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Manpower South Africa is playing an innovative role in finding labour market solutions for refugees and has placed a total of 10 refugees in 2010 despite South African labour laws that privilege native South Africans. The company has acquired a reputation as the agency to go to for refugees looking for a fair opportunity because of its neutral and fair candidate evaluation and placement.

An example of what the company has been able to do is the story of Nesbert who was placed as a machine fitter in the textile industry in 2008. In 2009 he was laid off in preference to native workers, his brother was hurt in anti-foreigner rioting, and he returned for a while to Zimbabwe. In 2010 he came back, and the company was able to place him in an even better job in a steel mill.

Manpower is actively engaged in regional and global executive-level dialogue with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and with refugee agencies and NGOs, to look at ways it can more systematically assist in the resettlement and economic integration of refugees around the world.