Video: A highlights reel of the Global Refugee Labour Mobility Summit 2023.

Earlier this month, TBB was honored to co-host (with our friends at Fragomen) the first ever Global Refugee Labour Mobility Summit in Amman, Jordan. The event was supported by UNHCR and the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility.

This historic summit was the first convening of the global community working to dramatically expand skilled migration pathways for displaced talent.

The week-long event involved more than 200 participants from more than 30 countries, including representatives from 12 employers and recruitment organizations, 30 NGOs, 8 Governments, and 4 UN agencies, as well as refugees with lived expertise, donors, policy experts, and researchers. 

There were more than 1,400 views of the event livestream. You can read detailed daily recaps of the Summit here. 

Why a Summit?

It was a dream to see this event come to fruition. Talent Beyond Boundaries has a singular motivation: to build a world where displaced people can safely migrate for work, using their skills to rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose. Since our inception we have known this mission could not be achieved by any single organization alone - as it requires changing the systems and practices of many. 

We hoped this Summit, bringing together so many committed employers, governments and supporters, would help spark the kinds of collaborations and commitments we know are needed to scale refugee labour mobility programs so that thousands and ultimately millions of displaced people can safely migrate for work.

“Canada appreciates the efforts of Talent Beyond Boundaries and Fragomen to plan this important event to engage with stakeholders around the world to expand refugee access to third-country solutions that are additional to existing resettlement commitments. The Summit offered the opportunity to exchange technical advice, identify ways to improve and scale up existing programs, and discuss how to support new initiatives to take root and grow.”
Cindy Munro
Minister-Counsellor for Migration and Refugee Affairs, Government of Canada

Actions and commitments

We’re happy to report that lively discussions at the Summit led to many concrete outcomes and commitments from participants. Here are just some of the commitments made: 

• New recruitment opportunities: The UK Department of Health and Social Care committed to using learnings from the highly successful recruitment of refugee nurses into the UK to look at designing a similar pathway for doctors and other healthcare professionals. Several recruitment and refugee job matching organizations committed to stepping up their role, including Community Corporate who committed to leverage their employer networks and partners to open up recruitment opportunities for displaced candidates in Australia. 

• New projects to unlock scale: Tech company Iress has committed to lead a group of employers (including representatives from Animal Logic, Dora Construction, NHS, and Vialto) to develop an online, self-serve cost/benefit tool to assist employers in making the business case for investing in hiring displaced talent. This will be critical to demonstrate to employers, in financial terms, the considerable value proposition on offer. Our co-host and committed partner Fragomen also pledged to support a number of new initiatives, including assisting TBB to measure impact of refugee labour mobility programs globally and leveraging their personnel globally to assist with intaking new registrants on the Talent Catalog. Several refugee-serving organisations from around the world - including organisations in Ghana, Israel, India and Uganda and across the Asia-Pacific region - committed to creating and expanding programs to support refugees to access labour mobility pathways.

• New training initiatives for refugees:  Re:Coded committed to expanding their training opportunities (including immersive coding and design bootcamps) to help place thousands of refugees into sustainable employment opportunities in the digital economy over the next 10 years. Orange and Kiron also pledged to provide capacity building support, and Luminus Education committed to preparing cohorts of refugee youth to meet employment needs and requirements. UNHCR, TBB and several businesses in attendance agreed to collaborate with training providers to guide them in developing the kinds of courses that will produce graduates needed in high-demand industries around the world.

• Funding for new programs and finance for refugees moving on skilled pathways: Windmill Microlending committed to providing affordable loans and wrap-around support to all candidates moving to Canada through the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (critical given candidates need financial support on arrival). Cameron Foundation committed to providing new funding to Finn Church Aid kickstart a program to help refugees in Uganda move on labour pathways.

Employers leading the way

Employers who attended the Summit are leading the way in hiring and promoting refugee labour mobility to other employers.

As part of the Summit, we hosted a job fair that put almost 100 local refugee candidates in front of employers from Australia, Canada, and the UK who flew to Amman to conduct in-person interviews. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback from recruiting employers on the quality of the talent put forward.

Since the Summit, participating employers have issued offers or expressed their intention to issue job offers to at least 75 refugee candidates, with several more candidates in the process of follow up interviews to determine their suitability for current roles.

Some businesses who participated have already hired several candidates through TBB’s program, like Iress:

“Iress was grateful to have the chance to participate in TBB's Global Refugee Labor Mobility Summit in Amman. There is a humanitarian driver behind our involvement: to help people who have lost everything - jobs, homes, community and country. There is also a commercial driver: a global shortage of skills means Iress, like many companies, needs to use new ways to find talented people. These two drivers are complimentary. Bridging the value across both and helping other companies understand the full impact is our commitment”.
Peter Ferguson
CLO, Iress

It was also wonderful to have several representatives of the UK Department of Health and Social Care, NHS England as well as NHS Professionals at the Summit who together lead our Displaced Nursing Talent projects. During the week, the consortium supported NHS Trusts in issuing job offers to 65 refugee nurses who will be placed in various locations across the UK. 

“The Department of Health and Social Care is delighted to have supported the NHS displaced talent pilot to bring refugee nurses to work in the NHS. The care these nurses provide to patients in the NHS is life changing. We are grateful for their skills and service, and hope they go far in their NHS careers. On a personal level, it was heartening at the Summit to see the groundswell of support to further global mobility for displaced people.  I am keen to further explore how displaced talent in other professions could support our workforce needs.”
Rhian Wells
Senior Policy Advisor, International Workforce - NHS Workforce Supply, Department of Health and Social Care

Others were employers with whom we are building an exciting new relationship, like Macleod Group Health Services and Dora Construction in Nova Scotia, Canada, who both interviewed candidates and are partnering with TBB on an ongoing basis to hire refugee candidates as a key component of their recruitment strategies. 

