Could your business use a skilled, educated and highly motivated new employee?
Consider hiring an Afghan refugee. That’s the plea from New Haven’s refugee resettlement agency as the U.S. wraps up its 20-year-old war in the country.
New Haven and other cities are anticipating an influx of Afghans with SIV or Special Immigrant Visa status in the coming months. In the past two weeks, 32 Afghans have arrived in New Haven, joining 500 of their fellow nationals who have been resettled in the area in the past five years due to wartime upheaval.
An influx is expected soon as refugees are processed at U.S. military bases: Agencies which normally get two weeks’ notice of refugee arrivals were put on notice last month that they could expect families with only 24-hour notice.
“The current situation is honestly exactly as you’re seeing,” said Ann O’Brien, director of Community Engagement at Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, referring to news coverage of last month’s evacuations from Kabul. “We’re going to have a lot of folks that need help.”
IRIS is seeking housing and employment for refugees anywhere in the state, O’Brien added.
Unlike most refugees, many Afghans arrive with SIV status, meaning that someone in a family group worked with the U.S. military or a military contractor on the ground in Afghanistan. Those with SIV status get unique access to the U.S. job market due to their service.
“From an employer’s perspective, these folks arrive with not just work authorization but they have green cards,” O’Brien said. Green cards allow foreign nationals to live and work permanently in the US.
In addition, many breadwinners in Afghan refugee families have excellent English and other job skills, including public relations and media experience, O’Brien said. They also have cross-cultural skills thanks to their work they did with American forces.
“They are part of our U.S. military — they are incredibly reliable and trustworthy and they have been put through an unbelievable nightmare,” O’Brien said. “The work that they did for our military was in the hopes that they could be part of the solution to be able to rebuild their government. Now that’s no longer an option and they had to be evacuated because their lives were in danger.”
The federal resettlement program requires refugees to find work as soon as possible, O’Brien said, and families are expected to begin paying rent within months of their arrival.
“It’s designed to imitate the classic immigrant story,” O’Brien said. “They have to step over and beyond and deal with whatever trauma they’ve been through — they need employment quickly because they have to support their families.”
Employers anywhere in the state interested in hiring refugees should email IRIS at info@irisct.org and put “employment opportunity” in the subject line.
Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.
