Dive Brief:
- Sweden and Finland, both with a strong need for tech workers, are providing Syrian programmers refuge and jobs.
- People in the two countries have also connected asylum seekers with investors.
- The two countries are experiencing the biggest inflow of refugees they have seen in years.
Dive Insight:
Last year, approximately 163,000 refugees applied for asylum in Sweden, compared with 80,000 applicants in 2014. Meanwhile, Finland stated 32,000 asylum seekers in 2015 compared to 3,651 applicants in 2014. Because the two countries depend on taxes paid by people with jobs to provide a plethora of services to their citizens, helping asylum seekers find work quickly benefits all.
Several services have been launched to assist in the effort, including LinkedIn, which created welcometalent.se to help refugees search for jobs.
"They will not depend on social services," M. "Dish" Eldishnawy, founder of Finnish big data company Floralytics, told CNet, referring to the refugees. "They'll be perceived as a valuable resource."
