Talent Beyond Boundaries is pleased to announce that David Manicom has accepted a special joint appointment as TBB & Fragomen Director of Global Advocacy for Displaced Talent. David brings with him years of experience as a Canadian diplomat focused on migration issues, UNHCR Special Advisor and multiple deployments around the world.

Tell us a little about your career/background

I am the son of dairy farmers in southern Ontario but went off to university in Toronto and Montreal and never went back. After finishing a PhD in literature at McGill and beginning to publish poetry and fiction, I had the urge to travel but had no money, so I accepted an offer to join the Canadian Foreign Service in the immigration stream. I began in Moscow in 1991 when that was still the Soviet Union, and followed with assignments in Islamabad, Beijing, Geneva (where I was a Representative to UNHCR and IOM), and New Delhi. 

My last assignment with Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada was as Assistant Deputy Minister for Settlement and Integration–so basically I am a career lifer in work related to migration and refugees. In 2019 I got the opportunity to be seconded by the government to UNHCR, where I served as Special Advisor leading the implementation of the Three-Year Strategy on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways. In spite of the challenges of doing that during the Covid era, it was a very enriching experience and helped me get to know the organizations and people that I now call colleagues!

As you’ve moved between different counties/organizations/roles throughout your career, what are the ideas/approaches/themes that have remained constant for you?

That ever since that long ago place, the Garden of Eden, or pick your favourite origins myth, people have moved to improve their lives and that embracing that enriches us all and thwarting it impoverishes the human spirit. That diversity is a fact and inclusion is a choice. But that in democratic polities we must bring the public along with us, and that their anxieties about the impact of migration flows on their communities are not trivial, are often logical, and must be engaged not dismissed. 

That bureaucracy and inefficient and deadening bureaucratization is a mysteriously powerful negative force in modern society that we must all combat every moment to keep it at bay. 

That life is short so we should try to erase the lines between work and play in a positive way. 

That there is no need to make a false choice between happy staff and strong outcomes since happy people do better work.

‘‘We have to just reiterate over and over again that just because it uses economic need and labour market attributes as a tool doesn’t make it any less humanitarian, and that just because it has humanitarian outcomes doesn’t make it any less economically sensible. We are economic animals and actors, all the time, whether we like it or not. AND we are so much more than that. Both are true.’' 

What’s the focus of your new role with Fragomen/TBB - and what made you decide to take on this role at this time?

I want to stay very focused on growth. We have developed an admirable model, and the concept has the brilliance of simplicity. But the execution of turning small pilots into large scale norms is hard, and success is not evident. As a humanitarian ecosystem we know how to move 100,000 refugees across borders to safe and durable solutions per year through resettlement. As a global economy we know how to move several million workers across borders every year, safely and legally. Those two knowledge sets, and the economic, informatic and logistical systems that translate the knowledge into outcomes, need to be married. That’s the job.

I personally took on this job at this time for the usual combination of idealism and selfishness. Providing a safe home to a displaced person is a good thing, period, and done professionally creates (sorry for the cliche) mutual benefits and win-win-win results. And I wanted a fresh challenge but wanted to do it, frankly, with people I like and respect. I want to have my cake and eat it. Sorry!

What’s your vision for how the world could be different in 50 or 100 years, because of the work we’re doing today?

That cultures and communities are so mutually enriching and interwoven that it is hard to tell who the “other” is, and therefore who we are supposed to hate and fear. 

Who/what inspires you to keep going when you face challenges?

“There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path.”  Ascribed to the Buddha, very easy to say, very difficult to live. But that’s my mantra. And regular doses of Marcus Aurelius can’t hurt. 

If you could wake up tomorrow having gained any one quality or ability, what would it be?

Modesty and great cooking skills. 

What’s a secret talent or superpower that you bring to your role?

If I tell you it won’t be a secret. :)  Perhaps, though, stubbornness helps. 

What are you most excited for in the year ahead?

The birth of my oldest daughter’s first child and watching the evolution of the amazing world of my youngest daughter (who is almost 6), which is a world full of wonder. 

What do you like to do when you’re not working?

Travel, read, play with my little girl, explore our current hometown of Paris, and do the Wordle!

Connect with David:
dmanicom@talentbeyondboundaries.org