The Tent Partnership for Refugees has officially launched Tent Nederland, a national coalition uniting over 40 leading companies in a joint effort to accelerate the labor market integration of refugees in the Netherlands. The initiative marks a significant step toward leveraging private sector leadership to create meaningful employment pathways for forcibly displaced people.
Among the founding members of Tent Nederland are prominent names such as Philips, Randstad, Unilever, ABN AMRO, and Accenture. These companies have committed to a variety of refugee-supporting actions—including hiring refugees directly, offering job readiness training, providing mentorship, and engaging their supply chains to expand access to employment opportunities.
By forming Tent Nederland, the coalition aims to address both a pressing humanitarian issue and a critical labor market challenge. Many industries in the Netherlands face growing workforce shortages, while thousands of refugees—many with valuable skills and experience—struggle to find work that matches their potential. Tent Nederland’s goal is to bridge this gap with tailored, private-sector-driven solutions.
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Hélène van Melle, director of Tent Nederland, said “There are now more vacancies than unemployed people in the Netherlands, and that difference will increase further. Hiring refugees is a win-win-win: it is a structural solution for labor shortages, it gives refugees the opportunity to rebuild their lives, and it enables them to contribute to society. In these uncertain and changing times, we see that more needs to be done. That is why we, with Tent Nederland and our network, are committed to accelerating the labor participation of refugees and asylum seekers on a large scale.”
The initiative builds on Tent’s broader mission to mobilize businesses around the world to support refugees through hiring, training, and supply chain inclusion. With Tent Nederland, the organization hopes to create a scalable model that can be replicated in other countries facing similar challenges.
The coalition’s launch sends a strong message about the role businesses can play in creating inclusive economies while meeting their own workforce needs. As the global refugee crisis continues, Tent Nederland offers a hopeful example of what public-private collaboration can achieve for both displaced individuals and local communities.
