Recruitment, Experiences and Retention of Military Migrants

With increased military activity in Europe, efforts are underway to strengthen the UK military, including exploring wider recruitment from the Commonwealth to address current recruitment shortfalls.

However, commonwealth recruits report negative experiences due to role misalignment, underutilisation of their skills, discrimination, and systemic barriers to career progression, which contributed to retention challenges.

The UK armed forces should re-evaluate their recruitment, retention, and career and leadership development programs/strategies to better attract and retain Commonwealth recruits.