Dora Construction is in the process of finalizing job offers for candidates they interviewed at the Job Fair:  

“We have successfully identified and selected candidates that match our specific needs and are extending employment offers for them to join our team in Canada. At DORA Construction, our commitment to building communities is ingrained in our work culture, and we take pride in cultivating strong relationships with our international team members. As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance our workforce, partnering with TBB has provided us with a valuable opportunity to continue to evolve and improve in this regard”.
Betsy Sisco
Recruiter at DORA Construction, Halifax

I’m excited to see so many businesses committed to working with us to scale this solution - both for their own benefit and for the positive social impact it will create. 

Progress of the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility 

On the sidelines of the Summit, the Government of Canada also convened the members of the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility, which includes the Australian Government, UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Talent Beyond Boundaries, RefugePoint, the International Chamber of Commerce, Fragomen, and its newest member - the European Commission. The International Organization of Employers (IOE) also participated as a key representative of employers globally. 

The Task Force agreed to convene a Network on Refugee Labour Mobility to help steer and advise the TaskForce and continue to inform and inspire more stakeholders to get involved in this work. So far, 40 organizations and individuals have signed up to the Network, which UNHCR and the Government of Canada have agreed to coordinate on behalf of the Task Force. Organizations can register their interest in joining the Network here.

During the Summit, Australia’s Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Andrew Giles committed to using Australia’s role on the Task Force to promote and assist other governments to develop their own refugee labour mobility pathways. Commissioner Ylva Johansson also announced the European Commission’s membership of the Task Force, committed the full support of the European Union to opening up labour pathways for refugees to Europe, and pledged European Commission funding to promote complementary pathways linked to work. TBB is now in active discussions to open pathways in more European countries, encouraged by conversations with representatives from Germany, Italy, Greece and Belgium at the Summit.

Video: Summit keynote by Australia’s Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs, the Hon Andrew Giles.

Video: Summit keynote by European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson.

Refugee leadership at the Summit

I was particularly excited to have dozens of leaders in attendance at the conference who are current or former refugees themselves, able to share their reflections, analysis and recommendations from a place of lived expertise. Unfortunately, not all of the leaders we had hoped could be here were allowed to travel due to their legal status - some were denied visas, and one senior NGO leader was even turned away from the Jordanian border despite having a visa. This underscores just how precarious it is to travel through the world as a refugee - and why it is so important we all work together to change the systems that lock refugees out of regular mobility and migration pathways. Fortunately all the individuals prevented from joining in person were able to participate via video conference - and made a powerful impact. 

The Summit was opened and closed respectively by two inspiring individuals with their own lived refugee experiences. Bahati Maganjo, who moved to Canada as a nurse through the EMPP and is now consulting with RefugePoint, opened the Summit by helping us focus on the central importance of work:

“In the 27 years that I was a refugee, I did not see many being valued for the skills that they had. And this is something that is really deeply ingrained in our identity. We as human beings not only derive a paycheck from our jobs, but our sense of wellbeing. Our sense of belonging. Our self esteem. But refugees are forced to let go of this part of our human identity … I would like us all to reflect on how much strength it takes to live such a life. I want you all to take stock of the privileges that you have. That you can work in your chosen field. That you can change fields. That you are able to move freely to pursue work opportunities.”
Bahati Maganjo
EMPP Consultant, RefugePoint

These basic freedoms to work and make a contribution should never be denied - and yet they are denied to refugees so often. 

Mustafa Alio, the founder of Refugee Jumpstart in Canada and now Co-Managing Director of R-SEAT (Refugees Seeking Equal Access at the Table), closed the Summit with a call to action to change this unacceptable status quo: 

“Economic pathways for refugees are not only good business sense, but also save lives. They have ripple effects on the families and communities of those who secure employment. Let us leave this conference feeling inspired and committed - for refugees and with refugees”.
Mustafa Alio
Founder, Refugee Jumpstart & Co-Managing Director, R-SEAT.

Mustafa rounded out this call to action with a commitment from R-SEAT to support refugee-led organisations to promote and participate in refugee labour mobility programs. 

We also heard from Ali Wawi and Derar Alkhateeb, themselves TBB alumni, now representing Pathway Club - a groundbreaking new refugee-led initiative providing displaced people with pre-departure financial support to enable them to take advantage of international career opportunities.

Thank you

We’re so happy with the results of the Summit and excited to build from here to  scale refugee labour mobility in the coming years. My sincere thanks to everyone involved, especially:

• Fragomen for co-hosting the event and for your incredible financial and in-kind support to TBB and passionate commitment to the mission of opening displaced talent mobility pathways globally. 

• All the employers who came to Jordan and participated actively and met with candidates, and particularly Iress who also provided financial support to enable the Summit to go ahead!

• UNHCR for your support of the Summit and the job fair, and your tireless support of refugees. 

• The Government of Canada for its financial support to the conference and critical leadership of the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility, and to our fellow members of the Task Force for your commitment and leadership.

• To the refugees and former refugees, stateless and displaced leaders who participated - both in-person and virtually - and who are driving this solution forward one job at a time… 

• To the amazing TBB team who made this mammoth event possible.

Thank you!