TOLEDO, Ohio — The U.S. has admitted more than 271,000 Ukrainian refugees since Russia first invaded their homeland. Many are trying to start their lives back up and find jobs that they once had. Most of the people who immigrated to America are college graduates, 45% of recently arrived immigrants have at least a bachelors degree.
Yet more than two million immigrants and refugees with degrees and professional work experience from their home countries face barriers that leave them on employed or under employed in the US.
Upwardly Global is a national association that helps refugees restart their careers and bring their skills in to a professional workforce. This program also includes individual coaching from experienced career advisors, connections with employers and professional contacts and free certification from Microsoft, as well as Google.
Here locally, Toledo Helps Ukraine has independently secured 15 sponsors and brought 33 refugees to Ohio. With unemployment rates down, there’s plenty of jobs to help those who immigrated in Ohio.
“The unemployment rate is really low in the state of Ohio, it’s at 3.9%. Right now, there are 176,000 job openings. For every unemployed person there are 1.7 jobs, so there’s not enough people to take those jobs – and at the moment in the United States, 85% of growth in the working age population today comes from immigrants and children of immigrants,” explained Jina Krause-Vilmar – ceo, Upwardly Global.
If you or anyone you know is interested in help or to learn more about the nonprofit, click here.