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International recruitment has helped many care providers fill vacancies, stabilise rotas and continue supporting people when suitable workers could not be found locally.
Organisations have invested considerable time and money in sponsorship, compliance checks, visas, travel arrangements and recruitment processes. When the workers finally arrive and complete their induction, it can feel as though the difficult part is over. For the new employee, however, it may be just beginning.
They have not simply started a new job. They may have moved thousands of miles from their family, adapted to an unfamiliar culture and entered a workplace where everybody else appears to understand rules that have never been explained. An international recruit can be legally employed, fully trained and present on the rota without feeling that they truly belong to the team.
A worker may be warmly welcomed on their first day but still feel isolated several months later. Initial support often concentrates on practical requirements: identification, payroll, mandatory training, uniforms and policies. These things matter, but they do not automatically create connection.
Belonging develops through everyday experiences. It is being included in conversations, invited to sit with colleagues during breaks and given the confidence to ask a question without feeling foolish. It is understanding the joke in the staff room and knowing that your manager will listen if something feels wrong.
International recruits may not tell employers that they feel excluded. They may worry that doing so will make them appear ungrateful or difficult. Some will continue smiling, accepting additional shifts and completing their work while feeling profoundly alone. A successful recruitment process should therefore be measured by more than whether the worker remained employed long enough to fill a vacancy.
A new UK employee may begin a job while the rest of their life remains relatively stable. An international recruit may be navigating almost every aspect of daily living for the first time. They may need to understand transport, banking, housing, taxation, healthcare and local services. Shopping can feel unfamiliar, accents may be difficult to follow and tasks that once required little thought can take considerable energy.
Some workers arrive expecting accommodation or transport that does not match what was described during recruitment. Others discover that the cost of living leaves them with far less money than they anticipated, particularly when they are also supporting relatives overseas.
Employers are not responsible for managing every part of an employee’s private life. However, providing accurate information and practical signposting during the first months can prevent avoidable distress. A person cannot concentrate fully on induction if they do not understand how they will get home after a night shift.
Every workplace has unwritten expectations. Existing employees know who to ask, how handovers really operate and which problems require immediate escalation. International recruits do not.
A worker may have extensive experience in another country but be unfamiliar with UK legislation, professional boundaries, safeguarding processes, record-keeping expectations or the emphasis placed on choice and independence in social care. This does not mean their previous experience has no value. It means care is delivered within a different system and cultural context.
Induction should create space to compare approaches without embarrassment. Managers need to explain why practices are required rather than assuming the worker will learn by watching colleagues. Assigning a named buddy can help, but that person must be appropriate, willing and given time to provide support. Pairing a new worker with whoever happens to be available can expose them to poor habits before they have learned the expected standard.
Passing an English-language requirement does not mean somebody will immediately understand every accent, abbreviation, joke or hurried instruction used in a busy care service.
Care language can be particularly complex. Staff encounter medical terminology, local expressions and organisational shorthand while communicating with people whose speech may be affected by dementia, disability, illness or distress. Some workers may be confident speaking English but need longer to complete written records accurately. Others may understand formal language while struggling with casual conversation between colleagues.
Managers should address genuine communication risks clearly and provide support without treating an accent as evidence of incompetence. Asking someone to repeat themselves is different from mocking how they speak or excluding them from conversations. Colleagues can help by using clear language, avoiding unexplained abbreviations and checking understanding without being patronising.
Communication is a shared responsibility.
Teams rarely describe themselves as unwelcoming. Exclusion often appears through smaller behaviours that people do not immediately recognise as harmful. International workers may be left out of informal conversations, social events or preferred shift arrangements. Colleagues may repeatedly comment on their food, pronunciation, hair, name or country of origin. Questions that appear curious to one person can become exhausting when the worker is asked them every day.
Names may be shortened without permission because colleagues find them difficult to pronounce. Workers from different countries may be treated as though they share one culture or experience. None of this needs to involve open hostility to create a message that the person remains an outsider.
Managers should pay attention to who speaks in meetings, who eats alone and whose suggestions are routinely ignored until repeated by somebody else. Inclusion is not demonstrated by holding one international food day. It is demonstrated through ordinary decisions about whose voice and presence matter.
International care workers may experience racism from colleagues, managers, relatives or people receiving support.
When the behaviour comes from someone with dementia, a learning disability or another condition affecting understanding, the response may require careful assessment and a person-centred approach. But the impact on the worker must still be acknowledged. “They do not mean it” cannot be the organisation’s entire response.
Managers should explore triggers, review support strategies and consider whether staffing or environmental changes could reduce repeated abuse. The worker should be involved in discussions about what support they need and should not simply be assigned back into the same situation without a plan.
Where discriminatory behaviour comes from colleagues or relatives who understand their actions, it should be challenged directly through the organisation’s normal procedures. Protecting international workers from racism is not an optional part of making them feel welcome. It is a basic employment responsibility.
