Are asylum seekers good for the economy? Yes, if they are allowed to work

When Manizha Khan first arrived in Ireland in December 2021, after fleeing life under Taliban rule in Afghanistan, it was difficult to find work, even though she had already been granted refugee status.

She was highly qualified in her field, as a former dean of dentistry at a university.

“There is such a negative attitude towards refugees at the moment, but I don’t know why because we all just want to contribute to society,” she said.

Khan’s husband found his first job in Ireland at a local SuperValu and she found work as a dental nurse, while she was in the process of registering with the dental council to become a practising dentist.

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“I was dean of a dental school for years in my country, so I didn’t want to sit at home and be on social welfare; I wanted to work. It was tough for us to change positions, but at heart we were just happy we could earn our own money, integrate and make new friends,” she said.

“I meet many asylum seekers who work in cafes or bars, who are actually highly qualified lawyers or doctors in their home countries, but it gives them pride to work there, even if it’s only an hourly rate of minimum wage. Many asylum seekers don’t like to receive social welfare, but there are lots of barriers to finding work.”

Research from other European countries shows that as asylum seekers become permanent residents, their contribution to the State outweighs the cost of initially receiving them, if they are allowed to work and supported in finding employment.

[ I live in direct provision. It’s a devastating system – and it has thrown away millions ]

A US study published in 2018, which collected data from 15 western European countries from 1985 to 2015, including Ireland, the UK, Italy, France and Germany, showed that the inflow of asylum seekers does not deteriorate the economic performance of host countries. This is because the increase in public spending from supporting asylum seekers is “more than compensated for by an increase in tax revenues”, according to the work by French researchers published in the Science Advances journal.

Asylum seekers eventually significantly increase per capita GDP, reduce unemployment and improve the balance of public finances, the study showed, with significant positive effects on GDP observed from three to seven years after their arrival.

In the UK, which imposes some of the strongest restrictions on the right to work for people applying for asylum compared with other European nations, a study showed that allowing people seeking asylum the right to work would increase tax revenue by £1.3 billion (€1.5 billion).

The State, instead of paying social welfare to highly educated people, should come up with better policies to allow refugees to integrate and contribute

It would also reduce government expenditure by £6.7 billion, increase GDP by £1.6 billion and improve the wellbeing of those individuals, the study by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research showed.

Similarly, a 2017 World Bank report estimated that increasing immigration by a margin equal to 3 per cent of the workforce in developed countries would generate global economic gains of $356 billion (€327 billion).

In Ireland, asylum seekers receive a weekly expenses payment of €38.80 per adult and €29.80 per child. In 2022, this cost the State approximately €19.3 million. The State also accommodated 6,566 international protection applicants in hotels in 2022, at a cost of approximately €165.7 million.

There is little research as of yet to show the “net contribution” of asylum seekers and refugees in Ireland over time.

Prof Alan Barrett, director of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), co-published a paper in 2011, looking at immigration and welfare receipt in Ireland, that showed, overall, immigrants were less likely to receive welfare payments than non-immigrants.

“This notion of the ‘welfare magnet’ argument doesn’t hold up in the data,” he said.

[ The direct provision system has reached its limits ]

But it was difficult to get a handle on data relating to asylum seekers specifically, because when Central Statistics Office data is being collected “very often group residential settings like nursing homes or direct provision centres tend to be omitted from sampling”.

Ireland granted asylum seekers the right to work in mid-2018. Since then, a considerable number of applicants have sought to access the labour market, with more than 12,000 applicants granted permissions up to the end of 2022, according to research published by the ESRI in March.

“There are questions as to what more could be done to put asylum seekers in touch with employment opportunities, but we don’t have a labour market integration policy in Ireland that targets asylum seekers specifically,” Emma Quinn, head of the European Migration Network Ireland, said.

Speaking about the report, Quinn said there could be “a missed opportunity in terms of labour market shortages”, as the data shows there was a “high proportion of asylum seekers of working age who were willing and applying to work” for the period between mid-2018 and the end of 2022.

A majority (80 per cent) of first-time labour market access applications were granted in that period. Most applications for renewals were also granted (94 per cent), the research showed.

But data showed that most entered low-skilled jobs, characterised by lower wages and poorer working conditions. The most commonly reported job titles were general operative – for example, in a warehouse – healthcare assistant, kitchen porter and cleaner.

For Thandi, a 36-year-old woman living in direct provision in East Wall, who preferred not to give her surname, it was “not difficult to find a job”, but she still feels “trapped” in relying on the State for housing, because asylum seekers are not provided with support systems to enable them to move out independently.

Originally from Zimbabwe, Thandi came to Ireland in March 2022 seeking asylum. She has since been granted refugee status, found a full-time job in hospitality and wants to rent but there was “nowhere for me to go”, she said.

[ Fintan O’Toole: People screaming abuse at asylum seekers are not stupid. They do it because they enjoy it ]

“It’s really difficult in East Wall. People are aggressive towards us, telling us to leave. If I could find somewhere to pay rent by myself, I would leave in the morning,” Thandi said.

There were “a lot of other people” in her centre who are working full-time and searching for somewhere to live, she said.

“It might seem to people like asylum seekers want free things and free houses from the Government, but it’s not true. Nobody wants to live like we are living.

“Right now as I talk to you, there are people washing their teeth in the kitchen sink because the shared bathroom has too many people trying to use it. It’s very overcrowded here,” she said.

“I’m really stressed and I cry every day. Housing is a big crisis in Ireland and I think that turns people against us, because they are wishing for somewhere to live too, but they are blaming us.”

Inability to access private rented housing is a “huge issue” among asylum seekers, leaving thousands reliant on the State for longer, said Brian Killoran, chief executive of the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

Efforts to integrate asylum seekers in the labour market were “heavily invested in across Europe”, particularly in Germany, he said, but not yet in Ireland.

“Germany supplements the shortages they have in their own labour market over time and reap the economic benefits of migration. It takes time, but they see the benefit of it. The difficulty here is 20 years of underinvestment in that area, particularly for refugees and asylum seekers,” he said.

The right to work itself should be looked at to “make it more stable and make people more confident in their income to allow them to leave direct provision. At the moment, it’s a short-term, renewable thing, and employers generally don’t want to hire someone for only six months,” said Killoran.

“A stable, long-term right to work would benefit both the applicant and the employers. If we had a more strategic view of migration, and invested in these measures, it would cost the State less in the long term.”

Manizha Khan from Afghanistan believes many refugees are “kept in the system even if they want to be independent”.

“I am now working as a dentist in Cork, but my brother and his wife who are qualified in medicine are still not able to work in their field here, even though there is a shortage,” she said.

“The State, instead of paying social welfare to highly educated people, should come up with better policies to allow refugees to integrate and contribute.”