“We lost all of our life there,” said Asadullah, reflecting on the day the Taliban took power in Afghanistan three years ago, in August 2021.

Within the span of days, Afghanistan was no longer safe for people with values, careers or lifestyles that opposed the Taliban worldview. Many freedoms disappeared overnight, including the right for girls to get an education.

More than 6.4 million people have left the country to find a safer place for themselves and their families. Three years later, the displaced population from Afghanistan is one of the largest globally. Many remain in Pakistan, Iran, Türkiye, and India, where they live with unbelievable insecurity each day. They have limited work and other rights, face arbitrary arrest, and risk deportation back to Afghanistan.

There are too few options for people displaced from Afghanistan to safely reach a secure future again.

An important solution that is opening up to Canada and a handful of other countries is the use of skilled visas for those who want to rebuild their careers in a secure new home.

The Canadian visa pathway, called the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP), is implemented in partnership with TalentLift, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and other non-profit partners. It is additional and complementary to humanitarian programs that are a lifeline to so many. The idea is simply that anyone living in a refugee situation, with the skills needed by a team in Canada, can apply without traditional barriers like needing a valid passport – often impossible for someone who had to quickly leave their home. The EMPP makes it possible for Canadian hiring teams to have a tangible impact in the face of crisis, by meeting new colleagues and supporting them to leave refugee situations.

TalentLift received critical funding to advance this solution from Scotiabank through ScotiaRISE, the Bank’s $500 million commitment and social impact strategy to remove barriers to career advancement and employment. Funding enables TalentLift to rapidly respond to this displacement crisis by connecting Canadian hiring teams with displaced Afghans seeking opportunity.

We and our partners alongside impact-driven employers have now supported 176 talented candidates from Afghanistan, including 116 men and 60 women, to obtain job and skilled visa opportunities to Canada. This means 407 people when accounting for family have relocated or are in a visa process, to teams and communities where they can put down roots and contribute.

They include folks like Asadullah, working as a Fibre Optics Technician in London, Ontario. And M. (her real name protected), who relocated to join McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario as a Research Assistant. And Nizamuddin, a healthcare professional now working in Kamloops, British Columbia.

There are so many other talented people in need of opportunity. More than 3,417 folks from Afghanistan alone have registered their skills and talents on our talent platform. Among them are nearly 600 women. Beyond Afghanistan, TalentLift and our partners are working hard to support those displaced globally including from crisis situations in Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, and Venezuela. More than 25,000 people in displacement worldwide are part of this talent pool now open to Canadian hiring teams.

We invite anyone with an open role on your team to get in touch. You can get started meeting remarkable people from Afghanistan and beyond with the skills you need, and open a life-changing relocation opportunity.

Asadullah shared, “I’m trying to work hard, to make a better life for my children.”

Imagine making that possible for your new colleagues.

Candidates living in refugee circumstances and seeking a job in Canada can join TalentLift. Employers seeking global talent while engaging their team in something transformative can start hiring.