by Phil Manzano
About 50 African refugees are refusing to leave their hotel rooms and return to their makeshift tent village at Riverton Park United Methodist Church in Tukwila, citing frigid temperatures and inhumane conditions.
Continue reading Homeless Refugees Refuse to Return to Tukwila Church Tentsby Hadi Ebrahimi
The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission.
In the beginning of 2021, Sabir (whose name has been changed to protect his safety) was a surgeon in Afghanistan with a wife and a 4-year-old son. Following his graduation from a medical university, he worked in a hospital and ran his own pharmacy business. What he thought would be a smooth future was disrupted when the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan half a year later in August 2021.
Continue reading Former Afghan Surgeon Makes Strenuous Multi-Continent Journey to U.S., Only to Find Lack of Opportunityby Daniel Hart
The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission.
At his lowest point, journalist Hadi Ebrahimi found himself hiding from the Taliban in a pitch-black cemetery in Kabul, Afghanistan.
In August 2021, as U.S. forces withdrew, the Taliban swiftly retook control of the country. They banned the 28-year-old’s radio station, which had advocated for democracy and challenged their ideology. One day, Ebrahimi’s brother called to warn him the Taliban were searching the neighborhood where he was hiding. Ebrahimi left the house and started running. After nightfall, he waited in a cemetery for his brother to pick him up.
Continue reading Facing Parole Expiration, Many Afghan Refugees Lack Guarantee of a Future in the U.S.by Ronnie Estoque
In 1980, the Ethiopian Community in Seattle (ECS) was formed to create a community of support for immigrants in the local area. Language and cultural differences create barriers for new community members seeking to access services, and the ECS has made it a priority to provide job, housing, health care, and legal assistance to those seeking support. At its core, the ECS has heavily relied on volunteerism within its community of over 5,000 members across King County to continue to help new immigrants coming to the U.S. nearly four decades later.
Continue reading Ethiopian Community: A Video Portrait of Generational Wealth-Building Through Affordable Housing Developmentby Ronnie Estoque
The Cham are an ethnic group in Cambodia and Vietnam, tracing their ancestry back to the historic Kingdom of Champa, dating back to the second century CE. Many Cham people became refugees during the time of Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge and the Vietnam War.
Continue reading Cham Refugee Community: A Photo and Video Portrait of Generational Wealth-Buildingby Amanda Ong
Seattle-based writer and businesswoman Julie Pham recently released a new kind of leadership and management book, 7 Forms of Respect: A Guide to Transforming Your Communication and Relationships at Work. 7 Forms of Respect derives from Pham’s own experiences with culturally relative respect, from growing up as a refugee and living abroad, as well as working in business as a Woman of Color, and it charts out how coworkers can better practice respect in the workplace.
Continue reading Julie Pham’s ‘7 Forms of Respect’ Explores New Ideas of Respect at Workby Debby Cheng
(This article was originally published on the International Examiner and has been reprinted under an agreement.)
Refugee Artisan Initiative (RAI) is a women-centered organization that focuses on encouraging refugee women to use their handicraft skills to contribute to their family and community.
Continue reading Refugee Artisan Initiative Brings Job Opportunities for Immigrant Womenby Agueda Pacheco Flores
In 2006, Medard Ngueita left the Republic of Chad, a country in Africa that was experiencing political turmoil at the time and thousands were displaced. Alongside his family, Ngueita found himself in the U.S. with asylum but little knowledge of his new home. That’s when he connected with World Relief Seattle.
The organization has helped refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants resettle in Western Washington since 1979. The organization is a branch of World Relief, a global organization that partners with churches all over the world to support people impacted by mass displacement, poverty, disasters, and all kinds of oppression. The local branch has offices in Kent and recently opened a new office in Bellingham, with another office planned for the future in Olympia.
Continue reading From Refugee to Advocate: Medard Ngueita, World Relief Seattle’s New Executive Directorby Elizabeth Turnbull
Close to three decades after Oloth Insyxiengmay was incarcerated as a teenager, he has established himself as a youth advocate, while also fighting against the threat of his own deportation.
On Friday, Sept. 10, Insyxiengmay went in front of the Washington State Clemency and Pardons Board to petition for a pardon of his criminal convictions in order to diminish the risk of an order of deportation. Ultimately, the board voted against recommending that Gov. Jay Inslee pardon Insyxiengmay.
Prior to Friday’s hearing, over 60 individuals wrote letters in support of Insyxiengmay and over 350 people, including members of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, joined a Zoom call on Thursday, Sept. 9, to advocate for his pardon.
Continue reading Community Shows Support as Local Activist Petitions for Pardon to Avoid Deportationby Mark Van Streefkerk
The U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan has left a chaotic and uncertain path forward for refugees and those with special status seeking to evacuate during the Taliban takeover. Washington-based organizations and resettlement agencies are scrambling to rally resources and funding to welcome people fleeing Afghanistan — U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents (of the U.S.) and their immediate family members, those with Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), as well as refugees. These organizations are anticipating resettling thousands of people over a timeline that will take months, or even a year.
Afghans with SIVs are typically those that have worked with the U.S. in Afghanistan. Currently, the U.S. Embassy has issued a directive for U.S. citizens to be evacuated, but other at-risk Afghans without special status are also fleeing the country as refugees.
Navid Hamidi, executive director of the Afghan Health Initiative (AHI), explained the current situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban regained control: “Eventually people that worked with the United States Army or western countries, any type of involvement, those people will be targeted and they are in fear of their lives … As the U.S. pulled out and the Taliban took power, they had no strategy and no plan to evacuate all these people.”
“The only thing that people thought was the best option is to go to the Kabul airport. There’s so much chaos going on there right now … they are all in the airport begging for the U.S. and their allies to just evacuate them,” he said.
Continue reading Washington Organizations Are Resettling Afghan Refugees, Here’s How You Can Help
