“Living the integration” is an initiative launched in Costa Rica by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) also known as the UN Refugee Agency in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Labour; this initiative has the goal of offering work options to refugees in Costa Rica.

Refugees are all those people that are forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution or natural disasters; Costa Rica is the country in Central America that receives more refugees and it takes second place in Latin America only after Ecuador.

According to UNHCR in Costa Rica there are approximately 12,500 refugees and close to 6,500 requests. The majority of the refugees come from Colombia, but the number of Venezuelans continues to increase and in this 2017 the majority of the requests, a 47% come from Venezuela natives; in second place are natives from El Salvador with a 28%; Colombians with 13%; natives from Honduras represent a 4% of the requests and Cubans a 3%.

The number of unemployed refugees is a concern, since there are 25% of them unemployed and 20% of the ones that do have a job work in the informal sector.

As it was mentioned, the purpose of the initiative Living the integration is to promote the social and economic integration of refugees, trying to educate companies and employers in the private sector with regards to the legal situation of a refugee which many times is not clear and becomes an obstacle in the search for jobs; another problem has to do with the recognition of the education degrees or certifications provided in their native country.

Private companies that participate in this program will receive a recognition form the Government and the UNHCR. Refugees and companies can take part of this initiative by filling the forms in the webpage www.vivirlaintegracion.cr