Displaced Talent Mobility has received enthusiastic support in the United Kingdom. The success of pilot programmes for both the Home Office and the Department of Health and Social Care were celebrated at the Houses of Parliament late last month.

With kind permission from the Speaker of the House, the Bishop of Durham, Paul Butler, hosted Talent Beyond Boundaries and pioneering partners in the River Room overlooking the River Thames and colourfully lit Southbank. Also in attendance were skilled refugees who, thanks to these pilot programmes, have been able to move to London for work.

Bishop Paul Butler commenced the evening by sharing how and why he became an advocate for Displaced Talent Mobility. His passionate words echoed those he spoke a just year earlier, in the House of Lords: “Displaced people, including refugees, have skills, talents and motivations, and dream of building a new life in a new land. What if we saw such people as a gift as well as a responsibility?” 

Marina Brizar, TBB’s UK Director, acknowledged the Bishop for his belief and trust in the mission and the movement, saying “But for the invitation to the All Party Parliamentary Group meeting where TBB was asked to present this innovative idea - and the collaboration with RAMP to submit a probing amendment to the immigration bill - our path to pilots would not have been so well paved”.

John Cameron, TBB’s co-founder and CTO, then took the stage to share TBB’s raison d’etre: finding a solution to the “cruel irony” of a situation where refugees have skills, but are not visible nor accessible to employers in desperate need of those skills. John’s pure passion and deep personal commitment to Displaced Talent Mobility were evident when he choked up - giving permission to the audience to shed a few tears as well! 

Chris Clements, Chair of the Board of Reset, together with Kate Brown, co-director of Reset, then spoke about the joint Reset–TBB initiative, ‘Neighbours for Newcomers.’ This exciting project sees community volunteers matched with incoming displaced talent for community-led welcome and integration support. This initiative is being piloted with the Department of Health & Social Care and NHS England & Improvement for the 115 nurses coming to work in the NHS over 12 months. Chris spoke about the logic and benefits of adapting community sponsorship models for displaced talent, and Kate spoke about the power of a whole-of-society response to integrating newcomers - not only to ensure their success, but to change the rhetoric about displaced people.

Jana and Ahmad, TBB candidates, then shared their first-hand experience of the Displaced Talent Mobility journey in a Q&A with Marina. Jana, a HR professional at HCA Healthcare UK and her husband Ahmad, a surgical nurse at HCA Healthcare UK, recounted the challenges, discrimination and inequality they faced on account of their Palestinian nationality in Lebanon. From being limited in the occupations they could practice and denied basic rights; to being in a position to reach their full potential, personally and professionally, the pair were grateful for the opportunity to leverage their skills to secure their own futures. When asked what message Jana would like to share with partners, employers, funders and volunteers considering joining the Displaced Talent Mobility ecosystem, Jana said: “Be the change you want to see in the world. Refugees have it all... but they don’t have opportunity. That is the change you can make. Hire a refugee today!”.

For closing remarks, we were joined by the Minister for Immigration, Kevin Foster MP. Minister Foster reflected on the challenge presented to him by Bishop Butler: “He quoted my own words back to me – if you have the skills and the job, under the Skilled Worker Scheme, the passport you hold doesn’t matter. We accepted the challenge and developed the pilot.” Importantly, Minister Foster reiterated that this is a “skills solution” and is by no means intended, managed or recorded as a humanitarian solution. In his words: “this is an ‘and’, not an ‘or’.”

Canapes and mulled wine were served to warm the guests from the bitterly cold London evening. But warmth came from not only food but the sentiments and joy of those in the room. Noting that TBB’s vision is to scale through partnership to the point that our presence in destination countries is obsolete, we are confident that Displaced Talent Mobility will be a feature of the UK’s permanent migration programme, employer workforce planning, and community-led welcome. We will continue to work towards this goal.

Special thanks to Angela Afzal and Emily Burlington Horton for your support and coordination to make this event happen, and Matt Monfredi for the wonderful photos!