Why everything politicians tell you about young refugees is wrong

Far from being a drain on the state, refugee children outperform their classmates in school and are more likely to apply for jobs at top firms when they leave

Children who have made their way to Britain through Europe after fleeing country are more likely to thrive in school and into young adulthood, research shows (AFP/Getty)

Once again, immigration and education are two of the biggest themes dominating a general election campaign. And once again, the true facts about these issues aren’t the first things you hear during political hustings.

Recent research carried out by Rare sheds some light on the debate. Students from just 10 schools in the UK (mostly private schools) apply to as many jobs at leading employers as all the students from the entire lowest performing 10 per cent of schools in the UK combined. And grammar schools, popular once again with the Conservative Party, actually depress job applications from comprehensive school students in their local areas – even applications from students at high achieving comprehensive schools. So much for helping those who are “just about managing”.

But there’s more. The same data we gathered shows that refugee children, far from being misfits or a drain on the state, actually have the highest average academic outperformance of any group of students.

How do we know this? Rare compiles data to help recruiters understand not just the superficial facts of a candidate’s CV (her exam results, internships, and so on) but also the socioeconomic circumstances in which they grew up, and the extent to which they may have vaulted significant obstacles along the way that others with the same qualifications simply didn't face.

We have data on more than 100,000 job candidates, and we can use this to analyse the various categories of disadvantage – having been on free school meals, for example, or having spent time in care – against job applications and success rates. Our latest crunch of the data shows that refugee children achieve the highest average outperformance of any group in our sample.

Everywhere, we see evidence of refugee childrens’ grit and determination. They are three times more likely than other students to switch to better schools between GCSE and A Levels – something that other disadvantaged people often do. Nor do refugee children necessarily have the advantage of a strong family background. On the contrary, many had entered the UK unaccompanied by parents or other family members. The young refugees in our sample (some 600) were six times more likely than other care leavers to make applications to top firms.

Could the refugee experience in itself give these young job candidates additional determination to better their lives? Perhaps.

I shared a podium a few days ago with an inspirational young man, once an 11-year-old asylum seeker from war torn Sierra Leone and now an asset finance lawyer at a top London law firm. He went to a low performing inner city school (it was in special measures and later closed down), but put his head down in class and worked hard. Not getting distracted by “kids standing on the tables” was easy after experiencing civil war, he remarked. Above all, he was aware of the life chance that going to school here had given him. And he didn’t want to waste it.

Some politicians, especially during election campaigns, hint that people like this are taking advantage of Britain. The evidence from our data is that, overall, refugees appreciate the opportunities offered by a life here and have plenty to give back. Thankfully, many of Britain's top employers agree. We often hear that candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds are unusually resilient: they can be better at handling the challenges of demanding jobs.

In fact, it may be that in the final reckoning it is actually less of a risk to hire candidates once seen as “unconventional”. That means the future is very bright for Britain's young refugees. That's a message that politicians should be sharing.

Raph Mokades is the founder and managing director of Rare, a recruitment company which focuses on diversity