EMN National Conference on Syrian Resettlement: Learning from the past to design a sustainable resettlement programme for Syrian refugees in the United Kingdom, London, 28 January 2016

The aim of the conference was to discuss the best practices in the area of resettlement of Syrian refugees and to identify and possibly design a suitable resettlement programme for the integration of the Syrian refugees in the UK based on the previous experience. The UK has committed itself to accept 20 000 Syrian refugees and thus it is inevitable for the country to adjust the processes towards a successful and sustainable integration.

The conference focused on the following topics: pre-arrival, preparation and reception of Syrian refugees; UK’s experiences of resettling refugees and good practices; employment and the importance of ESOL (English for speakers of other language) for the integration.

The conference was officially opened by Paul Morrison, Director of the Syrian Resettlement Programme from the UK Visas and Immigration Home Office followed by an introduction by Richard Harrington, Minister with responsibility for Syrian refugees.

With regard to the pre-arrival, preparation and reception of the refugees it was agreed that the whole process of resettlement starts early before the arrival and needs to be carried out thoroughly. Participants discussed how service providers can share information. A careful selection and identification of the vulnerable or the ones with specific needs is of utmost importance in order to provide help before the arrival and immediately after. Medical checks should provide necessary information as to the health condition of each person in pre-arrival period. There is a need to keep even the larger families together and preferably place them in the towns and cities despite the current practice of dividing families of more than 7 family members for practical reasons. Cultural orientations courses should prepare the persons to ensure the most realistic expectations of the refugees from the country.

Resettlement programme Gateway in the UK is one of the most significant programmes for vulnerable groups assisting them via a caseworker for initial 12 months and arranging them the accommodation. The representative from Gateway highlighted the need to place the refugees within the existing communities but preventing the creation of large isolated communities in some larger towns and cities. The consideration of a long term perspective and outreach of services is also important to ensure their independence and self-sufficiency. In this regard it was identified that the trained local volunteers and involvement of Syrian diaspora can be particularly helpful. Timely and accurate information flow and maximisation of the use of befriending schemes are the most crucial within this field. More attention should be placed at the availability of psychological help to refugees after their arrival to the UK.

Immigration and resettlement is not a new phenomenon within the UK but it is important for the UK to keep their programmes flexible and up-to-date built on the previous experience and good practices eliminating the shortcomings. The UK can also draw the experience from the integration of 20 000 Vietnamese in the 1970s who were placed in town and cities where social housing was provided but the outreach of services and possibilities for employment were poor causing an 80% unemployment.

Alongside formal ESOL provision, less formal routes of language acquisition could be encouraged. Intense and free language courses especially for the vulnerable groups of women who have limited access to language preparation as they do not apply or cannot apply for jobs. Standardisation of the language trainings and adjustment according to various age groups as well as help from the volunteer sector additionally to the formal language trainings can support the preparation of the refugees for long term integration and employment. Professional skills acquired before should not disappear within the language incompetence of the job seekers.

Employment shows to be particularly problematic due to lengthy and costly procedures of recognising the obtained qualifications. The representative of Horton Housing Association highlighted the most striking difficulty refugees are facing in terms of financial integration and employment – isolation in the place of lack of opportunities resulting into high competitiveness for jobs. Solutions could be to support the programmes that provide specific language trainings for e.g. engineers and more effective recognition of obtained qualifications for easier access of highly-qualified refugees to the job market. The conference also discussed the use of incentives to encourage employers to hire refugees. These could include providing clearer guidance to employers on hiring refugees, facilitating access to loans to develop professional skills, providing assistance to enable qualification conversion along with other types of incentives.

Among other conclusions, the key markers of successful integration were summed up at the conference as follows: effective pre-arrival preparation, improved language ability, meaningful opportunities for employment, improved health, stable housing and positive community engagement, standardised and meaningful indicators, baseline measurement for comparison of indicators, long term evaluative approach. Due to these expert presentations and sharing of the best practices at this conference, the UK has been able to identify its strengths and weaknesses and obtain a set of further recommendations how to improve its capacities and eliminate the weaknesses for ensuring a successful integration of Syrian refugees.

Elaborated from the Conference Conclusions and Summary prepared by the EMN National Contact Point for the United Kingdom with the support of the European Commission and the EMN Service Provider (ICFI).