9/26/2022 10:20:54 AM
Immigrant & Refugee Affairs Interim Assistant Commissioner Abdiwahab Mohamed
Welcoming New Americans is critically important to Minnesota communities and to our economy. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) recently hosted a listening session with community members as part of Welcoming Week – a national initiative to bring together neighbors of all backgrounds to build strong connections and affirm the importance of welcoming and inclusive places in achieving collective prosperity.
During the gathering we asked our participants about the biggest challenges immigrant and refugees face in Minnesota today – here’s what they had to say:
Francisco Segovia – Executive Director, Comunidades Organizando el Poder y la Acción Latina (COPAL)
One challenge as someone from the Latino community, is confusion around how we all identify ourselves here in the U.S. I like to joke that I didn’t know I was a Latino until I came to the United States as an immigrant. Some people call us Hispanics and others prefer to call themselves Latinos. It’s hard to group all of us into one category as Latin America, Central America and the Caribbean nations all have their own distinct identifies. Another thing to note is immigrants aren’t just supporting the economy here in the U.S., they’re also supporting their economies back home when they send money back to family and loved ones.
Ian Oundo - Principal & Founder, Makesi Creative Strategies, LLC
I’m originally from Uganda and moved to Minnesota in 2005 and I’m a proud immigrant. We may have variations on different struggles, but a lot of the struggles that we have are pretty similar as immigrants. Immigrants have a resilience and a can-do attitude. Regardless of what’s going on, we still find a way to survive. I also want to acknowledge all the contributions that immigrants have given to certain industries like agriculture and health care. Those industries rely heavily on immigrant workers to fill those jobs. One question I have is how can we work together? Not just as African immigrants or Asian immigrants or where we came from, but I think on a larger scale and how do we use that power to break down some of the barriers and the challenges that we have? How do we work as a singular voice to address some of these challenges?
Sahil Masehullah - CareerForce Community Liaison
As a combat interpretation translator and cultural advisor to the U.S. Military, I was a main target for Al Qaeda, the Taliban and other terrorist organizations because I was affiliated with the U.S. Government. I was able to leave Afghanistan with my wife and four kids in 2014 and went to Houston, Texas. We didn’t choose to be immigrants – we were forced to come here to the U.S. because of the dangerous situation in Afghanistan. The challenges we initially faced were the language barrier and navigating the school system for my children. I was the only English-speaker in our household, and I had to work multiple entry-level jobs with low wages to help support my family while also going to school. I had a good education, but nobody could help me match my skills for similar jobs here. I basically had to start at zero and work my way back up. That’s one challenge that still exists – the ability to match your existing skills so you can find meaningful and well-paying work. There needs to be more resources and people who can help with that process for immigrants and refugees. There’s a lot of misconceptions by people born in the U.S. that we are taking away jobs, but in fact we’re often the ones creating jobs and supporting the economy. I’ve started a couple small businesses here and I can proudly say I pay more in taxes than a lot of people who were born here do.
Mykola Megits - Regional Trade Manager, Central & Eastern Europe and Central Asia at DEED
As someone who is sponsoring Ukrainian refugees due to the ongoing war with Russia, I’ve found a couple of barriers that need to be addressed in order for these refugees to be successful in this country. Application for work authorization takes forever to obtain, with waiting periods anywhere from six to ten months. The same goes for obtaining a driver’s license in this country. We need to speed up some of these processes so that people can get on their feet here a lot quicker. We need to provide more than just the fish to immigrants; we need to provide the means to catch the fish as well.
Helping the State of Minnesota make connections and create pathways for New American workers and business owners to be successful is a central part of my role as Interim Assistant Commissioner for Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. As an immigrant myself, hearing these types of conversations inspires me to continue the important work of identifying and breaking down barriers that immigrant and refugee business owners, workers, and community members face in Minnesota.
immigrants and refugees
communities
