Refugees’ integration into the labour market

The State’s legal obligation towards refugees comprises granting protection and conferring post-determination rights. This chapter queries how the UK discharges its legal obligation to facilitate refugees’ engagement with work and whether it contributes towards their ‘othering’. It examines the Syrian Vulnerable Persons Resettlement Scheme (VPRS) as a case-study, assessing how ‘resettled’ refugees access support to labour market integration through various organisations and actors, comparing the support provided to them with the assistance available to ‘recognised’ refugees. The latter are those who have reached the UK by their own endeavours, applied for asylum, and been granted refugee status. The study has demonstrated how diverse networks of organisations and state actors facilitate or inhibit refugees’ access to the labour market, counterbalancing State actions on integration