An employee whose visa is connected to their job may feel that disagreeing with the employer carries exceptional risk. They may worry about refusing overtime, reporting unsafe practice or questioning a payroll error. If accommodation, transport or access to additional hours also depends on the employer, that feeling of dependency can become even stronger.
A worker may therefore appear endlessly cooperative while privately feeling they have no safe alternative. Ethical sponsors should explain employment rights clearly and provide confidential ways to raise concerns. Managers must make it clear that reporting a safeguarding issue, declining an additional shift or using a grievance procedure will not threaten someone’s sponsorship.
International workers should know who they can contact beyond their immediate manager if the concern involves that manager. An employee who feels unable to say no cannot meaningfully be described as fully included.
Many international recruits are genuinely grateful for an employment opportunity. That gratitude should not be used to demand more from them than would be expected from other workers.
Comments such as “We brought you to this country” or “You should remember what the organisation has done for you” have no place in a healthy workplace. Sponsorship is part of an employment arrangement. The worker provides skilled labour, and the employer meets specific responsibilities. It is not a personal favour that creates an unlimited debt.
International employees should not routinely receive the shifts nobody else wants, be contacted first whenever cover is needed or be expected to tolerate poorer conditions because they are less likely to leave. Belonging means being treated as a member of the workforce, not as somebody who must continually prove they deserve to remain within it.
An international worker may be expected to explain the beliefs, behaviour or politics of millions of people because they happen to come from the same country. They may also be asked personal questions about religion, marriage, immigration or money that would never be directed towards a UK-born colleague.
Curiosity can create connection when it is respectful and mutual. It becomes uncomfortable when the same person is repeatedly treated as a cultural lesson rather than an individual. International recruits will have different personalities, values, ambitions and experiences. Two people from the same country may have very little in common beyond nationality.
Learn about the person, not just the place they came from.
International recruits are sometimes welcomed into frontline vacancies but overlooked when opportunities for development or promotion arise.
Managers may assume that language differences, unfamiliarity with the UK system or visa status make progression too complicated. Meanwhile, workers with significant experience and leadership potential remain in the same roles.
Development plans should explore their existing knowledge, future ambitions and any support required to progress. International recruits should have equal access to specialist training, acting-up opportunities and leadership pathways.
Employers should also avoid treating overseas qualifications as though they represent no achievement simply because they do not transfer directly into a UK role. A person who cannot use a previous professional title in this country may still bring valuable knowledge and experience to the team.
If international recruits can see no future beyond their current rota, they may remain only until another employer offers one.
A general question such as “Is everything going okay?” will usually receive a polite yes. Ask questions that make honest answers easier. Do you feel included by the team? Is there anything about working in the UK that has not been explained clearly? Do you feel comfortable raising concerns? Have you experienced behaviour from colleagues, families or people receiving care that made you uncomfortable? Are the hours, accommodation and pay what you were led to expect?
These conversations should take place more than once. A worker may not recognise a problem during their first week or feel sufficiently safe to discuss it until trust has developed.
Managers should also listen to themes across the international workforce. If several people raise similar concerns, the organisation may have a systemic problem rather than a series of individual misunderstandings.
Integration is not solely the responsibility of the new recruit. Existing employees also need clear expectations and an opportunity to adapt.
A team may suddenly include workers from several countries, with different experiences, accents and approaches. Managers should create opportunities for people to learn about each other while maintaining consistent professional standards.
They must also address resentment. Existing staff may believe international recruits are receiving accommodation, guaranteed hours or additional attention that they were never offered. International workers may believe established employees receive the best shifts and opportunities.
Some of these beliefs may be based on incomplete information, while others may reveal genuine unfairness. Ignoring the tension allows assumptions and divisions to grow. Explain arrangements appropriately, apply policies consistently and create a culture in which concerns can be discussed without racism or blame.
Completing the sponsorship process is not the same as becoming an employer international workers would recommend. Would they describe the recruitment information as honest? Did the organisation support them when they arrived? Were they given the hours they expected and paid correctly? Do they feel safe raising concerns? Have they formed genuine relationships within the team?
Most importantly, if they understood then what they know now, would they still choose the organisation?
The answer provides a far more meaningful measure of ethical international recruitment than the number of certificates of sponsorship issued.
International recruits bring skills, experience, ambition and the courage required to begin again somewhere unfamiliar. They may also bring grief for the family, identity and professional status they left behind. They should not be viewed simply as a workforce solution.
Belonging is created when colleagues learn their names, managers value their ideas and employers protect their rights. It grows when workers are trusted with opportunities rather than only additional shifts, and when they can raise a concern without wondering whether their future is at risk. Your international recruits may have arrived in the country, completed induction and taken their places on the rota.
The more important question is whether your organisation has made room for them to become part of the team.
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Posted by:
K Jadon
Editorial Assistant – The Daily Round
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