The Community and Economic Development Committee met 03/25/2022. Most of the meeting was taken up with a presentation by Tami McLaughlin with World Relief – Fox Valley, updating the committee on the Afghan refugee resettlement efforts.
Before Ms. McLaughlin spoke, Terrence “Timber” Smith, Appleton’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Coordinator and Karen Harkness, the Director of Community and Economic Development, updated the committee on what the city was doing.
Mr. Smith said he had spoken with different departments across the city to see what they were doing in regards to the Afghani resettlement and found that the city has really good engagement.
- Valley Transit had been doing presentations at the library helping the refugees learn out to use the buses. This was important because it opened up the opportunity to get around the city and allowed them to do things such as go to the Fox Valley Technical College to take language classes.
- The Police Department had been doing presentations for the refugees to help them understand what the police were used for and to give them a high-level understanding of the law so they knew what was acceptable here given the cultural differences. The police had a lot of experience doing those types of presentations with other populations that have come in.
- The library has started preparing to bring in different types of materials that the Afghan refugees might want to utilize as well as looking into programming they might be interested in and, in general, taking the time to learning about their culture.
- The Fire Department was also potentially going to offer presentations about the fire department modelled after the presentations the police had done which would help the refugees understand how the fire department works and what services they provide.
Director Harkness added that the Community and Economic Development Department had reached out to the local business community to try to connect the Afghani refugees who were looking for jobs with jobs that were available. They were also trying to help educate the community about the Afghani refugees and, in general, try to support World Relief’s resettlement efforts.
Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) asked if the things the city was doing was standard procedure or was it additional with added costs.
Director Harkness said it they were normal, though things ebbed and flowed. They try to be responsive to community needs no matter what those were.
Alderperson Joe Martin (District 4) pointed out that for the Hmong population, the city had translated into their language documents about things they needed to know such as how handicapped parking spots work and information regarding Valley Transit. He asked if they had done that for the Afghani refugees.
Mr. Smith was not sure. He knew there had been conversations about it, but they were having issues finding people to do translations.
Director Harkness said that there were two languages spoken in Afghanistan, and right now Afghani interpreters were in high demand. The city was doing the best they could to get information translated, and she knew Valley Transit was working on getting a brochure translated, but she didn’t know if it had happened yet.
Alderperson Maiyoua Thao (District 7) [who came to the US herself as a Hmong refugee], thanked city staff for helping with this and putting time and effort into welcoming the refugees into the community. She wondered if any of the staff had visited the families of the new arrivals.
Mr. Smith said he had not personally visited any families yet, but he knew it was going to happen.
Director Harkness had also not personally met with any families but said city staff had when showing them how to ride the bus and use the library and talking to them about how to get a driver’s license and the importance of having one.
Alderperson Thaothought it was very important to have city government welcome refugees and work with them and thought it made them feel safe and welcomed into the city.
They then moved on to Tami McLaughlin’s presentation.
She briefly recapped what had brought Afghans to the Fox Valley.
- It started with the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August of 2021.
- Evacuees were relocated to US military bases in August and September of 2021. She said that all of the Afghans who came to the United States went through extreme screening and vetting while at US bases in Europe.
- They were brought to eight military bases in the United States where additional screening and processing took place. Fort McCoy in Wisconsin was one of those bases and welcomed 13,000 Afghans in only 10 days.
- World Relief Fox Valley began welcoming evacuees with parole status
She explained that most, around 75,000, of the people were admitted as humanitarian parolees. About 40% of those are eligible for Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) status which would allow them to apply for green cards (permanent resident cards) immediately. If they aren’t SIV qualified then they continue as parolees and have to file for asylum—a long and lengthy process—before they can apply for green cards.
World Relief Fox Valley committee to receiving 200 parolees. Their arrivals began in mid-October 2021. The first arrival was a family of three from For McCoy on October 15 and their last arrival was a single man who arrived on February 9 from Fort Dix.
World Relief Fox Valley’s fiscal year started in October which was when they started receiving Afghans. So far, since October, they have welcomed a total of 188 people to the Fox Valley, 180 of whom were Afghans. They also welcomed 8 other refugees (5 from the Democratic Republic of Congo and 3 from Pakistan) during that time and will provide them basically the same services as they provide to the Afghanis.
For reference, the highest number of refugees her office had ever received was back in 2016 when they welcomed 209 refugees over the entire year. This time they welcomed 188 people in four months so they were extremely busy.
She added that they did expect to welcome a few more Afghani families and had been told to expect up to 200 refugees by the end of their fiscal year at the end of September. She thought a full 200 might be a stretch, but there would be some more.
Breaking the numbers down even more, they had resettled 127 people in the Appleton area—about 90 in Appleton, 6 in Little Chute, and 30 in Menasha—and 53 in Oshkosh. They had to place people where housing was available. The 180 Afghans included 44 school aged children, 29 children under 5 years old, 10-15 mothers who were currently pregnant, 30 singles, and “2 families whose father with children arrived, had been separated—one at the bombing of the Kabul airport left wife and children behind. Some of the stories are really, really devastating. So, we’re not even welcoming whole families together.”
