Euractiv and Others Highlight The Opportunity for Business Community to Help Integrate Refugee Women In Europe

In November 2021, Tent and Catalyst Inc. co-hosted the first-ever European Business Summit on Refugee Women. During the event, 25 major companies – including adidas, American Express, BNP Paribas, L’Oréal, and PepsiCo – announced their participation in Tent’s Refugee Women Mentorship Initiative, each pledging to mentor 50 refugee women over the next three years. 

The Summit coincided with the publication of a new report, sponsored by Tent and written by Economist Impact, which highlights the vast inequities refugee women face when trying to integrate into the European workforce – citing that refugee women in Europe have an average employment rate of just 45%, compared with 62% for refugee men.

In an interview with Euractiv Andreas Wolter, Tent’s Associate Director for Global Partnerships  in Europe, emphasized that refugee women need additional support when it comes to restarting their careers. He said,: “Most companies don’t have refugees on their radar when they look [for] talent, so the mentoring programme is designed to help refugee women find easy access to the labour market.”

In addition to Euractiv, other European press including Deutsche Welle, Frankfurter Rundschau (German), and ARD Mediathek (German), covered the event and the report’s findings, underscoring the need for the mentorship as a way for refugee women to integrate into the labor force, and highlighting the opportunity this presents for businesses across Europe.

To learn more about the event, read the press release here.