Talent Beyond Boundaries

Many refugees have valuable skills but rarely can find legal work and integrate in countries of first asylum. They are viewed as burdens, and their talents are wasted.  At the same time, employers around the globe struggle to fill skill gaps. Talent Beyond Boundaries is connecting the dots to help solve both problems. Using its unique database of refugee skills, TBB connects refugees in Jordan and Lebanon with employers and communities in Canada and Australia who need their talents. Today, inadvertent policy barriers shut refugees out of economic migration routes even when their skills are in-demand. We are demonstrating that the private sector values refugee talent and that economic immigration can work for refugees. When refugees can move abroad for work, they move from poverty and precarious situations to stability and self-sufficiency. Our work is rewriting the narrative of refuges as contributors rather than burdens, positively affecting millions of refugees.

TBB is helping solve the challenge that millions of refugees face in returning to self-reliance. In the last decade, displacement has increased by 50% and countries abutting conflict zones have been overwhelmed with refugees.

To stem the flow of refugees (who are viewed as burdens) most of these countries   prohibit refugees from working by law and practice.  To survive, refugees work illegally often outside of their field of training, and their skills go to waste.

This negative narrative inhibits integration in host countries and affects the willingness of other countries to accept refugees. Resettlement slots have been halved since 2016, and last year, only 55,680 refugees were resettled. Local populations fear that newcomers will take their jobs or dip into their hard-earned tax dollars.

We are changing this view of refugees as burdens, and demonstrating that refugees have valuable skills that are needed by employers around the world.

Employment is the top indicator of successful refugee integration.  By building a solution that relies on refugees’ own skills and talents and helping them move to communities where they can use these skills, TBB enables refugees to rebuild their lives and create a new narrative about refugee value.

TBB’s work is currently based in Lebanon and Jordan, which host approximately three million refugees. TBB’s Talent Catalog contains over 11,000 candidates covering 200 separate professions including 520 healthcare professionals and 470 tech professionals. Despite their skills, their dignity is stripped as they struggle to provide for themselves and their families. As one TBB candidate summarized: “My father is a medical doctor. Now he's sitting idle. He's not the only one. Here there's a judge, a pharmacist.”

At the outset of TBB’s work, we conducted twenty focus group discussions with more than one hundred potential beneficiaries and we continue to seek input through surveys. Refugees want to work and are willing to move to new communities if they can be self-reliant and fully integrate. One TBB candidate, an engineer said, “I don’t want to take money from humanitarian organizations. I want to work. I want to continue to develop myself and my skills. Life deserves to be lived.”

TBB’s solution connects refugees to employment in their fields, in communities where their skills are needed and valued, and in countries where they have full rights to engage in community, professional, and political life. It facilitates self-reliance and full integration.

TBB's model makes international employment accessible to refugees so that they can integrate into communities and regain self-reliance while sharing their hard-earned education and skills with the global economy. We showcase refugee talent to the private sector, support employers to recruit needed talent, and develop policy solutions for national governments so refugees can access economic migration like everybody else.

In our pilot phase, TBB is focusing on refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and matching them with employers in Canada and Australia who need their skills. Using these refugee/employer matches as exemplars, we have engaged the Canadian and Australian governments to work with us to make economic immigration pathways accessible for refugees.

We developed a digital “Talent Catalog” to identify and showcase the breadth and depth of refugee talent. This first-of-its-kind searchable database contains information relevant to global employers, including work experience, education, and skills on more than 11,000 refugees.

Equipped with this data, TBB works with employers, municipalities and trade associations to identify firms looking for talent who are willing to consider the previously hidden talent pool of international refugees.  Using the Talent Catalog, virtual communication technology, and virtual skills testing tools, TBB supports remote international recruitment efforts of refugees for dozens of companies (multinationals, small and medium sized enterprises, and start-ups) primarily in Canada and Australia. TBB works directly with its corporate partners and retained legal support to complete application processes for its refugee job candidates. TBB then coordinates the migration and settlement of candidates in their destination countries in cooperation with municipalities, settlement organizations, and companies.

