Helping refugee women reclaim their lives and careers

Today Talent Beyond Boundaries is launching a Women's Empowerment Appeal on the eve of International Women's Day. Why is this appeal so important?

Refugees are often portrayed in the media as vulnerable and helpless. In my experience this couldn’t be further from the truth. Some of the strongest and most resilient people I’ve ever met are women who at some point in their lives had to flee their country because of war. 

Let me tell you about Sofia*

Sofia is the first woman to secure an international job offer through Talent Beyond Boundaries’ refugee labour mobility program. She now lives in Sydney with her husband and two gorgeous kids.  

Sofia ran a successful boutique bookshop in Homs, Syria. As the war became too dangerous she and her husband decided they had to flee. They agreed Sofia and the kids would go to Jordan, while her husband would try to get to Europe by boat. He would make his way to Germany and apply for asylum and then family reunion - to bring Sofia and the kids to reunite with him in Germany. 

But it wasn’t to be. Germany started limiting family reunion places so Sofia’s husband was stuck there, waiting for years, trying to scrape together any money he could to send back to his family in Jordan. Sofia couldn’t work in Jordan - because she was there illegally and because she had no one to look after the children. She had no savings, no security and no way of reuniting with her husband.

Sofia approached Talent Beyond Boundaries to see if she could find international employment. We helped her get some extra support with English practice, and we prepared her for job interviews. According to Sofia this preparation was key - because it gave her the confidence to really go for it. We shared her CV with Ernst and Young - one of the pioneering employer partners working with Talent Beyond Boundaries. They interviewed her and she nailed it. After some further checks they offered her a job in Australia. 

We then helped her to secure a visa and the family was finally reunited in Melbourne last year after nearly three years apart. 

Sofia’s story shows how with just a little bit of support, and the leadership of the private sector, refugee women can transform their lives and secure safer futures for their families.

Refugees have skills, talents and capabilities

Refugees have often had professional careers or vocations or ran businesses in their home countries. And often their skills are in high demand around the world - such as IT, skilled trades and healthcare (occupations where Australia and many countries face skills gaps). 

It’s completely illogical that these talented individuals are stuck in countries where they cannot legally work, while employers in safe countries like Australia face skills shortages. 

Talent Beyond Boundaries is working with the private sector and governments around the world to create a win-win for refugees and businesses by opening up labour mobility pathways to refugees. We work with refugees in Jordan and Lebanon and Kenya to assist them to compete for jobs; and we work with employers in Australia, Canada, the UK and now New Zealand to remotely recruit refugees and sponsor their visas. And we engage governments to create the visa pathways that enable refugees to actually relocate. 

This is a totally new way of working with refugees - focusing on leveraging their strengths, and importantly, letting business take a lead. 

Scaling the impact for women

In the past year and a half, 50 workers have secured international job offers through this program - securing new futures in safe countries for around 150 refugees once they secure their visas (as each worker is able to bring their partner and children with them). 

Just over half of the people who have migrated to safety through our program so far are women and girls - but the women who have migrated have predominantly been spouses of the primary breadwinner.

Sofia is still a rarity in our program, and that’s because women face an even higher set of hurdles than their male counterparts when seeking work internationally. 

For example, the expectations on women as caregivers make it difficult for them to search for work internationally, and also restrict their ability to up-skill for greater job success (eg. by investing time and resources in learning English). Refugee women are much less likely than their male counterparts to be able to work and gain experience while living in displaced context, because of gender discrimination and safety risks, as well as a direct result of caring responsibilities. These barriers also strip refugee women of the hope and confidence to even look for international employment opportunities as a way out.

Even when refugee women are able to secure work internationally, they can face obstacles to relocating with their children or other dependent family members. For example, in cases where women are divorced there can be a range of custody barriers to relocating, and skilled visas generally don’t allow women to bring a dependent parent with them. Women are often unable to relocate without these family members.

Overcoming the barriers for women

Talent Beyond Boundaries is working to overcome these barriers. We provide women jobseekers with career coaching, resources to assist in preparing for interviews, English language support and assistance securing visas. 

We are also doing more and more outreach to encourage refugee women to sign up to our Talent Catalogue (our online database of refugee CVs which we use in job matching). And we engage in advocacy with governments to introduce greater flexibility in their skilled visa programs, including allowing workers to bring elderly dependents with them. We are also targeting employers in sectors that may better align with the skills of refugee women job seekers already in the Talent Catalog.

We need more support to scale up this work and deliver outcomes for more women

This year’s International Women’s Day theme is ‘An equal world is an enabled world’.

I can’t think of a better way to enable the world than by giving refugee women an equal chance to use their skills and talents.

To support this work please consider donating to the Talent Beyond Boundaries Women's Empowerment Appeal. Funds donated will go towards outreach and support to refugee women searching for international employment opportunities. 

Talent Beyond Boundaries would like to thank the MLC OCC and the National Association of Women in Operations (NAWO) for their contributions supporting our work with refugee women.

*not her real name, to protect anonymity.