrants of working age are self-employed, compared with 12.0% among natives in OECD countries)

- Immigrant entrepreneurship goes beyond "ethnic business": in OECD countries, the range of activities that foreign-born self-employed undertake is now as wide as that of natives.

Even if integration might last longer than for other migrants, asylum seekers/refugees might have specific assets for developing their own businesses?

- Risk-taking aspects of entrepreneurship/migration - young population

- Experience in other countries. In Australia, nearly 10% of humanitarian migrants’ incomes in 2009-10 were generated by their own businesses, almost twice the figure recorded in other categories, such as skilled and family migrants

Specific assets of refugees /asylum seekers for entrepreneurship?