WITH little to no English, finding employment can be a struggle for refugees.
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As 200 of them prepare to settle in Armidale over the next year, councillor Peter Bailey is determined to help.
Talking to local business owners at Acacia Park, Cr Bailey is trying to facilitate trades opportunities for refugees.
“Most of the businesses at Acacia Park are heavy intensive manufacturing businesses – I spoke with Uniplan and Aspen Interiors,” Cr Bailey said.
“Both employ a lot of tradespeople and a lot of what I call “para-tradespeople”, people that are just handy with their hands.
“They struggle all the time to find skilled people, I asked the question as to whether they would look at refugees.”
Uniplan co-owner Ben Scott said employing refugees is something he would consider.
“We obviously have a pretty broad section of roles across our company, we’re a company of 120 staff,” Mr Scott said.
“I’m certainly not opposed to putting those opportunities to refugees.”
Escaping conflict in Iraq and Syria, the families are Kurmani Kurdish speakers that practice the ancient faith of Yaizidism.
In November, Armidale Regional Council pledged to steer the welcoming committee.
Settlement Services International is the organisation responsible for settling the families that will arrive in February.
Manager of humanitarian settlement Yamama Agha said finding employment is one of the biggest challenges they will face.
Most worked as engineers, bakers, doctors or teachers in their home country.
“Refugees bring a lot of skills and experience with them,” Ms Agha said.
“Even if they are skilled refugees in some cases we find that they actually can’t find meaningful employment.”
Cr Peter Bailey said Uniplan and Aspen Interiors said they would definitely look at hiring refugees.
“They’re happy to work with refugee groups to see if they can facilitate employment,” he said.
“A lot of these people do come from poor backgrounds and will take time to integrate into society – the best way to do that is working.
“I think it’s up to us to make them feel welcome and see what we can do to assist them in gaining employment.”
Settlement Services International will open an office in Armidale mid-January. The first eight families will arrive in February.