OPEN founder Philippe Legrain was quoted extensively about the economic contribution of refugees in Lisbeth Kirk’s article for EUObserver on how to integrate refugees into the economy.
Philippe Legrain, a former economics adviser to the European Commission, said there were quite a few businesses being proactive and recruiting refugees, but overall they needed to do more.
He has led one of the first comprehensive, international studies on how refugees can contribute to advanced economies for the Tent Alliance, a foundation aimed at helping displaced people, set up by billionaire yoghurt producer Hamdi Ulukaya and supported by among others Airbnb, the IKEA Foundation, LinkedIn, MasterCard, UPS and Western Union.
“In order for business to do more, governments need to put in place the right policies,” Legrain told EUobserver.
“It should be possible for asylum seekers to come to work while their application is being processes and to speed up the processes. They need to make sure their qualifications are recognised quickly or that courses are provided that you can require equivalent,” he said.“Government and businesses need to work together.”