Nearly half of the refugees in the country do not have a formal job in national territory. This problem has caused some concern, so different authorities have come together to create a plan and provide work solutions to this population.
In total there are 4,500 refugees in Costa Rica, but almost half have not managed to join the Costa Rican labor market.
Miguel Urbano, Officer of Durable Solutions of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (SCNUR), said that historically, Costa Rica has always been an important destination for refugees. In 2016, more than 6,000 applications were received from people who want to flee their countries to live in Costa Rica for political or security issues.
In 2017, the requests of people who are in risk situations in their countries and see Costa Rica as the best place to live increased considerably, especially due to Venezuelan, Salvadorian, Colombian and Nicaraguan requests.
The “live integration” program was formulated in 2014 and now, together with the Ministry of Labor, a strategy is formulated to facilitate employment and technical training.
The Deputy Minister of Labor, Juan Alfaro, explained that there are several ways to facilitate the opportunities for this population. For example, they may start working for some of different platforms of the entity.