Employers around the world depend upon migrant labourers, yet few take the necessary steps to integrate these essential workers into local communities. By providing community management services for migrant workers, employers can drastically reduce expensive worker turnover while bolstering productivity and social cohesion across the workforce.
From offering language support to organizing community shopping trips, here’s how employers can help migrant workers upskill and integrate themselves into local communities.
Helping Migrants Achieve Success
Business owners who depend upon migrant workers should appreciate the value which can be derived from investing in one’s workforce. In addition to serving as a kind act of charity, helping migrant workers integrate is a sound investment in the future. Governments invest in integration, yet private businesses can also take steps to improve their own talent pool. Migrant workers who better understand local languages and customs will avoid seeking work elsewhere and find it easier to attain valuable educational or professional credentials.
Helping them achieve success should thus be a priority for every business owner. Nevertheless, that’s often easier said than done. Many companies host integration seminars which produce lackluster results, leading them to ignore such investment in the future. This is a terrible mistake to make – investing in migrant communities is a long-term commitment that requires careful cultural outreach.
“Migrant workers are looking for any opportunity to learn a new skill,” notes global relocation expert and Joblio CEO Jon Purizhansky. “Workers will eagerly pursue any learning opportunity they’re afforded, benefiting everyone. We just have to be willing to meet them in the middle.”
This means hosting community support services to ensure workers and their family members grow accustomed to local norms.
Recommendations To Employers
There are many ways to help refugees and migrants integrate. Employers trying to help migrant workers assimilate should take the following steps.
Ensure migrants are housed with others who speak the same language. Far too often, migrant workers reside in cramped dwellings with other workers from different countries. Without a common language, no sense of community can develop and fights are easier to start.
Provide English language services. After ensuring migrants can speak their native tongues in their own residences, take steps to provide English language services that go further than basic proficiency. Possessing advanced literacy helps migrants consume local cultural entertainment and make friends in the area.
Provide healthy recreational activities. Organizing a community football team and providing healthy means of recreation, such as ping pong tables or access to digital entertainment, is an essential part of discouraging unhealthy habits like drinking or illegal drug use.
Organize group shopping trips. Would you be comfortable shopping by yourself in a new country for the first time? Take migrants out in groups to local shopping centers. Introduce them to popular brands and explain local norms, such as whether customers are expected to tip or how to request assistance from customer support professionals.
Provide services to women. Migrant women may be unfamiliar with local fashion and beauty customs. Introducing them to professional attire and familiarizing them with popular social customs can smooth community integration. Consider providing guidance to all parents on where to acquire children’s clothing, toys, and school supplies.
Connect successful migrants with newcomers. Finally, put newly arrived migrants in contact with successful migrant labourers from the same origin country who have integrated into the new community. These established migrant workers serve as role models for newcomers and help them deal with any problems that arise as they settle into their new homes.
Ensuring Optimal Outcomes
Employers must understand that the integration process is continuous. Workers are always learning new things about their host countries, whether they’re on the factory floor or on their way home using public transportation. Providing constant support is thus critical, as the integration process doesn’t simply end after a language certification is achieved.
“Far too often, employers think that they just have to get workers here and integration will naturally occur,” notes Jon Purizhansky. “In reality, we have to invest in migrant communities and remember their humanity rather than simply exploit them as a source of labour.”
In addition to thoroughly educating migrant workers about on-the-job conditions, employers should ensure their workers know their rights. Only after migrants are aware of their human rights and local norms can they truly integrate. Remember that government integration initiatives are often insufficient, making private sector integration efforts all the more important.
Keep these tips in mind and your company will soon be enjoying the unique insights and tireless talent of integrated migrant workers who are proud members of your community.
About Joblio, Inc: Joblio is a leading technology platform in the global migrant labour industry based in Miami, FL. Chaired by David Arkless, Former Global President of the ManpowerGroup, Joblio was founded by Jon Purizhansky in 2020. Joblio prevents fraud and ensures compliance with labour laws in the processes of human capital relocation across the world. By directly connecting migrant labourers with their employers, Joblio removes middlemen from the hiring process to ensure fair and prosperous employment. In 2021, Joblio received the “Excellence Innovation Award in Human Rights Protection” Award from the Abrahamic Business Circle.