Buffalo, NY: Continuing a Century of Welcoming with SIIP

Continuing a 100-year legacy of championing local immigrants and refugees, the International Institute of Buffalo (IIB) joined the Skilled Immigrant Integration Program (SIIP) in 2019 with a goal to better serve a growing yet largely underserved community: immigrants and refugees with education, training, and credentials earned in other countries.   

As of the 2020 Census, Buffalo’s immigrant community had grown to represent more than 10 percent of the city’s population, and local leaders recognized the need to create infrastructure that would advance workforce inclusion – particularly of internationally trained immigrants and refugees. Across the U.S., at least two million immigrants and refugees with four-year degrees are unemployed or underemployed, 60 percent of whom were educated in other countries. Systemic barriers to their full inclusion in the workforce include limited recognition of international credentials and uneven access to supports like career coaching. 

The IIB sought support from SIIP to develop a survey that would help them assess local immigrants’ educational and professional backgrounds. This data would then inform the creation of resources to connect internationally trained immigrants and refugees with pathways to local employment, specifically in high-demand careers in health care and education – fields with critical staffing shortages in Buffalo and nationwide. “We realized that nobody else in Western New York was [focused] on skilled immigrant integration,” said an IIB staff member. “With [the prospect of] support from a SIIP peer cohort, an alumni network to learn from, and WES as a resource to help with credential evaluation, we thought, ‘why not take a chance and see what we can do here?’”   

Assessment and Action 

Following input from SIIP technical advisors, along with colleagues from the New Americans Task Force in Lincoln, Nebraska – a fellow SIIP participant that had conducted a similar study of local internationally educated immigrants and refugees – the IIB launched its survey in the spring of 2021. Coordinators gathered data from 40 respondents, and supplemented it with information gleaned from discussions with local immigrant- and refugee-serving organizations. Insights included: 

• Understanding of the systemic barriers that led to the unemployment and underemployment of immigrants and refugees. 

• Recognition of the local communities most acutely affected by these barriers.  

• Identification of the professional fields in which local immigrants and refugees had training and experience.  

The first step the IIB took in acting on survey findings was the creation of a series of career pathways guides, with step-by-step guidance to help local immigrants and refugees rejoin health care and education professions in Buffalo and across Western New York. SIIP also supported the IIB in applying for grants from the State of New York Office of New Americans (ONA) and the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), to further build its capacity to support internationally trained immigrants and refugees. The funding allowed the IIB to hire two dedicated job coaches to work with local service providers and educational institutions to connect immigrants and refugees with pathways to employment. SIIP also fostered an ongoing partnership between the IIB and the WES Gateway Program, allowing IIB job coaches to support refugees and displaced people in completing credential evaluations.  

Finally, at the close of 2021, the IIB renamed its refugee resettlement department the New American Integration Department, positioning it to more effectively support the arrival of hundreds of individuals from Afghanistan. “Buffalo has resettled over 600 humanitarian parolees from Afghanistan, many of whom have come here with higher education or professional careers. It’s been encouraging for them to know there are [local pathways] for returning to the fields in which they were trained or educated,” said an IIB staff member.  

Looking Ahead in Buffalo  

To effectively serve internationally trained immigrants and refugees, the IIB is committed to building not only its own expertise, but also support from the wider Buffalo community. The IIB is actively creating partnerships with other stakeholders to advance programming, referrals, and support for internationally trained immigrants and refugees. Thus far, the IIB has established partnerships with Leadership Buffalo to connect employers to immigrants and refugees with international work experience, as well as Jericho Road Community Health Center to recruit immigrants and refugees with healthcare backgrounds for interpretation and outreach work, helping the center provide culturally and linguistically competent care in the community. In the future, the IIB hopes to develop partnerships with city- and county-level government agencies as well.  

The IIB has also established a mentoring program based on a model from​ ​Portland, ME, a fellow SIIP alum. Called the Professional Pathways Program, it is designed to help immigrants and refugees network with local professionals in their fields. “We are matching people to build networks,” said an IIB staffer. “In a smaller place like Buffalo, a lot of jobs are based on who you know. We have learned a lot from other SIIP sites about things like the mentoring idea.” In 2023, the IIB successfully matched dozens of immigrants and refugees with mentors through the Professional Pathways Program, providing participants with valuable guidance and networking opportunities. The IIB is looking forward to continuing the Professional Pathways Program as well as its important partnership and career guidance work in the future. 

Building on its SIIP experience, the IIB’s ongoing inclusion efforts promise to open career and economic mobility for internationally trained immigrants and refugees. Learn how your community can participate in a future SIIP cohort.​​