Building Inclusive Futures: How Two Guides Are Transforming Digital Employment for Refugees
By Lorraine Charles, Executive Director & Founder, Na’amal
The global refugee crisis demands urgent action, not only to address immediate humanitarian needs but also to create sustainable pathways for displaced individuals to rebuild their lives. As digitalization accelerates, presenting unique opportunities for job creation globally, refugees have unique opportunities to access meaningful employment. Digital work offers a transformative avenue for refugees to potentially overcome traditional barriers, unlock economic potential, and achieve self-reliance. Yet, significant challenges remain.
At a time when development actors, UN Agencies and the private sector are searching for innovative and sustainable ways to ensure that refugees have the skills for, and access to, decent digital work, these two resources “Empowering Refugees Through Digital Work: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Livelihood Opportunities” and “The Employers’ Guide for Inclusive Hiring” — offer innovative solutions for integrating refugees into the workforce. Together, they provide actionable strategies for businesses and policymakers, highlighting how inclusion can drive economic growth and foster resilience in communities.
With 70% of refugees living in countries that restrict their right to work, these resources equip employers, development actors and policymakers with the tools to make a tangible difference. For refugees, employment provides financial independence and a sense of belonging. For businesses, inclusive hiring represents an opportunity to drive growth, innovation, and social impact.
This article introduces and explores the key insights from these two resources, illustrating their practical relevance and the transformative impact they can have on anyone trying to support refugee employment, both those supporting their upskilling and employment.
Empowering Refugees Through Digital Work: A Practical Guide to Facilitating Livelihood Opportunities
Produced as part of the Jobtech for Refugees Community of Practice, hosted by Na’amal and Jobtech Alliance, the handbook focuses on how the digital economy can unlock opportunities for refugees who face geographic, legal, and economic barriers. Drawing on case studies and real-world examples, it outlines four key pipelines to digital livelihoods: freelancing, remote employment, entrepreneurship, and content creation.
The Foundation of Digital Work: Enabling Conditions and Employability
The guide sets out the conditions that are needed for refugees to successfully be upskilled and access employment in the digital economy. These conditions are a combination of enabling conditions and employability factors:
Enabling Conditions provide the essential infrastructure and resources for digital participation. These include:
Reliable electricity and internet access.
Devices such as laptops or smartphones.
Legal documentation to access platforms and secure payments.
Social and cultural support to foster acceptance and collaboration.
Employability Factors represent the individual capabilities necessary to compete and thrive in the digital economy. These include:
Technical and digital skills tailored to specific industries.
Soft skills like communication, adaptability, and teamwork.
Language proficiency, particularly in English for global markets.
Work experience and personal resilience.
These foundational elements are not isolated; they directly shape refugees’ ability to engage with the following four digital employment pipelines.
Pathways to Livelihoods: Four Digital Employment Pipelines
The guide identifies four primary ways refugees can participate in the digital economy; freelancing, remote employment, digital entrepreneurship and content creation.
Remote Employment
Full-time remote roles provide refugees with stable incomes, professional development opportunities, and benefits comparable to traditional employment. Access to these roles is facilitated through direct hiring on job boards or hiring partnerships with organizations like Remote, which bridge the gap between employers and refugee talent by providing essential support and resources.
Digital Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship enables refugees to establish and grow their own businesses, fostering economic independence. Key avenues include using e-commerce platforms like Shopify and leveraging social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook to market products and services locally. Advanced startups also create opportunities for scaling innovative digital solutions, enabling long-term sustainability and growth.
Digital Freelancing
Freelancing offers refugees the flexibility to take on short- to medium-term projects independently, providing an accessible entry point into the gig economy. Refugees secure these opportunities through various pathways, including online labor platforms like Upwork, project-based agencies such as Na’amal Agency, and informal networks or referrals, which often prove invaluable for building connections and gaining experience.
Content Creation
Social media platforms enable refugees to share their stories, skills, and cultural insights while generating income. Platforms like YouTube and TikTok offer monetization through advertising, sponsorships, affiliate marketing, and live streaming. However, content creators face challenges such as intense competition, limited resources, algorithmic changes, and the mental health pressures of maintaining an online presence.
Practical Resources
The handbook provides clear, concise guidelines for addressing foundational barriers, fostering employability, and unlocking digital pathways. It provides:
Strategies for navigating infrastructure gaps, improving skills development, and overcoming legal hurdles to ensure refugees can fully participate in digital work opportunities.
Insights into impactful initiatives that exemplify existing practices, such as:
Na’amal Agency, a project-based freelancing initiative that combines training, mentorship, and client engagement to help refugees gain experience and secure income.
Appen’s Refugee Initiatives, which provide microwork opportunities while addressing onboarding and payment challenges through partnerships with NGOs.
The Employers’ Guide for Inclusive Hiring
This employer’s guide serves as a step-by-step toolkit for businesses looking to integrate displaced talent into their workforce. Developed as part of the Migration Summit 2024, a global convening designed to build bridges between diverse stakeholders around the key challenges and opportunities for refugee and migrant communities and led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Emerging Talent, Na’amal and the Karam Foundation, it goes beyond theory, offering a detailed roadmap to create inclusive hiring processes while dispelling myths and addressing practical challenges.
Dispelling Myths About Refugee Employment
The guide tackles common misconceptions, such as the idea that hiring refugees is legally risky, overly complex, or yields little return on investment. Drawing on data, it demonstrates that refugees tend to be loyal employees, often staying with companies longer than their peers, and bring unique skills and perspectives that enhance organizational performance.
Business Benefits of Inclusive Hiring
Hiring refugees isn’t just a social good, it is a strategic move. The guide highlights that business benefits from hiring refugees because of:
Innovation and Creativity: Refugees’ diverse experiences can foster innovation and problem-solving.
Stronger Retention Rates: Refugee employees often exhibit higher job loyalty, reducing costly turnover rates.
Brand Equity: Consumers increasingly value companies that demonstrate social responsibility, with over 60% of consumers more likely to support businesses that hire refugees.
Best Practices for Employers
The guide provides a comprehensive framework for organisations to effectively hire, onboard, and support displaced talent and also includes resources for navigating work permits and compliance issues, making hiring less daunting. The guide suggests that best practices include:
Streamlined Recruitment: Address biases among recruitment teams, ensuring that recruitment is based on skills, so that candidates are evaluated based on their abilities, rather than traditional career trajectories. Employers can also partner with organizations to connect with pre-vetted refugee talent.
Inclusive Workplace Culture: Businesses are encouraged to provide mentorship, cultural training, and language support to ensure refugee employees feel valued and integrated. Celebrating cultural diversity ensures that refugee team members feel included.
Sharing Success: Highlight the positive impact of displaced employees on business performance to inspire others in the organization and Engage in public advocacy to normalize hiring refugees and promote inclusion.
A Call to Action
The insights from these guides are not merely academic—they are calls to action for businesses, governments, and the development sector. By adopting the strategies outlined, we can unlock the immense potential of refugees, creating ecosystems that value diversity and inclusion.
For employers, these resources are blueprints for building a workforce that reflects the world’s diversity. For policymakers, they highlight the importance of removing barriers to refugee employment. And for refugees, they offer hope and tangible opportunities to rebuild lives.