A Movement for Refugee Leadership

Opportunity for All leaders from across the country gather together in October 2021. They each have participated in a leadership development training program for refugees and lead national and state-based advocacy and organizing to welcome and protect those seeking freedom, safety, and refuge in the United States. (Photo by Carolina Kroon)

As tens of thousands of Afghans have been forced to flee their country over the last few months, I’ve been listening to Afghans in the United States, worrying both for their families in Afghanistan and for new arrivals now facing an uncertain future. Their stories are often similar to my own, when—due to my husband’s work as an interpreter for the US military—I fled Iraq in 2010, in the middle of the night with my husband and 1-year-old daughter. Thankfully, there has been an outpouring of support for resettling Afghan refugees, from faith-based communities and veteran groups to companies like Airbnb and others. Because the previous administration worked to dismantle the US refugee resettlement system—admitting fewer than 12,000 refugees in 2020, compared to nearly 85,000 in 2016—local programs that provide medical care, trauma support, housing, and other services to refugees who settle here must be rebuilt. But we also must look long-term.

During my time being resettled in the United States, and in the years since—as national campaign manager for We Are All America, and as a refugee advocate—I’ve learned that becoming civically engaged in the communities refugees will live in is key to their long-term success. When we provide opportunities for refugees to become civically engaged and realize their potential as leaders, it not only cultivates a sense of belonging and agency over their lives, but it contributes to positive changes that benefit all of us. For those who are committed to creating a more just and vibrant society, we need to engage refugees and invest in their leadership and civic engagement.

A Growing Movement to Support Refugee Leadership

Our new campaign at We Are All America, “Opportunity for All,” will provide a year-long leadership development training program for a cohort of refugee leaders, including former refugees from Afghanistan. We Are All America is one of a growing number of organizations that have developed similar programs to help refugees gain a sense of belonging, to naturalize and vote, and to become active participants and changemakers in their communities. While programs in leadership and civic participation vary widely in their scale and approaches, they all share core components: storytelling, civic engagement, racial justice, and advocacy. By engaging with the US system of government, refugee leaders not only learn how they can influence local and national policymaking, but they become advocates for themselves, and for each other.

Some leadership programs have been developed by resettlement agencies, like Church World Service, whose exemplary model works in collaboration with refugee-led networks, such as Refugee Congress. Church World Service has trained over 1,500 refugee leaders to organize their communities; tell their stories in impactful ways; develop campaign ideas; to defend the refugee program; and engage in voter education, registration, and mobilization for eligible former refugees who are now US citizens. As a result of Church World Service’s programs, and others like it, refugees are writing their own op-eds and pitching their own stories to the media, with the goal of helping to shape the public narrative about refugees.

Leaders like Mustafa Nuur, a former refugee from Somalia, credits the training he did with Church World Service as catalyzing his role as a community leader. “That was the beginning of me finding the potential of what I can do,” says Mustafa. He began sharing his story publicly, writing op-eds, and arranging meetings with local representatives. Since the training, he has become outspoken on issues impacting his community, including testifying at a Congressional hearing about the importance of the refugee resettlement program. Mustafa not only founded Bridge—an organization that facilitates greater understanding between refugee families and other residents in Lancaster, Pennsylvania—but he became the first refugee to serve on Lancaster’s Human Relations Commission.

State-based advocacy organizations, like the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition and Florida Immigrant Coalition, have also developed similar leadership training programs that bring refugee leaders together with other immigrant communities. Other programs—such as Partnership for the Advancement of New Americans in Southern California, Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees in Brooklyn, and Unite Oregon—have been founded and led by refugees (in all three cases by Black refugees).

Unite Oregon was founded by state Senator Kayse Jama, who arrived in the United States in 1999 as a refugee from Somalia. “I was lucky enough to work with people who supported my leadership and allowed me to actualize my potential,” reflects Senator Jama. Early in his career, he worked with African refugee youth as a case manager, and he founded Unite Oregon when he was a New Voices Fellow at Western States Center. While there, he also launched the Pan Immigrant Leadership and Organizing Project (PILOT), to address an urgent need: “[R]efugees didn’t have the opportunity to interact with each other, especially those civically minded,” he says; “They felt alone, culturally isolated ... No one was providing organizing trainings.” PILOT centers the knowledge and lived experiences of refugees in its leadership program, which annually trains 25-30 refugees representing more than 15 countries and sometimes a dozen different languages.

Senator Jama is living proof of what is possible when impacted people are given the opportunity––and the training and support––necessary to set them up for success. And supporting the leadership of refugees must be part of philanthropy’s growing commitment to invest in the leadership of people with lived experience of the systems they are working to transform. Unbound Philanthropy, for example, has been an early investor in supporting undocumented youth in telling their own stories to the media, lawmakers, and other stakeholders, because we believe that lived experience of the immigration, asylum, and refugee resettlement systems is essential for analyzing how these systems need to change and holding decision makers accountable. We have seen young undocumented people gain enduring and broad public support, win (and defend) the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, persuade state and local policymakers to support policies that advance immigrant integration, and right now, lead a campaign to win protection for millions of undocumented Americans through budget reconciliation.

These are remarkable achievements, and we are now seeing something similar emerge in the refugee field itself. Refugees are organizing and speaking directly with policymakers, arguing that, as has been true with other immigrants, supporting refugees benefits all Americans and makes this country stronger. For example, in 2019, Church World Service invited refugee leader, Nga Vương-Sandoval, to share her story with Rep. Ken Buck, the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration and Citizenship. Nga described her family’s experience when they fled Việt Nam when she was three years old, the welcome they received upon arriving in the United States, and the contributions that refugees make. Nga’s story had a major impact. The meeting convinced Rep. Buck to write a letter with 17 other Republicans to the Trump administration about accepting more refugees. And earlier this year, Nga was invited to meet First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, where she used the opportunity to advocate for raising the Presidential Determination for refugees.

Today, Nga and other refugees and immigrants from Việt Nam have been speaking out to welcome Afghans to this country. “As part of the Việtnamese diaspora who fled our homeland as refugees, we should, in turn, welcome others who are seeking safety,” says Nga.

Beyond Immigration

Refugee civic engagement increasingly addresses issues beyond immigration, improving the quality of life for everyone in the community. For example, in 2020, refugee leaders, trained by FLIC, advocated for the passage of Amendment 4, which restores the voting rights of people with felony convictions in Florida, after they complete their term.

Following the murder of George Floyd in the summer of 2020 and the global uprising around racial justice, many refugee-serving organizations deepened their commitment to racial justice and addressing anti-Black racism in their work. For example, the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition is creating a Black immigrant and refugee caucus, to create a space for Black immigrants and refugees to talk about the intersecting experiences of being Black and being an immigrant or refugee.

Church World Service has also sought to ensure that immigrants and refugees can help address the shortage of healthcare professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the participation of refugee leaders involved in Church World Service’s community organizing efforts, impacted leaders were able to mobilize and advocate to win a number of state-level executive orders and legislation that increase access to emergency licensing for internationally-trained healthcare professionals, which should improve access to medical services for those needing care.

We are also starting to see more refugee resettlement and advocacy organizations led by refugees. Some of these leaders work full-time in the field, and others actively support refugees while simultaneously working in other sectors, in business, social entrepreneurship, as elected officials, and as philanthropists. Refugees’ leadership comes from multiple sources, not only their lived experience as refugees but also their multiple intersecting identities. In this way, refugees are diversifying what it means to be an advocate for immigrant justice, as well as what it means to be Black, or Muslim, or a woman, in America.

Read more stories by Basma Alawee & Taryn Higashi.