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Refugee Week 2025: Co-Creating Community Through the Workplace

  • Ellen Liptrot
  • Jun 17
  • 3 min read
Refugees Welcome SIgbn

Community isn’t just something we’re part of – it’s something we co-create.


Through the conversations we have, the ways we work together, and the decisions we make, we build spaces where people feel safe, seen, and connected.


Workplaces are among the most influential of these spaces. They’re not only where we show up as professionals, but where we shape norms, build relationships, and create the structures that define what belonging really means.


When workplaces are designed with inclusion at the centre, they become communities where people thrive – not despite their differences, but because of them.


Why Community at Work Matters During Refugee Week

This Refugee Week, the theme “Community is a Superpower” invites us to celebrate the power of connection – not as a one-off act of kindness, but as a sustained, collective effort to build belonging. For colleagues from refugee backgrounds, work can be a vital pathway to connection. It offers structure, identity, and hope, especially after periods of uncertainty and displacement.

But this only happens when workplace systems and cultures are intentionally designed to include, empower, and collaborate – not exclude. HR leaders and people professionals play a key role. We don’t just shape access to employment. We influence the everyday experiences and relationships that determine whether a workplace truly feels like a community.

Understanding the Realities People Are Navigating


Effective HR and people strategies are grounded in empathy and context. Before someone even arrives at work, there’s often a complex journey behind them. For colleagues from refugee backgrounds, that can include surviving a dehumanising asylum system.


In the UK, most people seeking asylum are not allowed to work. They live on just over £7 per day in temporary accommodation, often isolated from supportive communities and far from the networks that aid integration. This period can last for months or even years.


Once granted refugee status, they face a 28-day deadline to leave asylum accommodation, secure housing, register for benefits or find work, and begin to rebuild their lives – all while potentially managing trauma, employment gaps, non-recognised qualifications, and the emotional toll of racialised narratives and discrimination.


These are not background details. They shape how people experience safety, community, and trust long before they enter the workplace. Building inclusive organisations means recognising these realities, removing systemic and cultural barriers, and co-designing spaces where colleagues don’t just survive – they belong, contribute, and lead.


Challenging the Deficit Model


Workplace community is built on trust, inclusion, and shared values. But we won’t get there by relying on deficit-based narratives.


People from refugee backgrounds are often framed by what they lack – qualifications, experience, language – rather than what they bring. Lived experience is not a gap. It’s a powerful source of knowledge, resilience, and adaptability. Navigating complex systems and rebuilding from scratch takes leadership, determination, and perspective.


Equity-led HR recognises this and calls on us to reframe potential. That means creating recruitment and career pathways that value personal history alongside professional experience. When we recognise lived experience as a form of expertise, we don’t just support individuals. We enrich our teams and organisations with insight, empathy, and real-world wisdom.


Co-Creating Inclusive Cultures


Inclusive communities at work don’t emerge by accident. They’re intentionally co-designed through systems, cultures, and everyday acts of inclusion.


That might include:

  • Mentoring or buddying programmes that support confidence and connection

  • Trauma-informed practices that support psychological safety

  • Recruitment processes that acknowledge different pathways and avoid unnecessary barriers

  • Leadership models that value community contributions and lived experience


Most importantly, we must involve colleagues with experience of displacement in shaping what inclusion and success look like. When people have genuine influence over the systems that shape their experience, values like trust and belonging become more than words – they become practice.


Beyond Refugee Week


Community isn’t static – it’s something we build and rebuild every day through the choices we make and the relationships we prioritise. Refugee Week reminds us that the most inclusive workplaces aren’t just welcoming – they are co-created, responsive, and rooted in mutual respect.


Let’s move beyond the idea that workplace community simply happens. Instead, let’s design organisations where every colleague can contribute, belong, and thrive – not just during Refugee Week, but every week of the year.

 

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