
Show HN: Helping refugees finding a job - arjnulrich
http://www.fujobee.com
======
arjnulrich
Hi there, based on the story of OldGeekJobs.com by John Wheeler I've created
this site with vacancies for refugees with a residence/work permit. Posting to
the site would indicate that the company acknowledges the refugee's education
level. Work is the best way to integrate and we don't want their skills go to
waste.

~~~
johnwheeler
I know a refugee is someone looking for "refuge" because something bad
happening in their country, but it's not apparent why I'd want to hire one
other than being charitable.

Would I get a tax break? Would I get someone who is willing to work harder and
accept lower wages? While the latter might sound like exploitation, it might
not be if you're building a two-sided marketplace that gives people chances
they otherwise wouldn't have.

People and businesses are very self-serving. What is the benefit for employers
other than charity? Unfortunately (in the U.S. at least), businesses aren't
charitable. And, even when they are, the charity is often accompanied by self-
serving motives. But it's actually a very effective system: companies get tax
breaks, public goodwill, and advertising in exchange for helping people who
need it. I think you'd need to focus on incorporating those benefits into your
message somehow.

Companies posting on Old Geeks aren't being charitable. Some have internal
diversity mandates, some are run by older people who aren't allowed to
discriminate but are allowed to post on venues promoting diversity. Etc.

~~~
arjnulrich
You're right that people and businesses are self-serving. In The Netherlands
we see that refugees don't want to work for lower wages because they will have
to contribute to the shelter as soon as they start making money. This morning
an article was published stating that someone who would work on a farm for a
month would have only €169 to spend after paying the shelter for housing them.
So there's definitely work to be done.

Regarding businesses, they do get subsidized when they hire a refugee or
someone who has been unemployed over a longer period of time. In addition to
that, businesses hiring more than 30% from these groups can mention that
they're an MVO business (Social Responsible Business). These companies have
extra training and/or extra support.

Having that said: it's like you said "tax breaks, public goodwill,
advertising.

I will see how I can get the message more clear on the website. Thanks for
your response!

~~~
johnwheeler
> In addition to that, businesses hiring more than 30% from these groups can
> mention that they're an MVO business (Social Responsible Business). These
> companies have extra training and/or extra support.

Ok that's fantastic -- there you go. I don't think there's something
equivalent in the U.S. which is why I was ignorant.

Quick question - can you share your stack and what host you use (as much as
reasonable for you)? Reason I'm asking is because I'm putting together a
project that's aim is to let you deploy to live on day one (sort of like a
PaaS like Heroku or App Engine allows you to do, but the difference is you can
use your own VM like Digital Ocean). It's aimed at people doing MVPs, and I'm
trying to get a sense of what people like you/me are doing.

[https://github.com/johnwheeler/startup-
starter](https://github.com/johnwheeler/startup-starter)

~~~
arjnulrich
Yeah sure, all I have done so far is:

1\. Google Form for posting a job 2\. refugeejobs.wordpress.com at WordPress
3\. Fujobee.com and .eu at GoDaddy 4\. fujobee@gmail.com at Gmail

Regarding Gmail: I'm using fujobee+.....@gmail.com to test (and possibly also
automate) a few things.

------
eb0la
Getting a decent job is Key to integration.

I guess some refugees are on the way to another place. If they can have a
temporal job meanwhile and have references from someone that can talk good
about them, that could _also_ make a difference.

Great idea.

Thanks for trying to change the world for good.

~~~
arjnulrich
Thanks for your response! In Europe, the first country you register yourself
as a refugee is the country you will have to stay in. However, it would be
more useful to let them move to other countries within the EU (which I can
easily do as a European citizen) if there's a perfect job match.

