Thousands of Lives Changed Through Labour Mobility in 2022
TBB Canada team members Kat and Ayana welcoming Syrian software engineer Danial and his wife and children to Toronto. Daniel is the first of many CGI employees to be hired through Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathway Program.
This year has been one of tremendous growth and change for Talent Beyond Boundaries.
When I started with the organization we were just eight employees globally, guided and enabled by passionate co-founders and supported by dedicated volunteers. We had a beautiful idea - to make it possible for displaced people to safely migrate for work. We had all the passion in the world, but were yet to prove this solution could scale.
Reflections on 2022
In 2022, this beautiful idea is now reality. Three of the world’s largest immigration countries have established formal refugee labour mobility programs (Australia, Canada and the UK), and the US and European Commission are now funding the creation of their own pilots, in collaboration with TBB. More than a thousand people have secured solutions to their displacement as a result of these programs already, and many thousands more will benefit in the years to come.
This work is changing peoples’ lives, and changing tired old narratives. Each of the candidates who have moved through our program has already made an impact - for themselves, for their families, and in their work. This year TBB alumni have treated thousands of patients with care in the UK, brought climate change mitigation expertise from Afghanistan to Australia, contributed much needed trade skills to Canada’s manufacturing industry, and won awards for technology and civil engineering innovations.
More than 55,000 displaced people have now registered themselves on the Talent Catalog - the largest, fastest growing, and most geographically diverse database of refugee skill profiles in the world, developed by TBB as a shared resource for the growing ecosystem of partners working to facilitate international refugee labour mobility. This rich talent pool currently sits at around around 30% women, and includes professionals from key sectors like healthcare, technology, engineering, construction, and finance.
With all this success has come much needed support, including a truly transformational $3m donation from MacKenzie Scott’s Yield Giving initiative. This and other generous donations have enabled us to grow our team to 45 people across eight countries this year, extend our support to refugees in over a dozen countries, and establish critical partnerships and alliances that will exponentially increase our impact.
TBB is also benefiting directly from the skill and expertise of our alumni. I am particularly excited about the appointment of Fadi Chalouhy to the TBB Global Board, and I think Fadi’s words below sum up perfectly the profound impact of our work:
“I am one of TBB’s first success stories. Back in 2016 I was an illegal stateless person in Lebanon, with no hope of getting any citizenship, career, or even a last name, for the majority of my life I was known as Fadi X. Fast forward 6 years and today I am an associate manager with Accenture, a global board member with Talent Beyond Boundaries, a keynote speaker, an Australian Permanent resident, and recently a married man.
None of this would have been possible without Talent Beyond Boundaries. In a time of my life where every organisation and government looked at me as a liability, an illegal stateless man, TBB looked at me as an asset. TBB looked at my potential, and I think this summarizes what TBB is all about”.
You can read more about our work this year in our 2022 Global Update Report.
In the meantime, to our staff, supporters, partners, and volunteers - thank you so much for your contribution to our incredible achievements over the past 12 months. I am privileged to work with you all.
A year in photos
There have been so many highlights in 2022 - from airport arrivals to first days on the job, and new friendships formed with colleagues. TBB staff have built new programs, shared our work with partners and worked with our alumni to advocate to states and in various international forums about the importance of scaling up labour mobility pathways for refugees. Here is just a snapshot of these wonderful moments. More to come in 2023!
Photos left to right:
January: Arrival of cohort of nurses to the UK through TBB’s healthcare recruitment program in partnership with Department of Health and Social Care and the UK National Health Service (NHS). These nurses are now working in the NHS at various locations across the UK.
Maya, a Palestinian civil engineer who arrived in Esperance, Western Australia in January, doing a structural inspection of a jetty with one of her new colleagues from Bluemar Consulting Engineers.
February: Abdullah and his family arriving in Canada. Abdullah is one of eight engineers hired by water bottling company, Ice River Springs, in northern Ontario.
March: TBB Middle East team convenes in Lebanon to develop strategies for speeding up talent sourcing and mobility support to refugees.
April: TBB alumni Sarah and Fatima working as qualified nurses at NHS England. Both women landed in the UK in February within just three months had secured their licence to work as registered nurses.
May: TBB Global CEO Steph Cousins at the United Nations for International Migration Review Forum 2022. TBB ran briefings for states with the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility on how to design skilled migration pathways that are open to displaced people.
June: TBB US Director Betsy Fisher and UK Director Marina Brizar attend Annual Tripartite Conference on Resettlement in Geneva with Dima, TBB alumnus now living in the UK. Dima gave a powerful presentation for governments, UN and operational refugee agencies on the importance of opening up displaced talent mobility pathways.
July: Kazem, Afghan software engineer who relocated to Germany with his wife to work for Sonova, having dinner with TBB’s Chief Operating Officer Patrick O’Leary in Berlin. Kazem is the first TBB candidate to land in Germany, thanks to generous immigration support provided by Fragomen.
August: Afghan filmmaker, Ahmad, with his new colleagues from film production company Positive Ape, celebrating a win for Australian football team Collingwood at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
September: TBB Co-Founder John Cameron and Asia Partnerships Manager Patrick Keerthisinghe visiting our partners UNHCR Indonesia and Catholic Relief Services to train them on how to use the Talent Catalog and assist displaced people in Indonesia to access labour mobility pathways.
October: TBB UK is nominated for not one, not two but three awards for its innovative programs with the Health Services Journal, Nursing Times and the Forum for Expatriate Management (FEM). We took home the gong for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) ‘’Best Partnership between a Corporate Organization and a Service Provider’ Award” with our immigration partner Fragomen.
November: TBB wins The Employee Mobility Institute Award with financial technology company Iress, for our partnership to bring displaced software engineers to Australia and the UK. Here we are at the awards ceremony in Sydney, Australia.
December: Samira, journalist and TBB alumni from Afghanistan now living and working in Sydney, speaking at roundtable with the Australian Immigration Minister Andrew Giles, to discuss transitioning TBB’s program in Australia to a permanent Displaced Talent Mobility Program.
TBB’s Canada Director Lara Dyer (right) joins the governments of Canada and Australia and other members of the Global Task Force on Refugee Labour Mobility for a roundtable in Ottawa to share lessons from Canada’s Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot and Australia’s Skilled Refugee Pilot.
Arrival of Gulchaman and Parwin to Sydney airport, where they are greeted by colleagues from Minter Ellison and Clayton Utz, where they are now working.
