Talent Beyond Boundaries.

Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) is an organisation seeking to demonstrate that the hidden refugee talent pool offers a resource employers can use to fill skill gaps. While the global skills gap will cost the global economy $8.452 trillion in lost revenue by 2030, there are, for instance, five million Syrian refugees, many of them highly skilled, living in refugee camps or urban settings with limited or no prospects of local employment. Shortages are especially acute in industries experiencing rapid growth or change and in rural communities that need to keep local industries afloat.

TBB provides an alternative solution by increasing access to existing labour mobility pathways and creating new pathways for refugees to use to migrate for work. This allows for a transformative change to their income and ability to support family members (including extended family members through remittances) while also making an economic contribution to the communities into which they move.

TBB overcomes informational, legal, and financial barriers that prevent skilled refugees from filling vacancies in receiving countries, including Canada, Australia, and the UK. By moving to countries where their skills can be put to use, refugees and their families can regularise their legal status, feel safer, and experience a significant gain in income, wellbeing, and safety.

Use of GIF Funds

GIF’s investment of $230,000 was used to enable TBB to deploy this labour mobility solution by securing skilled employment and legal work permits in Canada and Australia for refugees living in Jordan and Lebanon. It also enabled TBB to map processes and disseminate practical learning to demonstrate the viability of labour mobility and encourage further uptake.

Impact to Date

With GIF’s grant support, TBB made impressive strides towards making labour mobility pathways a viable solution for displaced people. TBB’s Talent Catalog, a database of refugees’ education, skills, and work histories, has more than 22,000 profiles of refugees in Jordan and Lebanon that more than 100 employers can access. At the conclusion of GIF’s involvement in June 2020, 39 TBB candidates had received job offers (36 men and three women). Of these candidates, 15 had relocated with their families to Canada, Australia, and the UK, with the other 24 remaining in the visa process. When accounting for family members, a total of 39 people had moved and 82 people were waiting for visas, representing a total of 143 people who achieved a migration solution from TBB’s programme up to June 2020 . Given applicants with job offers are able to migrate with family members, the benefits of the programme in terms of providing a migration solution and access to rights were gender balanced.

Due to GIF’s support, TBB was able to develop relationships with the governments of Australia and Canada and develop pilot programmes. Under the Australian pilot programme, TBB worked with participating businesses to sponsor TBB candidates on Temporary Skills Shortage visas. In situations when a TBB candidate had a job offer but could not meet the stringent visa criteria due to issues such as language or work experience, the government offered to support the use of a limited number of Global Special Humanitarian Programme visas. Up to 2020, under the Australian programme, 16 refugees had secured job offers with eight arriving with their families and beginning work. When accounting for family members, 20 people in total had benefited from TBB’s partnership with the Australian government.

As part of their partnership with the government of Canada, TBB developed The Economic Mobility Pathways Project (EMPP). Up to 2020, 35 refugees had received job offers in Canada (2 from Jordan and Lebanon and 13 from Kenya), and of these, when accounting for family members, 15 people had already relocated and were benefiting from TBB’s partnership with the Canadian government.

Following successful completion of these initial pilots, Australia announced the establishment of a Skilled Refugee Pilot for 100 refugees and their families in February 2020, and in June 2020, Canada committed to expanding its EMPP for up to 500 refugee applicants over the next two years. Both programmes sit within the economic migration programmes of the respective countries. In addition to these two country partnerships, the UK has committed to working with TBB on ways to make the UK tier 2 skilled visa system accessible to refugees.

A survey conducted with 15 TBB candidates relocated to Canada, UK, and Australia found that the average annual salary was $40,000 with 60% of the relocated candidates sending remittances to their families in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, or elsewhere.

TBB has also made ripples in the global policy landscape. In 2018, TBB secured commitments in the Global Compact on Refugees and its three-year strategy, as well as the Global Compact on Migration, that recognise labour mobility for refugees and vulnerable migrants as a priority for states around the world. This was followed by the release of a white paper, The Promise of Labour Mobility, produced with GIF funding and launched at the Global Refugee Forum in December 2019. Moreover, alongside UNHCR, TBB is also central to plans for a new Global Taskforce for Refugee Labour Mobility to further develop and promote labour mobility as an exciting innovation with the potential to greatly contribute to the alleviation of the refugee crisis.

Click here to read Talent Beyond Boundaries' Completion Assessment.