They welcomed 4 people who were practicing dentistry or were in dentistry school, 1 accountant, several IT professionals, many, many humanitarians, many who worked at the US embassy for US aid, a lot of security personnel, soldiers, a butcher, a gym owner, and a baker. So, they were very diverse group in terms of their professions and education.
They are also diverse in their English skills. She said they had been expecting more people to have an advanced level of English because the United States had been in Afghanistan for so long, but they have not found that to be true. One soldier told her through an interpreter that he worked at the US military base but his commander was from Afghanistan and spoke Dari so they never needed to learn English.
She said this was a really tough welcoming experience and one World Relief could not have done without the tremendous support of the community. She highlighted a few of the partners and what they were doing.
Appleton Even Start Family Literacy was a program offered by the Appleton Area School District and Fox Valley Technical College for moms and younger children to learn together. They do get separated but they also learn together. Demand was so high that classes were filled up and had a waiting list. She said that several of the Afghan moms they had welcomed several years ago and now in that program trying to achieve their G.E.Ds and So, serving as mentors and role models to the new moms.
Valley Transit had done intense training and their bus drivers were very accommodating and warm and welcoming. There were also volunteers who were riding the bus with the refugees and really teaching them how to ride the bus.
Community Foundation and United Way were generous as organizations themselves and also in directing a lot of other donors to World Relief. They used some of the funding that that they received from those organizations to hire an Afghan speaker in our office and pay extra security deposits to landlords. They had to find housing in a really tight market and sometimes with very little lead time. In fact, they used the Extended Stay hotel at the airport for a couple of months while they were getting housing for the refugees. The double security deposit they provided incentivized landlords to work with them and it also let them tell the Afghanis that if they stayed for 12 months and upheld their lease and were good tenants, they would get a double security deposit back. The refugees also got welcome money which used for one security deposit, so they had to make an investment themselves, but that additional security deposit was a bone that they could use for future housing. They were also able to buy computers for every household, and those computers are now helping them take virtual literacy classes and helping them pay rent online which a lot of landlords want now.
She said Fox Valley Technical College was always a great partner. All of the English Learners adults go there, and there was a wait list for those classes also.
The Building for Kids had created three different welcome boxes for children based on age group with different activities inside and free passes to go to the children’s museum.
She said the volunteers were incredible. They have a model called the Good Neighbor Program where a small group from a church walked alongside arriving families. They had over 25 good neighbor teams, representing 20 churches.
They also have a volunteer opportunity called Friendship Partner where one or two people might walk alongside some of the single men or a small family. World Relief had a tracking system, although not all volunteers used it, and of the volunteers who were tracking their hours they totaled 1,500 hours in December and February and were close to that in March. That represented hours comparable to 8 or 9 full time employees. More importantly, it showed the Afghan newcomers that they were wanted here, that people cared about them, and that they belonged here.
Although they had welcomed the refugees and found them housing, there were still some challenges.
The first was trying to find employment for all the people who want to work. The refugee families are very traditional, so mainly the heads of the household will work and the women want to stay home and care for the children. Presto in Appleton hired 8 Afghans. Because several Afghans had worked with them in the past, they understood the language and could help with training and onboarding. Amcor in Oshkosh was hiring all of the employable Afghan refugees in Oshkosh, which was 22-24 people. World Relief was using their interpreter to help with that.
She said interpreters are very hard to find, and employers need interpreters to train well and make sure the new employees know the safety precautions and understand the importance of safety measures in the workplace.
She said there was an employment fair the day after the committee meeting that they would be taking a lot of the men too. They were trying to find employers who could hire multiple people at one time.
Anxiety and trauma are prominent things the refugees were feeling. Finances was a huge source of anxiety for them, and they were very motivated to work and provide for their families. As important as providing for their families here, was the urgency to provide for family members back in Afghanistan. The infrastructure there has crumbled and people don’t have food, so the refugees are burdened knowing that they have family back there who are not eating.
She said a lot of the refugees also wanted to see doctors. Typically, the situations have not been emergencies so they were working with them to recognize when something was an emergency that required going to the emergency room vs something that they could wait to see a regular doctor for.
Transportation was another issue. They all wanted to drive and around 25% had already gotten their temporary licenses. The next step was learning how to drive and also purchasing cars which was tough to do right now because of how expensive even used cars are. They have driven back in Afghanistan and having a car creates a sense of independence and is easier than using a bus to get to and from work.
The trauma they have experienced was also pretty horrible.
Finally, the uncertain immigration pathway is a huge issue for them. Around 40% of the refugees in the Fox Valley do qualify for SIV status, so the immigration service team was helping them get green cards. But those who only had parolee status were facing a complicated and lengthy process to get green cards. They were hoping for intervention from Congress but were not too hopeful because it sounded like it was hard for Congress to pass things.
