A Displaced Talent Visa in the UK

Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) has expanded into a new frontier: the United Kingdom. In the wake of Brexit, UK immigration is being totally redesigned. We are proposing that a new Displaced Talent Visa pathway be created to level the playing field for refugees and other forcibly displaced people.

After thorough scoping between 2017 and 2019, we ran a trial of TBB’s labour mobility model in the UK with great success. Through our program Iress, a multi-national financial software company, offered employment to Khalaf, a Syrian Software Engineer, in the Cheltenham offices. Using the Tier 2 (General) visa, Khalaf, his wife and two young daughters were lifted out of displacement from Lebanon in August 2019 when they moved to the UK. The family has flourished since their arrival. In Khalaf’s words: 

“There is freedom and the law is applicable to everyone. The UK is a good place." 

Khalaf’s case proved that labour mobility of forcibly displaced people was possible in the UK. So, we established a presence in London in March 2020.  Despite the chaos and fog of the global pandemic and uncertainty around the consequences of Brexit, it is clear that we are presented with a once in a generation opportunity. We are on a mission to level the playing field for forcibly displaced people so they can compete fairly in the international labour market, using their own skills to change their fortunes.  

It is now or never. We are in the right place at the right time.

The starting point is this: there is not a level playing field in migration frameworks around the world, including the UK. Forcibly displaced people are faced with obstacles that stem directly from the circumstances of displacement. These obstacles can be overcome through creative, pragmatic and compassionate reform to immigration frameworks either by enhancing flexibility or by creating bespoke pathways for skilled people who are in need of international protection.

We have been working with the Bishop of Durham, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, the Refugee, Asylum and Migrant Policy (RAMP) Project and Fragomen to propose the creation of either a Displaced Talent Visa or a Displaced Talent stream to the existing Tier 2 visa programme in the UK. The proposal for a Displaced Talent Visa has been enthusiastically received. 

On 22 July 2020 in the House of Lords, the Lord Bishop of Bristol, the Rt Rvd Vivienne Faull eloquently expressed her support for this pathway:

The Government are keen that the United Kingdom should attract the brightest and best from overseas. Many people displaced by conflict or persecution have valuable professional skills in areas such as medicine and engineering but are stuck in refugee camps, unable to use those skills to support their families and rebuild their lives. I welcome the Government’s openness to considering a displaced talent visa to level up access to labour market mobility for those displaced from their homelands. 

A Displaced Talent Visa is a win-win-win solution

This pathway is a win for the UK, who stand to gain meaningful contributors and taxpayers to the UK community; a win for the employer who will fill a skills shortage with a capable and loyal employee; and a win for a skilled displaced person (and their family) who will be taken out of displacement and given the chance to create a secure future by leveraging their professional skills

In September, Bishop Butler will table the Displaced Talent Amendment to the Immigration and Social Security Co-ordination (EU Withdrawal) Bill 2019-21 in the House of Lords. We eagerly anticipate the discussion and debate that will be generated by this probing amendment.

In the meantime, this opportunity reminds us of the words of William Shakespeare:

There is a tide in the affairs of men.

Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;

Omitted, all the voyage of their life

Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

On such a full sea are we now afloat, 

And we must take the current it serves, 

Or lose our ventures.

The tide is in our favour, now is the time to take the current. But, we can’t do it alone. 

To get involved as an employer, a mentor to our candidates, a partner in our model, or a funder of our work in the UK please contact TBB UK Director, Marina Brizar at mbrizar@talentbeyondboundaries.org.