The story of Vietnamese refugee Trinh Tu, who rose to become an MD at Ipsos, underlines how migrants, when given opportunity, transform workplaces and society. HR leaders can have a key role in unlocking talent and informing debate on immigration, argues Duncan Brown, a principal associate at the Institute for Employment Studies.
Arriving in England as a nine-year-old Vietnamese refugee in 1979, Trinh Tu remembers the biting cold of that first winter, the long dangerous journey, and the uncertainty of what lay ahead.
Four decades later she is managing director of public affairs at Ipsos and a trustee of the UN Refugee Agency.
Her story, as one of the 19,000 original ‘boat people’ that were resettled here in the 1980s and 1990s, is a reminder that behind every negative headline about migrants are individuals who, when given support, jobs and opportunity, can go on to make extraordinary contributions.
Today, Vietnamese nationals again feature heavily in the migration story.
In 2019, 39 Vietnamese people suffocated in a lorry container in Essex. This year more than 30,000 people have crossed the Channel in small boats. Among them are record numbers of children, and in the six months to June, Vietnamese people made up the largest national group of recorded small boat arrivals.
The government’s language has hardened, “stop the boats” has become the refrain, and last week we saw the first two migrants removed under the new ‘one-in one-out’ agreement with France.
Just-appointed Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood wasted no time last week in stating that securing the UK’s borders was her ‘top priority’, risking the displacement of other government priorities, not least tackling labour exploitation through the promised Fair Work Agency.
Migration and work
For those of us in HR, immigration is not only a political controversy but a practical concern.
Employers are still struggling with acute skill shortages, particularly in health and care.
In my mum’s care home they were having M&S sandwiches for lunch as they haven’t been able to recruit a chef. The government’s decision to end new overseas recruitment of care workers under the Health and Care Visa from 22 July 2025 has also been highly controversial.
“The care system will implode without migrant staff,” said Christina McAnea of Unison.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has been equally blunt, warning that restrictions risk sending the message that Britain is no longer welcoming at precisely the moment it needs skilled workers in the NHS, care homes, logistics and IT.
And for those migrants who do arrive, the risks from a poorly regulated employment market are considerable.
Last year almost 2,000 companies lost their licence to sponsor overseas workers, double the year before. Around 39,000 workers were linked to care companies stripped of their licences.
Reports of trafficking, underpayment and exploitation continue to mount. The anti-slavery commissioner Eleanor Lyons called the numbers “alarming”.
One of the reasons cited for the UK being so attractive to asylum seeking migrants is the ease of securing work illegally in food delivery jobs. In 2023, the Home Office identified around 17,000 people as victims of modern slavery, and a further 13,587 in the first nine months of last year. The bulk of the referrals were migrants, often brought to Britain to work in nail salons, car washes, sex work and the illicit drug trade.
Public opinion and polarisation
Ipsos polling suggests immigration has become Britain’s second biggest public concern after the economy, with two-thirds saying the numbers are too high. This is the highest figure Trinh Tu’s employer has recorded since they first started asking the question five years before her arrival here from Vietnam in 1979. The poll shows that the public sees housing availability and crime as the areas most negatively affected, despite net migration nearly halving in 2024.
But opinion is polarised. Support for refugees is still evident, alongside the well-publicised protests. More than 250,000 Ukrainians have settled here since 2022, with strong public backing. A remarkable 88 percent of those taking Ukrainians into their homes would do so again, and 70 percent would house a refugee from Afghanistan.
However, fear and suspicion tend to dominate when the narrative is framed around “small boats”. But in spite of the Daily Mail headlines and wider media focus on small boats and asylum seekers, these only make up a tiny proportion of the overall number of people coming to the UK – less than 5 percent of Home Office visas granted and arrivals detected in 2025 thus far. The vast majority arrive here on work or student visas.
Tu warns that such language risks dehumanising individuals, just as “boat people” once did. “Seeing this dehumanisation makes me feel deeply saddened about the immense waste of talent and potential,” she says. Words matter; they shape mindsets, and mindsets in turn influence action.
Mindsets are key
Much of the political debate is focused on enforcement and borders. Yet research, for example by academic Stephen Utych, shows that hostile language, such as “swarms”, “waves”, “vermin”, actively shapes attitudes, making it easier to justify punitive measures. Anthropologist Chris Terrill and others have shown how this erosion of humanity plays out in policy.
In an excellent article, he frighteningly contrasts the organised resettlement of Vietnamese boat people in 1979, supported by a generally interested and informed media, with today’s very different tone. Hostile and compassion-free commentaries now dominate in parliament, the press and the wider public, not least among the protestors marching in London last Saturday.
In HR we have our own version of this challenge. Culture change is often discussed in abstract terms, as though culture change is easy. Yet on issues such as flexible working, we can find it really hard to shift our leaders views based on their past experience.
I find “mindset” to be the more useful concept. It better links the individual and the collective, and is more open to influence. Covid showed how leaders and organisations adapted mindsets rapidly to survive. For HR, the opportunity to change mindsets lies in fostering awareness, reflection and behaviour that can unlock potential, rather than close it down.
Stories of hardship and hope
Patricia, a care assistant from the Philippines, sold her house and paid £12,000 in fees to work in the UK. Long shifts, underpayment and eventually the collapse of her employer left her traumatised and at risk of deportation. “Without carers, who is doing the care?” she asks. Yet she remains hopeful, about to start a new role with an employer who values her.
Her story sits alongside those of earlier arrivals. “It’s a wonderful display of people,” says the now retired captain of a cargo ship which rescued dozens of Vietnamese refugees resettled here in 1979. “They have become doctors, accountants, chemists.“
Tu similarly recalls the kindness of those who welcomed them in a disused school in Kent where they were initially housed. “I wouldn’t be here without that compassion,” she says.
HR’s role
I heard the historian Yuval Noah Harari speaking earlier this month of the power of mindset, quoting Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus: “Unless we change our mind we cannot change the world.”
For HR leaders, this is not just philosophy but daily practice. In a climate of polarisation, workplaces can offer a counter-narrative: a place where migrants and refugees are not reduced to statistics, but colleagues with skills, ambition and humanity.
Migration will likely remain politically contentious. But in the world of work we can take a different approach. We can challenge exploitation, open doors, and recognise potential. HR’s role is not just to manage the workforce but to provide hope and opportunity, to move mindsets and to change lives.
