Study: Lasting employment barriers for Buffalo’s refugee communities suggest investment in economic integration needed

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Since the establishment of the 1980 Refugee Act, sitting presidents have been responsible for setting the annual cap on new refugee arrivals to the United States. The current cap of 7,500, down from 125,000 in January of 2025, is the lowest since the act went into effect.

“While the flow of new refugees arriving in the U.S. has decreased, there are still many refugees in local communities, people the government has already made a commitment to, who struggle with economic integration,” says Abigail Cooke, PhD, an associate professor of geography in the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences.

Cooke is the corresponding author of a study published in April in the Journal on Migration and Human Security that finds refugees in Buffalo face significant employment challenges long after their resettlement, while also identifying three areas for local policy improvements to strengthen economic integration.

The results and recommendations are drawn from interviews conducted between November 2021 and June 2022 with 19 community leaders of refugee groups and service providers at various agencies in Buffalo. These 19 individuals are “key informants,” a group that allows for a large amount of data to be collected in a short time. They are in constant contact with refugees and provided the research team with an understanding of the community culture and context.

The study’s co-authors include Cooke’s UB colleagues Wooksoo Kim, PhD, professor of social work; Yunju Nam, PhD, associate professor of social work; Robert Adelman, PhD, professor of sociology and criminology; and Stephen Brown, a sociology graduate student at Rice University.

“If we’re to understand the employment-related challenges facing refugees in Buffalo, then it’s this core group that can provide a sweeping sense for the current realities,” says Cooke. “Our findings show a strong need for sustained language, workforce and community-based support if people in refugee communities are going to have the ability to achieve long-term economic integration.”

The key informants also perform tasks not typically associated with their roles.

“Leaders and providers are doing a lot to support refugees,” says Brown, one of the co-authors. “One moment they are helping someone with their income tax forms and then they’re helping someone else plan a funeral for a family member.”

The interviews revealed challenges faced after the traditional 90-day resettlement period. After finding what are often low wage “survival jobs,” which require few formal qualifications and minimal language proficiency, refugees must navigate unfamiliar aspects of the U.S. system for upward career mobility.

“When people want to make a change, because of the chance for better wages or better working conditions, they often don’t know how to search,” says Cooke. “Those who face discrimination, or issues related to other bad experiences, don’t know about labor protections or how to advocate for themselves.”

Language emerged as a key barrier, the first of the three areas informing policy recommendations. But proficiency alone offers too narrow of a lens to comprehensively access the language challenge, according to Cooke.

“People learn enough English to get through their daily lives, but that proficiency is uneven throughout specific communities,” she says. “There is also a distinction to be made with spoken and written language. Just because someone speaks well doesn’t mean they’re comfortable writing cover letters or completing official documents.”

Policy improvements offered by the researchers include the need for the return of a robust federal refugee resettlement program, the second area, that builds in improvements to the resettlement period. Expanding support for refugee-led community organizations could also become part of future federal programs.

But Cooke says the third area is intriguing because it seems counterintuitive. The refugee population should be considered not exclusively as refugees, but within the broader American economy.

“A lot of the problems faced by refugees are shared by the working poor across the entire country,” she says. “We should be thinking about structural positions that can help communities achieve economic integration with programs that can then be tailored to make sure they are impactfully including refugees.”

Though the research for the study was done in Buffalo, and its results might not translate exactly to other cities, the findings might still be of interest to other cities looking for recommendations.

“If these long-term issues are present in Buffalo, it’s likely those same issues are happening in other cities with large concentrations of refugees,” says Cooke.