She remarked again that they had resettled more in the past 4 months than they had mostly done during any fiscal year since they first opened 10 years ago. It had put a strain on their office and staff as well as their community partners and volunteers.
The past season had been difficult and a memory that came frequently to her mind was dragging herself to the airport to do a pickup (which she hadn’t wanted to do because it was late and she was very tired), and meeting a family of 3 and two single men. On of the single men came out into the airport lobby and told her “Thank you so much for welcoming us. We have nothing left.” She thought that put into perspective how meaningful and important this work was, not just for the Afghanis but for all refugees that are welcomed into the Valley. “I just believe we’re a phenomenal community of welcome. We’ve proven that over and over. So, we have again with the Afghans, and I hope we continue to do so.”
Director Harkness called their attention to the fact that one of the handouts in the agenda packet included sources for where people could support the resettlement of the Afghanis.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) thanked Ms. McLaughlin and city staff for all of their excellent work. It warmed his heart to see such a volunteer effort. He thought the language barrier could be a significant challenge and wondered if the Common Council could do something to help facilitate things. Were there areas the city was falling short in or more that they could be doing?
Director Harkness said her view was that they were there to support World Relief and take their marching orders from World Relief regarding what they were seeing that needed to be happening.
Ms. McLaughlin said that, as hard as it had been, it was thrilling to see the support being provided by the city, the partners, volunteers, and the whole community. Interpretation services were an issue everywhere. They were using somebody in Milwaukee via telephone and Boostlingo.
Alderperson Schultz asked if they were finding any community support or partners to tackle the auto shortage and help the refugees find vehicles.
Ms. McLaughlin answered that they hadn’t gotten to that point yet. A lot of the people were just starting to work. They’ll have to start saving some money. She said it was good for them to use a bus. One thing they tell everybody is “Where you are today isn’t where you’re going to be in a year from now.” They can start working, buy a car, pay their rent, and then get to make more decisions. The hard part right now was trying to find employment that was supported by the bus system [i.e., had hours and locations that lined up with bus schedules.]
Alderperson Martin was curious what the amount of income was that they would have had to make in Afghanistan as compared to what they needed to make in America.
Ms. McLaughlin thought it was a great question, but she had no idea what the answer was. She did know that a lot of the refugees didn’t want to be in the Fox Valley when they first got here, because a lot of them had friends and relatives in some of the big Afghan communities in Sacramento, Seattle, and Houston. So, they had wanted to go to those places. However, they were now seeing that housing is very reasonable here, they’re getting good jobs, the manufacturing jobs in this area are paying well, this is a family town, and there were a lot of volunteers who welcomed them and were walking along side them, so they were having second thoughts regarding wanting to move. The one thing, which can’t be changed, is the cold, and the refugees do not like the cold. But now that spring is coming, they can at least see that Wisconsin is beautiful 9 months out of the year.
She didn’t know what their standard of living was in Afghanistan. Some were more high end while others probably weren’t. She thought they were starting to grow fond of this area and realizing what a great area it was. They would have to build their own community and World Relieve could help them do that, but it also had to come from them.
Alderperson Martin wondered if she saw a future where the Afghani community in this area was bigger than what it was today.
Thought it was very likely and mentioned that they just had a few people move in related to some of the other people who had been resettled.
Alderperson Schultz asked what World Relief’s preparations were for the next wave of immigrants coming to the Fox Valley from Ukraine. Did she think they would see numbers similar to the Afghani refugees or was it too early to tell?
She said there was a large Ukrainian resettlement elsewhere in the country so she would assume that Ukrainians would want to go there. Initially, they hadn’t thought they would be resettling any Afghans because the Fox Valley has such a small Afghan community, but then because of the number of people needing to be resettled, some ended up being sent here.
She didn’t know what would happen with Ukraine—if it would be as fast as the Afghan process or if they would come in on the refugee process which takes two years or longer. But World Relief as a whole had welcomed more Ukrainians than had any other agencies. She didn’t know if they would be sent to the Fox Valley but they would be ready if they were.
Alderperson Martin dryly suggested that the Ukrainians would like our weather.
Alderperson Thao thanked Ms. McLaughlin for all the work she was doing and bringing the community together with the City of Appleton. Without the citizens of Appleton and volunteer organizations she didn’t think they could have done this. Going over what they were doing to resettle the Afghanis reminded her of how she and her family arrived 30 years ago. “I wanted to thank the community because we should be very proud of us as American citizens, because I see all the good things that we’re doing welcoming new people. I don’t know where else or anywhere else but knowing here we have such good citizens here, good hearts, genuine people that [are] willing to go the extra mile to welcome new people to our community, and I very appreciate those work.”
She also looked forward to seeing the new talents that the refugees were bringing to Appleton and the new businesses she anticipated they would open up in the next few years. It took 40 years for the Hmong community to become what it is today, but she didn’t think it would take the Afghanis that long because of all the help from community organizations and the new talents that the refugees themselves were bringing.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=924641&GUID=D674222E-856D-40A7-8877-93A4E3AB5563
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