Friday June 17, 2016
FILE: Pedro Jimenez of Cuba takes the oath of citizenship during festivities marking World Refugee Day at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City, Saturday, June 4, 2016. (Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — For Aden Batar, a Somali refugee, getting his first job after he was resettled of Utah in 1994 meant two things: He could pay his family's bills and he would not have to go on public assistance.Although he was college educated, Batar's first job in the United States was working on a production line in Logan making $10 an hour.
"Even though it was not too much, at least I was proud to do that job," he said, speaking Thursday at a business networking event held in Zions Bank's Founders Room to encourage employers to hire refugees.
Batar, who this week celebrated his 20th year working at Catholic Community Services of Utah, is now its director of refugee resettlement and immigration.
Refugees need that first opportunity to start working to better provide for their families, eventually buy homes and send their children to college, he said.
Top metro areas for select refugee communities Marjorie Cortez (Mary Archbold)
Catholic Community Services needs to find jobs for about 250 households a year."The many jobs we can give these refugees, the more we can save for the state taxpayers," he said. "They want to pay their bills. They want to provide for their families and also, they want to live the American dream."
Batar encouraged all in attendance to befriend a refugee family.
"Show them love and respect and welcome to our community. If you an employer, please give a job to a refugee. I'm sure it will benefit your company and also, in the long run, you are helping somebody," he said.Catholic Community Services recognized two companies for their efforts to employ refugees, Little America and Grand America, as "Most Dedicated Employer" and Americom Technology Inc., as "Best New Employer." The Murray company is a construction firm that specializes in indoor cabling and other tech utilities.
Ehsan Suhail, a former Catholic Community Services client and Iraqi refugee who now owns two restaurants called Shawarma King, said he and his family fled to Syria when it was no longer safe for them to remain in Iraq.
After his father was killed, Suhail was responsible for his mother and five brothers.
Seven years ago, he was resettled to Utah. Catholic Community Services helped him find a job and after two years, he started his first restaurant. Once that was on firm footing, he started another.
As an employer, he hires refugees to help give them the opportunity he was afforded when he was resettled, he said.
"We're doing great now. I'm very happy. I am seeming my company be successful," he said. "I can say I am one of the examples of the refugee. We need to give more opportunities to the refugees and we need more help."
Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber, said he, too, needs to do more to encourage Utah businesses to extend opportunities to refugees.
"Most jobs in the state of Utah are filled by referral. What does that mean about all of us? We need to do a better job in reminding people that there’s a wonderful opportunity to work with organizations like Catholic Community Services to bring people into our doors to apply for the jobs, to help them, to assist them to take advantage of that great service," he said.
Beattie's comments come as the Fiscal Policy Institute and the Center for American Progress released a new report that examined four key refugee groups' contributions to the nation's economic growth.
For the report, "Refugee Integration in the United States," researchers examined the contributions and experiences of Bosnian, Burmese, Hmong, and Somali refugees. Among metropolitan areas across the country, Salt Lake metro has the ninth largest population of Somali refugees and the 10th largest population of Bosnian refugees.
Among U.S. states, Utah has the 24th highest number of refugees from Myanmar — 1,370, including 891 children.
“Refugees have experienced some of the most horrific of circumstances imaginable. Yet as they establish themselves in America, they get jobs, start businesses, buy homes, learn English and become citizens,” said David Dyssegaard Kallick, principal author of the report.
“Economic growth is not the primary reason refugees are resettled, but it is a positive byproduct of giving people with nowhere to turn a new place to call home. Doing the right thing is not only good for refugees, it’s also good for American communities.”
The report found that once refugees are resettled, men find work quickly. Refugee women start out at considerably lower rates of labor force participation compared to their U.S.-born peers but rise to the same levels over time.
"Refugees see substantial wage gains as they gradually improve their footing in the American economy. Some start new businesses, and many shift to occupations better suited to their abilities as they find ways to get certification for their existing skills and learn new ones," the report states.
Ten years after their resettlement in the United States, a large majority of refugees have learned English and become homeowners. After two decades, significant numbers become naturalized U.S. citizens.
Among the four specific communities the report studied, labor force participation rates of men in the Somali, Burmese, Hmong, and Bosnian refugee communities often exceed those of U.S.-born men. Among women of those communities, their labor force participation is on par with U.S. born women after 10 years and sometimes higher, it said.
According to the report, 1 in 12 immigrants in the United States came as a refugee or was granted asylum.
One in five refugees are Somali, Burmese, Hmong, or Bosnian, nearly 500,000 of the 3 million refugees in the United States. Some 50,000 refugees have been resettled in Utah since the end of the Vietnam War.
Utah has 239,254 immigrants (not just refugees), including 22,040 immigrant children. Immigrants comprised 8.4 percent of the state's population, according to the report, ranking 21st nationwide.
Thirteen percent of the nation's population are immigrants, who include refugees and asylees, lawful permanent residents, temporary lawful residents, naturalized citizens and unauthorized immigrants.
The report notes that federal, state, and local governments should help ensure that refugees reach their full economic and social potential.
"When refugees succeed, the communities they live in do better, and the U.S. economy grows," the report says.
"America has a long, proud, and positive experience with resettling refugees. While refugee resettlement is primarily an issue of providing humanitarian assistance, it is also reassuring to see that in the long run, refugees become part of their new communities, make substantial contributions to local economies, and experience many of the same challenges and successes as all Americans."