Companies are excited to participate in this innovative solution. They are contributing to immigration costs and ensuring their new hires are adapting smoothly. Companies are telling others about the solution. The CEO of Davert Tools, who hired Anas Nabulsy as a tool-and-die maker in Canada, is advocating for other companies within the Niagara Industrial Association to recruit refugees internationally. Communities in more remote regions are seeing this as a strategy to solve their demographic challenges with better retention outcomes.

Because economic immigration pathways have not been seen as options for refugees until now, these pathways include barriers for refugees. TBB works with government authorities to overcome these barriers. TBB works with Department of Home Affairs Australia (DHA) and Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) to identify and propose solutions to barriers, to inform permanent, refugee inclusive policies.    

TBB focuses on refugees’ strengths and talents, not their vulnerabilities. Unlike resettlement, where governments make decisions about where a refugee will move and live, we actively involve refugees in designing their own futures in communities where their particular skills are needed.  We engage destination country governments, municipalities and the private sector as key movers and partners from the beginning and enable refugees to arrive in new host communities as valued contributors from day one.  We are the only organization that has mapped refugee skills and talents in Jordan and Lebanon and this work provides the data to challenge widespread and false assumptions about refugees.  

TBB is at the forefront of developing a new solution for refugees. Our advocacy successfully led to the inclusion of language supporting labor mobility as a complementary pathway in the Global Compact on Refugees which will drive policy for years to come. TBB has been recognized as a pioneer by the UNHCR, the International Organization for Migration, and the Governments of Canada and Australia.

We want our work to be replicated broadly and look forward to the day when labor migration options are so established that refugees can access them autonomously.  

TBB is the only organization to create a recruitment model that connects companies to international refugee talent. A core component of this new recruitment system is TBB’s “Talent Catalog” (TC), which is the first database capturing employment-relevant information on refugees. It is key to connecting employers to this previously hidden talent pool.

TBB developed the TC in collaboration with Nazar Poladian, a Syrian refugee resettled from Beirut to Toronto. It is designed specifically for refugee circumstances, including a platform that can be accessed from smartphones, even in low data environments. It collects information on language skills, work experience, education and other skills. The filtering capabilities allow TBB to identify multiple candidates who meet the job description requirements. TBB is able to filter for factors related to visa eligibility so that we do not put forward candidates who might not qualify for a visa. Developments in skills-matching technology using AI will increase the Talent Catalog’s capacity to facilitate matches.

The TC was initially populated in 2016 -17 through a series of information sessions organized by paid refugee volunteers and through a series of webinars and social media campaigns organized by partner organizations in Jordan and Lebanon.  We continue outreach through social networks and media for candidates with particular job skills as new opportunities arise.

The TC creates formatted CVs, which can easily be sent to employers, and provides storage for documents related to both recruitment and immigration. These CVs can also be downloaded directly by candidates for their own use.

Six TBB refugee job candidates who were living precariously, have moved to Canada and Australia, where they are currently employed in well-paying skilled positions and valued by the community. Fadi, employed at Accenture in Australia said, “The minute I stepped foot on that plane, I dared to start dreaming again.”

Through policy change and the creation of a new recruitment system, TBB has paved the way for partners to expand the work. Officials in Pictou County, Nova Scotia asked TBB to create a recruitment pipeline for employers who urgently need to hire talent. Community organizations are actively engaged in both the job matching and settlement aspects of the project, and 30 principal applicants will move by the end of 2019.

The CEO of Bonfire where TBB candidate Mohammed Hakmi works recently announced a campaign to make Waterloo, Canada the hub of hiring international refugee tech talent by enlisting the next 10 tech companies to recruit with TBB. Kris Braun, Bonfire’s Vice President said, “While others consider closing their borders, we can tap this previously hidden source of talent, offering refugees in limbo a future with us.”

The governments of both Canada and Australia are committed to scaling refugee access to economic pathways; and there is international interest in doing the same. Immigration Minister Hussen of Canada said he would like to “massively ramp up this pilot [referring to TBB] as a way to bring more refugees to Canada through existing immigration programs." 

