Connecting Displaced People with Safety through Immigration Pathways
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Betsy Fisher discusses how Talent Beyond Boundaries connects displaced people with marketable skills to employers worldwide, bypassing traditional immigration bureaucracy by matching qualified candidates with companies willing to support their visa processes. The organization helps skilled refugees and displaced persons find employment opportunities when they don't qualify for standard humanitarian programs but possess valuable education and expertise.
Key takeaways
- Displaced people often have marketable education and vocational skills but face barriers including documentation challenges, high visa costs, and complex immigration bureaucracy.
- Talent Beyond Boundaries solves this by identifying employers willing to hire displaced talent and underwriting visa and search costs while bureaucratic processes proceed.
- The program benefits both employers seeking to fill hiring challenges and skilled immigrants seeking new lives, with volunteer opportunities available for those without hiring needs.
- Many qualified displaced persons fall outside traditional humanitarian programs despite having highly valuable professional skills and education.
About Betsy FisherBetsy Fisher represents Talent Beyond Boundaries, an organization connecting displaced people with employment opportunities globally.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
MEETING FOR THE WEEK OF August 19, 2024
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Program: Connecting Displaced People with Safety through Immigration Pathways
Speaker: Betsy Fisher
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Program: Connecting Displaced People with Safety through Immigration Pathways
Speaker: Betsy Fisher
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The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own and, unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub or Rotary International.
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Our speaker this week is Betsy Fisher, who is the US Director of the NGO Talent Beyond Boundaries and a lecturer in international refugee law at the University of Michigan Law School. She is an immigration lawyer and advocates for government policy and technology-based platforms that help refugees and stateless people access lasting safety. She also enjoys watching sports and attempting to garden vegetables.
The number of displaced people, more than 110 million people currently, has rapidly expanded. Meanwhile, avenues have narrowed for people to safely return to their homes or gain long-term status and rights where they live now. In addition to asylum and resettlement, many seek to connect refugees with other avenues to safety through employment or family ties.
As an immigration lawyer and refugee advocate, Betsy has worked to advance these immigration pathways. As the US Director at Talent Beyond Boundaries, Betsy connects refugees with durable status and living wages in the United States, and previously developed a platform screening refugees for eligibility for dozens of immigration programs. Join us for a discussion of how we can leverage immigration policy and tech solutions to connect displaced people with lasting refuge.
Members and guests, please welcome Betsy Fisher!
To learn more, go to:
https://talentbeyondboundaries.org
To read a blog that Betsy co-wrote about avenues to connect refugees with third-country solutions:
https://rli.blogs.sas.ac.uk/2023/11/21/modest-proposals-for-actors-supporting-third-country-solutions-for-refugees/
Betsy's LinkedIn account:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/betsy-fisher-78051a14/
Betsy's Twitter/X profile:
https://twitter.com/betsylfisher
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