Novel Passages: The value of facilitating over implementing solutions
The humanitarian sector has the opportunity to pave new pathways, by pointing the way, and then getting out of the way.
Tarek found himself with a limited set of options after being displaced from his native Syria. He wanted to advance his career as a software engineer, and, like many other Syrians who moved to Lebanon because of the war, he encountered a number of legal and economic barriers to doing so. An unexpected opportunity did arise, though. One that would transform his life and bring him to the other side of the world.
The mission of the Complementary Pathways team in the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) is to support the organization’s primary efforts in promoting safe, fair and inclusive programmes with alternative opportunities and solutions for people forced to flee. Being sponsored for a work or education opportunity is feasible for many refugees with the skills and training obtained before or since displacement.
While accessing these visas is not without barriers for many refugees, it represents an innovative approach to achieving the objectives of humanitarian and development actors. By reframing the challenges of displacement in terms of the goal of securing livelihoods through available legal migration systems, the Complementary Pathways team works with many partners internally and outside of UNHCR to open up the field of solutions and partnerships to fulfil UNHCR’s mandate.
David Manicom, Special Advisor for Resettlement and Complementary Pathways at UNHCR, describes it this way: “These efforts are genuinely innovative in that they apply a conscious design and methodology to something we know occurred previously in risky, irregular ways. We need to find ways for refugees to participate fairly in the large scale movement of people across borders every year for labour purposes. In this sense, a ‘pathway’ is an inclusive adjustment to these existing migratory mechanisms.”
More specifically, the global strategy on Resettlement and Complementary Pathways is focused on legal migration routes, such as obtaining employer- or institution-sponsored opportunities or benefitting from family reunification, for refugees to enable access to a third country and find a solution. While not negating how vital it is for countries to implement robust and inclusive asylum rights regimes and to partake in resettlement and integration initiatives, parallel efforts to facilitate dignity and safety after displacement serve to diversify narratives around displacement, emphasising skills, opportunities and equality of access in an interdependent global economy.
Let’s leave ‘pathway’ jargon and talk of innovative strategies aside for a moment, and consider the story of Tarek, and his experience with UNHCR partner Talent Beyond Boundaries.
Tarek’s Talent Beyond Boundaries
Tarek hails from the city of Latakia, Syria, where he was born in 1992. His interest in computers led to a degree in Computer Engineering, and entry into a Master’s programme related to augmented reality. While Tarek had secured some volunteer and freelance work in these early days of his career, fate had other plans. Latakia witnessed protest and violence in the Syrian Civil War from 2011, as the national economy and security situation deteriorated.
Unable to finish his course, or further pursue his career, and anxious for his country, he fled to Lebanon in 2015. Life in Lebanon was characterised by uncertainty. Tarek found some software engineering work, but without proper working status, he couldn’t plan for the future. It was at this time that he heard about Talent Beyond Boundaries (TBB) from a friend who lives in Canada.
Talent Beyond Boundaries connects refugees to international job opportunities to open up labour mobility pathways for displaced people around the world, as a complementary solution to traditional refugee resettlement.
Tarek recalls, “In 2017, I received an email from one of my friends who lives in Canada. He mentioned TBB, a new programme that helps people find work visas. I contacted them and I went to a meeting where they introduced me to TBB. I didn’t expect at that point that I would be moving to work in Australia!”
After a process of completing applications, adjusting them for specific jobs, and discussions of job and location preferences, TBB paired Tarek with Australian financial technology company Iress who expressed an interest in his CV. TBB supported Tarek in interview preparation and advice, and after several rounds, he was offered a position as a Software Engineer with the company in Melbourne.
TBB connected Tarek and his new employer with a migration agent to assist them with the visa process, and provided regular follow up and integration support well after his arrival in Australia in January 2019.
Tarek continued, “TBB stayed in contact with me. They helped me a lot when I came, and they even welcomed me at the airport. They put me in contact with organisations, to help me settle and understand the culture. I love the work culture in Melbourne. There is a flat hierarchy and you can speak comfortably with everyone in the company.”
Tarek is now settled in Melbourne, working hard, making new friends, and learning about Australia. He continues to enjoy music, photography and reading, and hopes to complete his Master’s degree one day.
Endurable Solutions and New Solidarities
When does the humanitarian identity of ‘protector of the vulnerable’ and ‘provider of protection’ cloud that vision, and get in the way of that very goal?
When designing solutions to the challenges of forced displacement, an openness to complementary methods of finding the security and dignity of people forced to flee creates new opportunities for acts of international solidarity and care. Labour mobility schemes, as highlighted in the case of Tarek, are just one example.
Mariana Meyer, Complementary Pathways Policy Officer at UNHCR, observes the benefits of such an approach, “The beauty of Talent Beyond Boundaries’ approach is that refugees register themselves and control their personal information in their Talent Catalogue. TBB offers a scheme that levels the playing field for talented refugees by lifting certain barriers. It demonstrated the power of the role of facilitator, or enabler.”
Looking beyond the traditional three durable solutions of local integration, resettlement and voluntary repatriation, Meyer sees untapped potential. “It is in our interest to enable refugees to compete on equal ground for employment or education opportunities by removing barriers, in documentation or accreditation for example. We need to see refugees as skilled and fully capable individuals to decide on what they want for their future.”
Communities, too, can mobilise to support refugees in admission efforts through the collective sponsorships of individuals or groups, and with the financial and settlement support, take the initiative to facilitate integration. Education and scholarship programmes present similar opportunities to build bridges of camaraderie between rooted and uprooted people.
For the humanitarian sector, embracing complementary pathways is a way of embracing our only ever partial relevance, while privileging principles of safety and regulated avenues in a spirit of collaboration. Every year, refugees find their own solutions beyond the international protection architecture by directly engaging with alternatives. Rather than seeing this reality as contradictory of the necessary protection driven resettlement programmes, the complementary pathways should be made safer and easier to access with solutions to administrative and legal barriers for those who want them.