Many refugees face discrimination in host countries because of the stereotype of bringing in the problems of their home country. This stereotype can leave them isolated in the host country without given the oppurtunity to integrate into the community and not given the opportunity to showcase their talents that they built careers off of before being displaced.

“They have this stereotype of being destitute, poor, victims and not people that had interesting lives before,” according to the International Advocacy director, Leah Nichles.

Over 120 occupations are available in the talent catalog including subcategories of engineering, medicine, law, IT, teaching and mining. Over ten people were sent to Nova Scotia, Canada this year for nursing jobs. A third of refugees have higher education and a third speak more than one language.

According to Nichles, there’s no other organization doing this work with refugees.

They mainly operate out of Washington D. C., and raise awareness of their organization through different foundations and events like GIN.

Talent Beyond Boundaries actively searches for employers and refugees and facilitate the relationship between the two. They have regular follow up meetings with the employer and hire to complete visa applications and credential verification. An important part of the process is checking if both the employer and employee understands the paperwork and the agreement, through their online system and volunteers in the area.

There has been more initiative to reach more people, and after talking with one of the refugees they created an online program to register all of their information and qualifications. For example, a person in Lebanon might be a nurse and a Canadian hospital would need their experience. The organization would then connect them online and eventually in person to have the refugees verify their credentials and to see if they would like the job. To further find refugees that need help finding jobs, the organization has trained volunteers in 60 NGOs to talk about Talent Beyond Boundaries and direct people to the organization. Through this outreach over 10,000 refugees have registered. These people are now receiving help from the organization to find an employer in another country.

“At least there’s something to hope for when they leave,” senior at Thurgood Marshall-attendee, Menkhu-tá Whaley said.

Talent Beyond Boundaries  currently serves 46 refugees, and each are in different stages of application. There are multilingual interns that help in over four countries. These interns speak Arabic and help with the communication between the employer and employee. The volunteers in Talent Beyond Boundaries are stationed in areas like Beirut, Washington D. C., Australia and Canada.

The organization concentrates on getting more refugees to register because if they have more people I feel like other companies will want to help, according to WIS sophomore, Maya Rodic.

Talent Beyond Biundaries also relies on Arabic speaking interns and volunteers.

By Ayanna Rhodes