Engaging Employers in Growing Refugee Labor Pathways
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Highlights
Refugee labor pathways in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom show promise, but scaling requires smarter outreach, policy reforms, and stronger government involvement.
- Documentation gaps, credential recognition challenges, and complex visa processes are top barriers to hiring displaced talent through refugee labor pathways. This is compounded when refugees lack work authorization in their country of first asylum.
- Since 2021, Talent Beyond Boundaries and partners facilitated 916 job offers to refugees across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and several EU countries, creating migration opportunities for more than 2,000 individuals including family members.
- Programs have relied on intensive one-on-one employer engagement, which is difficult to sustain at scale. Industry associations, peer employers, and government institutions must take on larger outreach roles as programs expand.
- Policy reforms should ease credential verification and reduce relocation costs. Governments must also take a more active role rather than leaving outreach primarily to nongovernmental implementing partners.
Refugee labor pathways, which focus on helping displaced people with in-demand skills access existing economic immigration channels, have attracted considerable attention in recent years. The appeal is two-fold: From a humanitarian perspective, they open additional opportunities for refugees and other displaced people to move to safety. From a labor market perspective, they offer access to an additional talent pool at a time when many employers are struggling to recruit qualified workers.
Such programs now exist in several countries, with the largest in Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Designed and implemented as a partnership between these countries’ governments and the nongovernmental organization Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB), these pathways aim to help jobseekers overcome obstacles that can be exacerbated by displacement, such as difficulty connecting with potential employers or providing identity or credential documentation.
As these programs progress from the pilot stage, the central role employers play and their impact on efforts to achieve scale have gone largely unexplored. This first-of-its-kind report aims to fill this gap by examining employers’ experiences with recruiting displaced talent and ideas for program improvements. The analysis, conducted by MPI and drawing on unpublished TBB survey data on employer engagement, draws in part on consultations with employers, policymakers, and civil-society stakeholders.
Table of Contents
1 Introduction
2 Refugee Labor Pathways: The Story So Far
A. How Do Refugee Labor Pathways Work?
B. Who Is Moving through These Pathways?
3 What Is Known about Employers’ Experiences with Refugee Labor Pathways?
A. How Employers Engage
B. Why Employers Engage
C. Which Employers Participate
D. Ongoing Challenges
4 Approaches to Scaling Employer Participation
A. Addressing Cost Concerns and Clarifying Employer Responsibilities
B. Showcasing Refugees’ Skills Effectively
C. Working Effectively with Employers as Programs Scale
5 Conclusion
About the Global Skills and Talent Initiative
Anchored in the premise that immigration policy must be part of a broader skills and talent strategy, the Initiative has a particular focus on employment-based immigration and the supports that can help immigrants apply their full range of educational and professional skills.
About the Global Program
The Global Program bridges policy advice, research, and candid dialogue to design effective migration policies, drawing on global evidence and anticipating the forces reshaping how people move.
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