The EconomistNovember 23rd 2019 Business 592
Bartleby Go to work on an egg
Economist.com/blogs/bartlebyM
ohammed rahimehleft Damascus
in December 2015, rather than be
conscripted into the Syrian army. His
journey to London took him through
Lebanon and Greece and included 11
months in the notorious “Jungle” camp
in Calais. Despite leaving Syria with no
cooking qualifications or English skills,
he is now in the process of setting up a
food business in Britain.
History is replete with immigrants
who have brought economic skills with
them, from the Flemish weavers who
came to England in the 14th century to
the millions of Europeans who emigrat-
ed to America in the late 19th. Today’s
migrants also have plenty to offer, if only
the authorities will let them work.
While he was waiting for his asylum
claim to be processed in Britain, Mr
Rahimeh wasn’t allowed to take a job. But
he did develop his cooking skills, focus-
ing on a recipe involving eggs, onions,
tomatoes and spices. With the help of
Alexandra Simmons, a volunteer he had
met in Calais, he set up Mo’s Eggs, a
business that offered a Syrian brunch. He
was able to take advantage of a trend for
pop-up restaurants, venues that only
exist for a day every week or month.
The first site was a pizza restaurant in
Archway, in north London, and his first
event was Ms Simmons’s 30th birthday
party. He served around 60 people every
month until the venue closed, but will
soon open a new place in Tooting Broad-
way, in the south of the city. In the inter-
im, he has been working at a market stall
to learn more about the food trade.
This is what immigrants tend to do;
they work hard so they can rebuild their
lives and they spot niches in the market
that others might miss. A similar path
was followed by Majeda Khoury, a hu-
man-rights activist who made her wayfrom Damascus to Britain. She learned to
cook thanks to a charity called Migrateful
and prepares food associated with differ-
ent Syrian cities; a favourite dish in Da-
mascus, harak osbao, features lentils and
pasta with tamarind, coriander, garlic and
pomegranate molasses. Now she runs
catering at big events for charities that
want to focus on Syria.
Both Ms Khoury and Mr Rahimeh bene-
fited from sales and marketing training by
the Enterpreneurial Refugee Network
(tern), a charity. Charlie Fraser, tern’s
co-founder, says the aim is to launch 1,000
refugee-led businesses in Britain by 2025.
It is very hard for refugees to start a
business when they cannot leave the
camps in the first place. Paul Hutchings is
trying to help those people who are stuck.
He used to be a market researcher, before
going to Calais to help refugees in 2008. In
2016 he set up Refugee Support, another
charity, which has been involved in camps
in Bangladesh, Cyprus, Greece and Mexico.
The model is to promote dignity rather
than dependence; instead of just handing
out food and clothes, the charity set up ashop. It created tokens so residents could
buy their own things. Dina Nayeri, a
former refugee, says this is very impor-
tant; at one camp she attended, people
had to search through piles of old clothes
that were dumped on the floor. Ms
Nayeri says that many refugees struggle
with trauma, feelings of shame and
inferiority and the expectations of other
people that they should always be grate-
ful. After she made it to America, Ms
Nayeri became a writer, publishing two
novels and a non-fiction book, “The
Ungrateful Refugee”.
Dignity also requires that refugees
find work. If they stay in the camps, they
qualify for grants from the eubut the
risk, Mr Hutchings says, is that they
become institutionalised. At first, Refu-
gee Support tried to give microloans to
let people set up small businesses. But
this ran into a regulatory brick wall.
So instead, Mr Hutchings rented a
building, now called the Dignity Centre,
where people can learn skills. One of the
projects is a sewing co-operative which
has 18 machines, where refugees make
bags, cushion covers and aprons. The
charity provides the material, machines
and electricity and sells the goods online
at Refumade.org; each item comes with a
message about the person who made it.
The sewing workers are mostly women.
For the men, the charity has set up a
bicycle-sharing scheme in Cyprus to help
them find work away from the camps.
The refugees Bartleby spoke to had
undergone an immense struggle to reach
their current position. Their determina-
tion to make something of their lives was
truly striking. That is the kind of work
ethic any company, and any country,
ought to value.Helping refugees into employmentthe eu’s 28 members, 18 have pledged to
emit no net carbon by 2050. Germany says
it will stop using coal by 2038 and stump up
€40bn to ease the transition. This should
increase demand for renewables. But these
same policies—and German politics—are
creating uncertainty for rwe, says Mr Arie.
rweis demanding a chunk of the tran-
sition pot. It still runs three lignite mines,
which directly employ 9,900 people and
indirectly support another 20,000 jobs in
the Rhine region. Mr Schmitz assumes
most of the three gigawatts the govern-
ment plans to phase out by 2023 will comefrom these mines. It may cost €1.2bn-1.5bn
for every gigawatt—much less, he says,
than the €28bn Germany spends each year
on renewable-energy subsidies. In order to
make his case, he shuttles several times a
week from rwe’s headquarters in Essen to
Berlin for talks with ministers.
Resolving the standoff at “Hambi”
could be especially expensive. Last October
a court ordered a halt to the clearing of its
remaining 200 hectares (a thirtieth of its
original extent). Mr Schmitz says the forest
could be left as it is—but at a price. It may
cost the company €1.5bn or so to find an al-ternative to a planned expansion of an
open-pit mine at Hambach.
Investors have remained bullish on
rwe, whose share price is up by a third this
year. But Mr Schmitz is not quite out of the
woods. This month rwe’s profit forecast
for the renewables business undershot an-
alysts’ estimates. Much hinges on those
frequent trips to Berlin. Insiders describe
the tone of the discussions as ruppig (gruff )
at times. rwe says agreement is “not yet
imminent”. It is hoping for one by the end
of the year. With winter upon them, Ham-
bach’s tree-huggers must be, too. 7