LIRS & TENT Launch Guide to Help Employers Hire Afghan Refugees

Washington D.C. – As companies throughout the nation look to fill hundreds of thousands of vacation and different job openings, two organizations as we speak are releasing a brand new information to allow employers to rent the tens of 1000’s of Afghans who arrived in america over the summer time.

The information’s launch follows a current pledge by a coalition of three dozen main corporations that dedicated to hiring Afghan refugees who arrived within the U.S. following the American army withdrawal.

The brand new U.S. Employers’ Information to Hiring Afghan Refugees was developed by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS), a non-profit group that welcomes and helps refugees and migrants coming into america, and sponsored by the Tent Partnership for Refugees (Tent), a worldwide enterprise community of greater than 200 corporations dedicated to integrating refugees of their new communities. Tent spearheaded the coalition’s commitments.

The information supplies important data for U.S. companies and their human sources groups that wish to rent Afghan refugees. It consists of details concerning the refugees’ academic {and professional} backgrounds, the place they’re prone to settle within the U.S. – and, importantly, a listing of organizations that may join them to Afghans searching for work. 

There are roughly 200,000 Afghan immigrants within the U.S. as we speak – about 130,000 that had been within the nation previous to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 30 and 65,000 Afghans have arrived as of September 2021. One other 30,000 are anticipated to reach by December 2022. Whereas the bulk are nonetheless residing in seven army bases throughout the nation, it’s anticipated that the 65,000 Afghans might be resettled in states throughout the nation by February 2022 – that means they are going to be beginning to search for jobs to assist themselves and their households.

The most recent authorities knowledge estimates that there are greater than 10 million job openings within the U.S.

“Employers within the U.S. want to rent hundreds of thousands of individuals, and there is a perfect answer proper in entrance of us: filling positions with these new Afghan members of our communities – serving to them begin their lives in America,” mentioned Yaron Schwartz, U.S. lead for the Tent Partnership for Refugees. “No matter their immigration standing, Afghans arriving within the U.S. are legally licensed to work, they usually have a lot to deliver to our corporations and communities. Corporations will stand to achieve from Afghans’ loyalty, resilience, and intensive expertise working alongside the U.S. army and authorities. We stand prepared to assist any firm who desires to rent our new Afghan neighbors, throughout all sectors and positions.”

“As a company dedicated to serving to refugees restart their lives in America, we all know that jobs are completely important to reaching self-sufficiency and efficiently integrating into their new communities,” mentioned Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “Our latest Afghan neighbors are pushed, succesful, and resilient – and they are going to be important contributors to employers in search of new expertise amid a nationwide labor scarcity. We’re excited to launch this information to make it as straightforward as potential for corporations to leverage their expertise and assist these households obtain their very own American Dream.”

By means of 2022, many Particular Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders – Afghans who had been employed by or on behalf of the U.S. authorities or army – will arrive within the U.S. This group has particularly excessive ranges of schooling and powerful English language expertise. In reality, 90% of Afghan SIV holders reported having accomplished secondary schooling or greater, and 89% reported their spoken English as not less than “good.”

The coalition that pledged to assist combine Afghan refugees into the American economic system – now as much as 50 members – consists of a few of America’s greatest employers: Accenture, Amazon, Chobani, Deloitte, Fb, Hole Inc., Hilton, HP, Mastercard, Pfizer, Tyson Meals, Uber, UPS and Western Union.

“Chobani’s values have at all times centered round our folks, the place our best affect is the one which we’ve got on one another,” mentioned Grace Zuncic, Chobani’s Chief Folks and Tradition Officer. “Our numerous workforce is a key contributor to our success and dealing in direction of hiring not too long ago arrived Afghans is per our dedication to supporting folks in want. Partnering with our native resettlement organizations, we’re refocusing our efforts on coaching applications, transportation choices, and language proficiency assist to encourage Afghans to affix our workforce and have profitable careers.”

Corporations within theTent Coalition for Afghan Refugees will obtain individualized steering on their refugee hiring efforts. Tent will assess an organization’s hiring wants, present tailor-made recommendation and coaching tutorials on learn how to develop an efficient refugee hiring program, and join them to refugee resettlement companies and native non-profit organizations that may assist corporations recruit refugee expertise. 

As well as, Tent has established a Working Group for Coalition members to share finest practices on hiring and integrating Afghans into corporations’ workforces and to offer a discussion board for corporations to debate learn how to overcome roadblocks within the refugee hiring course of.

About Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Based in 1939, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is the biggest faith-based nationwide nonprofit devoted completely to serving refugees, asylum seekers, and different susceptible immigrant communities in america. By means of greater than 80 years of service and advocacy, LIRS has helped over 500,000 migrants and refugees rebuild their lives in America. As a nationwide resettlement group, LIRS has greater than 25 years of expertise throughout america supporting refugee profession entry and development whereas responding to the most recent immigration workforce and market tendencies. For extra data:www.lirs.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Timothy Younger | tyoung@lirs.org | 443-257-6310

Concerning the Tent Partnership for Refugees
With an increasing number of refugees displaced for longer durations of time, companies have a important function to play in serving to refugees combine economically of their new host communities. The Tent Partnership for Refugees mobilizes the worldwide enterprise neighborhood to enhance the lives and livelihoods of greater than 30 million refugees who’ve been forcibly displaced from their house nations. Based by Chobani’s founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya in 2016, we’re a community of over 200 main corporations dedicated to together with refugees. Tent believes that corporations can most sustainably assist refugees by leveraging their core enterprise operations – by participating refugees as potential staff, entrepreneurs and customers. The total checklist of Tent members may be discoveredright here. Discover out extra at www.tent.org.

MEDIA CONTACT: Shelby Powers | shelby.powers@fleishman.com | 937-602-2979