Above photo: Yasmeen Zargarpur (center), co-founder of One Community Social Services, stands in front of the organization’s warehouse of supplies for resettling refugees. One Community Social Services.
We’re Picking Up The Slack.
Meet the D.C.-area community groups holding up America’s crumbling refugee resettlement infrastructure.
In the days after the fall of Kabul in August 2021, the U.S. military evacuated tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans to U.S. military bases. But their assistance ended there.
“The military bases that were hosting the Afghan families reached out to my family’s mosque, asking for volunteers to bring supplies,” says Yasmeen Zargarpur, co-founder of One Community Social Services. Despite its leading role in the Afghans’ devastating circumstances, the government only offered temporary shelter to those fleeing.
My conversations with local organizations and leaders in the resettlement space across Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia revealed a clear pattern of government agencies slacking in sustainably supporting refugees and immigrants arriving to the region — leaving community members to fill that gap.
The Department of Homeland Security left people at the military base and offered no other assistance, advocates say. The government brought in Catholic resettlement organizations to help majority-Muslim refugees, a move community leaders say failed to meet the cultural needs of these refugees and illustrates the lack of planning for their support.
“The government is good at limiting things, and so the community and I stepped in to help the people in a sustainable way,” Zargarpur tells me. Her Instagram post asking for resources resulted in a rapid outpouring of support from the local community.
That includes providing furniture, jobs and assistance for those arriving, says Laura Thompson Osuri, the executive director of the non-profit Homes Not Borders. Through household donations and artisan programs, HNB provides refugees and other forced migrants in the D.C. area with what they need to thrive and feel at home in the United States.
The resettlement process itself is run by the U.S. Department of State. After a vigorous vetting process, the federal government assigns refugees to one of 10 resettlement agencies that the government works with. These government resettlement agencies assist newly-arrived families for only 90 days, all while being overworked, underfunded and poorly managed. Resulting in families being left behind with little assistance.
While the State Department has an expected mandate for families to have certain items in their homes, Thompson Osuri explains, resettlement agencies lack the funding to offer the items to the family. That means agencies are forced to cut into the refugees’ stipends – less than $2,000 monthly – to purchase the items. The same goes for the apartments refugees first move into upon arrival. Provided by the U.S. government, they expect rent to come out of the refugees’ meager monthly stipends.
This is where HNB and similar organizations come in. Though they’re not official resettlement agencies, HNB “enables refugees to start their lives as quickly as possible and comfortably,” Thompson Osuri shared. “We are saving the families $3,000” as HNB volunteers set up apartments refugees are moving into, with donated furniture and a homey feel, “to show that their new community cares about them.”
Another such group is Immigrant & Refugee Outreach Center, a 100% volunteer-run organization that was created to help address the gaps in the resettlement process by connecting newcomers to community resources. Bita Golshan Lotfi, IROC’s founder, shared stories of confused families reaching out to the group and overworked caseworkers needing assistance with supporting their clients, in the absence of the government.
Whether it’s within the initial 90-day period or afterward, IROC appoints volunteers to help migrant families navigate life in the U.S. and find the resources they need to thrive.
Lotfi says resettlement agencies and case workers reach out to the group for help assisting the families assigned to them. They often lack the time or resources to offer the people basic necessities and set them up with job opportunities, school enrollment and explaining where the grocery store is. So IROC’s volunteers offer these services.
“Community support of refugees comes from a holistic approach,” says Alexandra Tarzikhan, an human rights lawyer and advocate for refugees through her Instagram platform meetarefugee. Alex, who grew up in Syria and worked in Greece at a refugee camp, believes that the United States’ immigration system is broken: Instead of leading with a human rights approach, the U.S. government criminalizes people seeking safety.
“There is a backlog, it’s understaffed and not well programmed to meet the needs of the people arriving,” Alex says of the government and the resettlement agencies they work with. Her words reflect the overall consensus of the government’s resettlement program from the leaders and advocates I spoke to.
Over time the federal funding for resettlement services has dwindled, resulting in more than one-third of local resettlement agencies closing their operations amid major cutbacks in funding.
Local organizations “look within the community for the solution,” Alex said, as they “integrate refugees into the community and encourage community members to be community navigators for newly resettled people.” This relationship is built on trust and mutually benefits both refugees and their new community: The new family is warmly welcomed, and the community learns about other humans’ realities and cultures.
“It is hard to hate people up close,” says Jackie Giovanniello from Migrant Solidarity, a powerful mutual aid group that directly supported the migrants who were being bussed to D.C. in April 2022. Migrant Solidarity was organized by people in the city to meet the various needs of the migrants. From raising money for transportation to handing out food, diapers and medicine to offering shelter, Migrant Solidarity encompasses what community solidarity is.
“If you solely listen to the media that’s telling you hoards of bad people are coming into your country, you’re going to believe them,” she says. “But if you go and help a kid off a bus with one shoe or sit down and have dinner with a family, you are not going to believe the media’s stories.”
Support efforts for refugees, led by the community instead of the government, has time and time again proven to be more sustainable, impactful and beneficial for all members involved. The leaders of the movement believe it is time for the community to have a more significant role in welcoming their new neighbors, as they are closer to what is happening on the ground and care for the wellbeing of their community.
If you were inspired by these stories to take your first steps toward fueling this movement, I encourage you to find local groups supporting refugees in your area and see what they need from the community. “You never know how it may impact someone else’s life,” Zargarpur says.
It can be daunting to start. But the leaders of the movement I spoke to urged people to get involved with their community efforts in welcoming their newly arrived neighbors. “Find what you like to do,” Thompson Osuri urges. “There are so many ways to get involved – teaching, job applications, helping with licenses, setting up homes.”
This movement needs you.
But the leaders say it’s important not to bite off more than you can chew.
“I would rather people tell me they have one hour a month, $10 a month, than do something that overwhelms them and scares them away,” Jackie from Migrant Solidarity says. “It is more sustainable for the movement and you.”