A Munich Start-Up Social Bee Is Addressing Woes of Refugees in Finding Employment

It’s hard to lead a life as a refugee. Even as one succeeds in finding temporary political asylum in another country, the fact that one needs to adopt to the host country’s culture, beliefs, socio-economic molds exacts a mighty challenge from the displaced; one who has come to seek refuge in another country. Moreover, there exist myriad concerns such as challenges with grappling with the language of that host nation. Then, what is one to do in order to feed himself and his family? There lurks in broad daylight the mortal fear of refugees grappling with unemployment.

In Europe’s commercial and economic heartland- Germany- there are about an estimated five hundred thousand refugees are on the job market. These are young, talented individuals who with a little bit of care, mentoring or guidance can go a long way to fulfill a dual role in their lives. First, that of making themselves employable and second, to contribute to the national economy that is hosting these refugees. But now, it seems, there is hope for displaced people who are searching for employment in some parts of Germany.

A Munich, Bavaria-based startup has founded a nonprofit temping agency that aims to assist the refugees who are desperately seeking some form of employment. In today’s times rife with economic decay and joblessness, it is nothing less than benevolent to help make an individual employable. In this light, the remarkable work done by Munich’s Social-Bee in aligning refugees with regards to a job matching their key skill and talent is laudable. After seeing hundreds and thousands of refugees in Germany being excluded from the national scene encompassing its labour market- two individuals- Maximilian Felsner and Zarah Bruhn- founded Social Bee.

The main purpose behind the creation of Social Bee is to provide a bridge to cover the gap between the labour market and the employable audience. Refugees and asylum-seekers are specifically hired so they can be transferred to partner companies. But how does employment take place, it ought to be asked. Co-founder Felsner explained, “ The refugees are given language training and socio- pedagogical support. In addition, the said prospects are also provided with a regular salary from the start-up company, where the pumping of finances is happening owing to the noble efforts of some charitable institutions.

How the said system aims to bring about a change in the refugees job market is to completely eradicate bureaucratic hurdles for the partner companies beforehand and deal with asylum issues that flower from time to time. One reckons, when it comes to hiring a refugee, then the challenge is to identify and relate with an individual who, with all due respect, is an absolute stranger to a company’s way of being and functioning. How difficult it must be for organisations to recruit refugees when they just aren’t oriented with the said individuals? This is where Social-Bee is stepping in acting as a buffer and helping in preparing employees to understand a company and vice-versa. If this isn’t a brilliant initiation toward Diversity+Inclusiveness then what is?