Events

Date: Thursday, May 22, 2025

Time: 9:30 – 11:00 am PDT

Location: Virtual

Event information: Since the passage of the 1980 Refugee Act, the main goal of the refugee resettlement program has been to move refugees into paid employment within 3-6 months after arrival to ensure self-sufficiency. This results in refugees frequently being placed in “survival jobs” characterized by low pay, high turn- over, and part time hours. Mehr Mumtaz (Ohio State University) and Someireh Amirfaiz (New Americans Alliance for Policy and Research) will present results from their community-based study that explores the experiences of resettled refugees in King County, Washington, with finding employment. The research identifies barriers to securing employment and achieving economic success and elevates the voices of participants to offer recommendations to improve policy and practice to support refugees’ access to living-wage employment with continuous wage progression opportunities.