Hey non-profits! Relocate your next employee from a refugee situation
Posted on January 12, 2024 by Dana Wagner
Your hiring power has the potential to move talented new team members from displacement to a secure future in Canada.
There are more than 110 million people living displaced around the world. This figure has risen in the last several decades to an historic high, driven by conflict or civil instability in Syria, Venezuela, Ukraine, Afghanistan, and South Sudan, among other regions. Many displaced people are living in countries where they have limited access to work rights and other basic services. And yet, many have the skills and talent needed by teams and communities across Canada.
The non-profit and charitable sector has an opportunity to get involved, and put their own team values of inclusion and community impact into practice through a new hiring strategy: Sourcing your hard-to-fill roles from the international talent pool of people living in refugee situations.
Do you need a Software Developer? A Data Analyst? A Project Manager? A Sales Lead? A Graphic Designer? A Bookkeeper? A lot of the critical skill sets needed by non-profit teams are also really difficult to find in Canada. But the right candidate doesn’t need to be here in Canada. Your next great hire might be in a refugee situation, eager for a job and relocation opportunity.
The Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP)
Many teams in the non-profit sector may be new to international recruitment using skilled visas. That’s okay. Not having past experience with immigration shouldn’t be a barrier to starting out. Canada has a unique immigration program called the Economic Mobility Pathways Pilot (EMPP), which aims to help hiring teams across Canada to recruit and relocate talent from within refugee populations.
Canada is continuously improving the pilot, and it has never been easier or faster for Canadian hiring teams to participate.
A few important things for organizations to know about recruitment under the EMPP:
- Your team and the location of the job can be anywhere in Canada outside Quebec
- You need to offer a full-time job
- You should offer the prevailing (median) wage for the role and location
- You can work with TalentLift to learn more and find a shortlist of talented candidates living in displacement for your open roles
- You should be ready to pay the costs of visas and relocation, and provide basic arrival support (i.e. airport pick-up) to your new employee and their family (and don’t stress – we help you plan and execute each step!)
- You can expect a visa processing timeline of about 6 months, which is quite reasonable when seeking in-demand skills.
Importantly, supporting a candidate from displacement through the EMPP is not the same as private sponsorship through Canada’s refugee resettlement program. The EMPP falls under the economic stream and is intended to be a complementary solution, and therefore the number of people moving under this program is additional to Canada’s resettlement commitment. The costs and commitments required of hiring teams are also very different from those provided by private sponsors.
Who’s hiring?
Some pioneering non-profit teams are already showing what’s possible – including us. TalentLift hired a star Data Engineer who’s now a core part of our team, who will be relocating from a refugee situation in Türkiye. Other non-profit partners of TalentLift that are recruiting from the displaced talent pool include a church in Edmonton, a volunteer and giving platform in Vancouver, and a provider of home, long-term and primary healthcare with locations across Canada.
Why hire?
If you have open roles on your team that are difficult to fill, and your organization is mission-driven, this impactful hiring solution might be right for you.
In summary, your team can:
- Access an underleveraged talent pool (candidates living in refugee situations) with in-demand skills and high potential.
- Gain knowledge and experience of different cultures, regions and socio-economic circumstances that will expand diversity of thought on the team.
- Gain creative, agile problem-solvers who have remarkable perseverance and determination.
- Engage in a transformative change, and in enriching community-building, when your new employee relocates alongside their family from displacement.
- Put your values of inclusion and community impact into practice through your hiring power.
How to get started
Get in touch! We’ll set up a discovery call to learn more about your roles and explain how it works.
And …
In discussion with candidates living displaced in Ecuador, the TalentLift team asked what they wished Canadian employers knew about them. “People are very resilient, hard-working and very strong,” said one candidate. Another added, “they have an adaptability. They can do different things, not only what they’re trained for,” and “they take adversity as a chance to grow.”
The Canadian charitable sector counts some 86,000 organizations, plus many other non-profits across the country. Imagine the opportunities we can offer to candidates like these to grow.
Join a community of pioneering hiring teams across Canada. Start hiring with TalentLift.