Six of our candidates and their families have already moved to Australia or Canada this year. Over the next six months, at least another 30-40 will have job offers and be in the visa pipeline with their families. We are actively working with more than 547 candidates to prepare for potential recruitment in response to inquiries from more than 100 employers. We expect the number of refugees with job offers in 2020 to be at least double that in 2019. In 2024, we expect more than 15,000 refugees to move through economic visas, and that number will grow annually.

Beyond the economic impact, our candidates and their families are moving from precarious positions with restricted access to property ownership, banking, or free movement, to permanent residence and all the rights attendant upon that status.

TBB’s work is focused on identifying and removing the barriers that refugees face in accessing labor mobility. Once the barriers are removed, because it is a market-driven solution, we anticipate others to partner on much of the work. We are identifying the refugee serving organizations in the host countries that can facilitate the solution from the talent supply side; and municipalities and local organizations that work with companies to solve skill gaps to facilitate from the demand side.

We are creating the first new solution to move refugees to safe countries using their own skills. We see ourselves as building the road for others to use.  We want to be copied and freely share our learning and technology.   
 
Our work with the Canadian government will lead to better access to skilled immigration for refugees around the world, whether they are part of our database or not. The outcomes of the first ten refugees moving to Australia for job opportunities will inform next steps to institutionalizing an accessible pathway for refugees to access labor mobility to Australia.
 
In the next five years, both Canada and Australia will have made their economic immigration pathways fully accessible to refugees. With these powerful examples from the world’s largest skilled immigration programs, TBB will be well-placed to engage additional low and middle income countries to similarly vie to attract international refugee talent. Rural communities and companies in need of international talent will include consideration of the refugee talent pool, and refugees will seek labor mobility solutions. Additional refugee serving organizations will begin facilitating labor mobility and we will expand the TC to 50,000 refugees, including those from additional countries. TBB will continue its work in breaking down the silos between economic immigration and refugee solutions. In ten years, countries globally will facilitate the recruitment of refugees to fill skill gaps; and tens of thousands of refugees will move each year through this pathway, comparable to the number who move via humanitarian resettlement. 

Financial: We are creating a pathway for refugees to live and work in communities as valued contributors. Over the next year, we need to complete the work we are doing to demonstrate the value the refugee talent pool offers to employers in Canada and Australia, particularly those who are having trouble finding talent because of their remote location. So, in the short run we need to increase philanthropic funding for the next year. Longer term, we need to address the substantial out-of-pocket costs associated with migration which can come to $5,000 or more per refugee family depending upon destination. These include application fees and associated costs, travel expenses and start-up living costs. Currently, it is unlikely that refugees can access loans in the host country to cover immigration costs and repay the amount after arrival in the destination country.

Legal/Cultural: We are continuing to work with the Canadian and Australian governments to address legal/administrative requirements in their economic visa programs that make accessing skilled immigration difficult for displaced populations. Popular cultural bias against refugees, particularly those from the Middle East will continue to be a challenge.

Market: We also need to explore how we can integrate our work more broadly into the global talent market. Again, if we want to create a labor mobility solution that is sustainable and can be accessed by refugees autonomously it needs to become part of the global labor recruiting market.

We will address these barriers using the experience and partnerships we have developed since 2016.

Financial: We are partnering with the Shapiro Foundation and the Global Women Leaders Philanthropic Group to develop a fund to provide refugees loans in the host country to cover immigration costs, which can then be repaid when they begin work in the destination country. We are working with the Canadian government to test a prototype over the next year.

Legal/Cultural:  The Canadian Immigration Department is funding a project with us to identify and remedy legal barriers (like expired passports, proof of work experience, etc) that foreclose refugee candidates from skilled immigration opportunities. On June 20, the Government announced plans to expand this work. In Australia, we continue an effort developed with the Government to advance visa changes by matching an initial cohort of refugees with influential employers. 

Our best cultural change agents helping to revise the narrative of refugee value are our candidates and their employers. For example, Bonfire, an employer in Waterloo appeared at an influential tech conference to announce their vision to make Waterloo the world’s capital for hiring displaced tech talent.

