This is not a surprising statement coming from the agency with the longest track record serving the foreign-born population in the area: Immigrants and refugees are great for Western New York! 

However, it is not just me saying it. Many organizations, as disparate as the CATO Institute to Harvard University, agree that not only are New Americans not a drain on a community, but they are a force multiplier, adding value by many measures while stemming the region's population loss for the first time in about 70 years. 

As part of our agreement with the U.S. State Department, we agreed to take a substantial increase in the number of refugees we would resettle over the number previously stipulated. Our initial commitment was to resettle 340 refugees, but that number now could go as high as 476 before the end of the fiscal year.

This is excellent news! After years in refugee camps, our government vetted them, and they will soon start their American dream. 

Very quickly, these New Americans will be able to fill job vacancies that local businesses have been clamoring about. They will live in apartments in vacant parts of the city, add to the tax base, and contribute to the cultural diversity that made the City of Good Neighbors famous. 

This fulfills the Biden administration's promise to reverse the previous administration's gutting of our nation's refugee program. The challenge, of course, is that we must ramp up our logistics for the increased number of people expected.

As we prepare, we could use your help. If it's in your heart to give time, talent, or treasure to help our newest neighbors settle in and become part of the fabric of our community, we'd love to hear from you!

Our Community World Trivia competition, which will take place on Thursday, May 9, is a fun and educational way to support IIB’s international exchanges and education mission. Registration for a team of six is only $240, and there are many ways to sponsor the event. Click here to find out more. 

Act now and secure your spot by Thursday, May 2! The deadline for team registration and sponsorships for the Community World Trivia is fast approaching. Don't miss out on this opportunity to support a worthy cause and showcase your knowledge.

WBFO, Buffalo’s NPR station, recently interviewed Communications Director Gabe DiMaio on what to expect.

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, Rigidized Metals, Buffalo Limousine sponsor Community World Trivia.

During April, we’ve been highlighting the stories of Arab American immigrants and refugees to celebrate their accomplishments. The list includes:

Every month, we join the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services for its Naturalization Ceremony in Buffalo. In April, we helped welcome 50 New Americans from Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Burma, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, India, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Kosovo, Philippines, Sierra Leone, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Togo, and Vietnam!

In the Media

In case you missed it, the Buffalo News did not miss our April Fools gag.

Meet the Linguist

Adnan Abdulsaid has been an Arabic interpreter with IIB since 2008. He learned the basics of the English language at college in Iraq and then picked up more language skills along the way. 

He was born in Iraq but left due to political issues and went to Syria. Eventually, Adnan and his wife brought their son to the U.S., and they’ve been here for 26 years. He loves reading books, writing, teaching, and fishing.

If you want to learn Arabic, Adnan suggests that you listen to people speak Arabic. Many will help anyone who is trying to learn the language. Then, try to pick up a few simple words and use what you learned.

If you’re interested in becoming an interpreter and/or translator, click here to apply.

Employment Services

We are thrilled to introduce you to our newest Employment team member, Husseni Hassani. He is joining us as an employment case manager and will graduate from Buffalo State in May with a BA in International Relations. Husseni was born in a refugee camp in Tanzania, though his family is originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and resettled in Buffalo in 2017.

This month, 21 clients from our Employment Program were successfully placed in local businesses.

Nineteen additional clients graduated from the Job Club, which is a class that gives New Americans a basic understanding of working in the USA, including entry-level job expectations, resume building, interview skills, worker rights, safety, and how to succeed.

For New Americans who work in a profession, our Career Club offers helpful sessions every other Wednesday to highly skilled and educated individuals returning to their fields. The latest session focused on creating LinkedIn accounts and helping clients enhance their profiles.

We're actively seeking partnerships with employers in the banking, technology, and engineering sectors. If you’re interested, please email pathways@iibuff.org.

Learn more about how we connect workers with potential employers.

Employment Services Success!

Oksana Novodvorska is a refugee from Ukraine and came to our Pathways program last year. She has a bachelor’s degree and years of experience working as a land surveyor and accessor. She has a strong passion for this work and wanted to get back into it in Buffalo.

With the guidance of our team, Oksana decided it was best to get a certification as a land surveyor while working as a security guard for AKG. She finished school in just a few months and started working immediately on her resume and cover letter and applying for jobs. Her dedication paid off, and a few weeks after finishing school, she got a job as a land surveyor!

International Exchanges and Education

As mentioned above, the International Exchanges and Education Department's annual Community World Trivia fundraiser is quickly coming on Thursday, May 9. A few spots are still open for sponsors and teams for one of the most exciting fundraisers in WNY. And yes, you can still join us if you don’t have five friends to form an entire team! 

The department applied to the Law Enforcement and Security Exchange Program (LESEP) to host visitors. This program, administered by Global Ties U.S. with the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, provides training and professional development to Mexican law enforcement personnel as part of the Bicentennial Framework for Security, Public Health, and Safe Communities between the U.S. and Mexico. In August, we hope to welcome a LESEP group from Mexico on “Building Trust with the Community.”

Recently, the team conducted a training session on cultural competency and working with foreign-born clients for UB’s Department of Psychology residents. They also conducted a refugee health session on mental health for IIB’s Job Club participants.

Learn more about how our International Exchanges and Education team increases knowledge and understanding in our community.  

Interpreting & Translation

You won’t find these languages on any learning app! The Interpreting team has seen a significant increase in interpreting requests for the Wolof and Pulaar (sometimes called Fula) languages by service providers working with recent migrants from Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa. If you need an interpreter, email Sarah and Therese at interpretation@iibuff.org.

Robert, our recruiting and training coordinator, successfully increased recruitment efforts in Wolof and Pulaar and onboarded several new interpreters in these languages alone. 

We can better provide our community first-rate language access by sourcing talented local language professionals. If you want to become an interpreter and/or translator, click here to apply. If you are already a language professional, to view our workshop calendar, follow this link. 

The Translation team completed 110 individual projects last month. Recently, the team processed several documents in less frequently requested languages such as Haitian Creole, Hebrew, and German. If you have a translation project, connect with Ryan and Mairéad at translation@iibuff.org. 

Learn about our Interpreting & Translation team's efforts to bridge the language access gap in our community. Click here if you'd like to learn more about the language services we offer.

New American Integration

So far this fiscal year, our team has resettled 269 refugees. They are from Afghanistan, Algeria, Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Colombia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Honduras, Iraq, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria. Before the end of the fiscal year, there will be at least 71 more New Americans for us to serve.

Our Preferred Communities Coordinator program helps New Americans with disabilities or other special needs and has been working with a 20-year-old who arrived with his family eight months ago. The young man has a health condition which requires a wheelchair. The one he came with was old, and he continually slipped out of it because of his condition. This week, the wheelchair company will deliver a specialized custom-made chair to the family's home! This family has been through so much, including the passing of the father this month.  Now that they can more easily leave the house and navigate their community, their lives will be a bit easier and more enjoyable.

Learn more about the great work done by our New American Integration team.  

Come Work with Us!

Do you care to make Western New York a better place for, and because of, immigrants and refugees? Consider a career with us! Please take a look at our careers page.