Report: Global Refugee Talent: Business Leaders Share Insights on the Skills and Potential of the Global Refugee Talent Pool

Talent Beyond Boundaries(TBB) today announced the release of a report,  “Global Refugee Talent: Business Leaders Share Insights on the Skills and Potential of the Global Refugee Talent Pool” – sharing the vision and experiences of business leaders in Australia and Canada who have struggled to find talent locally and are recruiting skilled refugees from abroad for in-demand roles. TBB is dedicated to opening labour mobility for refugees as an additional solution to displacement, in partnership with the private sector.

The release of the report coincides with the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly High-Level week, the theme of which is global leadership and responsibility sharing. These  principles govern the Global Compact on Refugees, in which States have recognized the need for additional solutions to displacement. Less than 1% of the world’s 25 million refugees have access to traditional resettlement to third countries. The Compact includes labor mobility among the complementary pathways to be expanded and made available to refugees “on a more systematic, sustainable and gender-responsive basis.” The business leaders in this report are among the first to work towards achieving this Compact commitment.

International labor mobility for refugees can be part of the solution to refugee crises and at the same time, help to solve  demographic challenges and talent shortages worldwide. “My company is experiencing the demographic challenge of too many experienced people retiring without enough well-trained people coming into the workforce to replace them,” said Bob Collier, President and Founder of Davert Tools in Niagara Falls, Canada, a region with an advanced manufacturing sector and acute shortage of tradespeople.

TBB’s report is the first to capture the experiences of employers recruiting refugees from abroad. Their experiences reflect the will of the private sector to explore a new talent pool – skilled refugees living around the world – and achieve significant social impact by providing refugees the opportunity to compete for employment and immigrate. The report illustrates the potential for opening labor mobility as a means for refugees to move to safety and self-reliance. “An economic immigration system that works for refugees has the potential to be a watershed in solutions to displacement,”said Heather Segal, Founder and Senior Immigration Lawyer at Segal Immigration Law in Toronto.

“Business is willing and able to hire refugees as skilled immigrants. This is a catalytic change in how the international community responds to the global refugee crisis,” – Mary Louise Cohen, Co-Founder of Talent Beyond Boundaries.