Market:  We work with municipalities seeking international talent to revitalize their communities. They assist in identifying hiring employers and local organizations that assist with settlement. Employers have also started spreading the word within their industries, a critical step in demonstrating a unique private sector value that can help us reach traditional global recruiting firms.

We have small offices in each of the places we currently operate -- Amman, Jordan; Beirut, Lebanon; Toronto, Canada; and Melbourne, Australia. We have a headquarters in Washington, DC where TBB was founded. With 12 full time paid staff, and 4 full time pro bono staff, our operations are lean. We draw on diverse partnerships to support candidate referral, corporate outreach, migration, and successful settlement, and we make use of an extensive network of pro bono support.

Our team has the unique experience of working together for the last 3 years to create this new solution for refugees. No one else has ever done this. We bring together years of experience in government, business, nonprofit and refugee advocacy.  Founder Mary Louise Cohen built a powerful law firm and started two other successful nonprofits. Founder Bruce Cohen served as Chief Counsel for the US Senate Judiciary Committee. Australian Founder John Cameron is a successful software entrepreneur with extensive business and tech expertise. Executive Director, Sayre Nyce, has worked with the International Rescue Committee and Refugees International. She served as the Regional Operations Officer for the UN Refugee Agency in Jordan and Lebanon during the Iraq and Syria refugee crises. Managing Director, Madeline Holland, served as the Manager of Development and Communications at the Cisneros Center for New Americans, and was selected as a 2019 Skoll World Forum Emerging Leader. Rachel Lawrie, Director of Strategic Solutions worked with a healthcare consulting firm and with various nonprofits in the Middle East focused on empowering marginalized groups. Australia Director, Steph Cousins, has over 12 years of professional experience in human rights and development advocacy and has lead teams at Amnesty International Australia and Oxfam Australia. Dana Wagner, Canada Operations Director worked with independent senator Ratna Omidvar, the Global Diversity Exchange, and the IOM. Lebanon Director, Noura Ismail has worked with various nonprofits and development finance institutions including Ashoka and Kiva to promote inclusion and opportunity creation in the Middle East.

In Australia we partner with refugee settlement organizations such as Settlement Services International, the Australian Red Cross and AMES Australia; Playfair Visa and Migration Services provide migration advice; the Business Council of Australia assists with employer outreach; IOM Australia provides relocation assistance to our candidates; and organizations participating in the Refugee Jobs Marketplace Forum promote skilled pathways for refugees. We work closely with Refugee Talent, an innovative social enterprise which successfully matched over 150 refugees into jobs.

 In Canada we partner with job placement and corporate outreach organizations like Jumpstart and the Pictou County Regional Enterprise Network, with whom we collaborate closely to leverage each other’s corporate networks, provide employer orientations, and more; settlement organizations such as Safe Harbour, ISANS, YMCA and others deliver on-the-ground and pre-arrival settlement support to migrating candidates; Segal Immigration Law provides legal counsel and pro bono services;  and McKinsey Canada provides volunteers for candidate preparation as well as pro bono strategic consulting services.

In Lebanon and Jordan, UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the Union of Relief and Development Associations (URDA) provide supports to TBB’s candidates, policy, and outreach efforts.

Refugees are seeking pathways to self-reliance, companies around the globe are seeking new talent pools, and governments are seeking ways to support refugee hosting countries. Over the last three years TBB has created a new business model to fill this gap. 

During the first phase of our work, we used our refugee skills database to help a group of international employers identify needed talent. We demonstrated to the governments of Canada and Australia that current economic migration options unintentionally exclude refugees. These strategic test cases resulted in the creation of government-supported projects.

Rural communities across Australia and Canada, like Pictou County, Nova Scotia urgently need workers to keep industries like healthcare and manufacturing thriving. TBB offers a talent identification service. We are starting the next phase of our work in partnership with Pictou’s Regional Economic Network to turbo-charge our corporate outreach and develop a model that can be replicated in other communities across Canada and elsewhere.

By focusing our energies on collaborations like this over the next two years, we will meet great private sector demand, draw on core competencies of other organizations to do outreach and post-arrival support, and demonstrate that international refugee recruitment is a growth strategy for individual employers and economic regions.

