By CASEY NEILL
Asylum seekers granted the right to work are building businesses and providing jobs for others.
AMES provides settlement, education, training and employment service to newly-arrived migrants and asylum seekers.
It recently completed an audit of asylum seeker clients who’d been given work rights and then started businesses.
AMES identified about 100 and it has so far documented 50, with the businesses covering retail, hospitality, clothes-making, tiling, painting, dog-walking, home maintenance, photography and more.
The audit found that many of the asylum seekers started their business when they were unable to find permanent and durable employment elsewhere.
AMES Australia CEO Cath Scarth said asylum seekers and other new arrivals to Australia faced significant barriers to joining the workforce, including a lack of English language proficiency and local work experience.
They also have trouble with Australian businesses not recognising their overseas qualifications, and not understanding Australian workplace culture and the job market.
Ms Scarth said the increasing number of asylum seekers starting businesses was “not surprising”.
“This just validates what we’ve always seen with refugees and asylum seekers; that they have strong entrepreneurial spirits,” she said.
“For more than 50 years refugees have been the backbone of entrepreneurship in Australia, helping to build this country, and nothing has changed.
“Most of the refugees we see as clients are incredibly resilient and resourceful and it comes as no surprise that many of them are striking out to start their own businesses.
“It’s also pleasing to see that many of these businesses are employing other refugees and asylum seekers.”