The Government of Canada cites its partnership with us on labor mobility as an important new solution for refugees and has announced its intention to lead the movement to include refugees among those who can access prosperity through migration for work.

We are a non-profit organization. We need philanthropic support to develop this solution, but believe our impact can scale and become sustainable with finite philanthropic capital.

Our model has costs per-refugee including visa applications and plane tickets. These costs are partially covered by employers, and in some cases by provincial or territorial governments. We are developing partnerships with financial institutions to provide refugees who have job offers access to loans.

As work visas (and loans to take advantage of them) become available to refugees, employers and industries will be able to incorporate them into talent sourcing strategies along with other immigrants; refugee-serving organizations in need of solutions will begin to support candidates to access them; and refugees will have the ability to compete using their skills like anyone else. At that point, we will have reached our endgame.

TBB has successfully created a proof-of-concept for refugees to access economic pathways with a small team mostly lead by lawyers and policy experts.  Now as we prepare to grow, advisors with broader experience would be beneficial.  For example, we need to improve our development and communications strategy so that we can attract funding to carry us through this initial phase. Equally important to us is the strategic planning assistance that the Solve Network can provide to help assess and adjust our organizational structure, including expanding our board so that we can multiply our impact.  We also are tackling hard issues like the best routes to scale internally and externally (through replication by others) where the experience of the Solve Network would be beneficial.  This would likely include advice on how to streamline our operations, improve our technology, extend our reach and cost out our services.

TBB seeks additional partnerships with municipalities and community organizations, such as the Pictou County Regional Enterprise Network (PCREN), which works with employers to address their hiring needs.

TBB seeks additional corporate partners who would be interested in hiring talented refugees.  We also value partnerships with industry associations, and currently work with three industry associations in Canada.

TBB seeks partnerships with recruitment agencies and other talent matching organizations that place workers globally.  TBB can provide its talent to the pool available to their clients.

TBB seeks implementing partners to administer the loan fund and provide a technical solution which facilitates international borrowing and repayment.

Because we want others to copy our work, TBB wants to partner with other refugee-serving organizations who would be interested in exploring labor mobility as a solution for their clients.  For example we are partnering with RefugePoint in our work in Canada helping to place African refugee job candidates.

TBB’s solution provides an avenue to effectively engage the private sector in a solution to provide refugees employment, self-sufficiency, and full integration in additional host communities in Canada, Australia, and elsewhere.

If selected, TBB will use the prize to test additional partnership models to increase its outreach to the private sector in Canada. To this point, TBB has managed all corporate relationships, with the assistance of partners for some introductions. Testing new partnership models which accelerate and expand our reach is key to TBB realizing growth and financial sustainability. 

 A full-time staff person will identify municipalities working to attract talent from abroad, and will create partnerships with the relevant community organizations who serve employers by identifying talent from abroad and settling newcomers. This staff person will also create partnerships with industry associations addressing talent shortages, and recruitment and staffing agencies. These partners will conduct all corporate outreach and manage the employer relationships. Through effective partnership, we believe we can reduce our cost-per-employer acquisition. 

For the last 75 years, resettlement solutions for refugees have focused on addressing their vulnerabilities.  In contrast, Talent Beyond Boundaries is the first organization to help refugees move to safety using their strengths and talents.  We have just launched a new model, starting in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, focusing on rural communities where employers cannot fill critical jobs from the local community.  We believe that our work in Pictou can be replicated broadly in the Maritime Provinces and elsewhere in Canada.  If selected, TBB will use the prize to grow our partnerships to increase outreach to additional communities in Canada that can benefit from the hidden refugee talent pool. With this funding, a part-time staff person will be hired in Canada to identify municipalities working to attract talent from abroad to support their economic futures, and will create partnerships with the relevant organizations who serve employers by identifying talent from abroad and settling newcomers. This staff person will also create partnerships with industry associations addressing talent shortages, and recruitment and staffing agencies. Through effective partnership, we believe we can reduce our cost-per-employer acquisition and greatly expand the number of citizens who see refugees as assets and neighbors.