He fled Afghanistan. He now helps other refugees find work in Atlanta | national news

Mirwais Nawab Jalali was a military officer in Afghanistan, where he aided the U.S. government for years in America’s longest war, before leaving the country in the middle of the night with just a few documents and his clothes.

He holds a degree in biomedical engineering and other graduate studies and speaks six languages. But in 2021, after the fall of Kabul and the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, “I just came in and started from scratch,” Jalali said.

He eventually ended up in Georgia, on a special immigrant visa for Afghans who supported the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, living in Decatur while using his English skills to help other refugees and working in construction.

Later, a friend here who was a former classmate from Afghanistan told Jalali about a job at Unifi, an Atlanta-based aviation contractor. Unifi provides ground handling, security, aircraft cabin cleaning and wheelchair assistance at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport and other airports nationwide.

Jalali started working for Unifi in 2023, and as a recruiter for the company, he helps hire employees and get them started in their jobs.

Through its strong ties to the Afghan community in metro Atlanta, Jalali is also helping Unifi meet its recently announced goal of hiring 500 refugees by 2027.

“We find a way”

In 2021, President Joe Biden launched an effort to support vulnerable Afghans resettling in the United States, including those who worked alongside Americans in Afghanistan for two decades. In 2022, Biden announced a process for Ukrainian citizens to come to the United States and be considered eligible for work authorization.

In other cities like Seattle, Unifi is working with a Ukrainian church to help refugees displaced by the Russian invasion.

In Atlanta, Jalali shares job opportunities with several refugee communities in the metro Atlanta area via WhatsApp groups and helps recruits through the hiring process, including background checks to obtain badges airport and even organizing carpooling to help people without vehicles or driving licenses get to work. .

“When I started, it was very difficult to bring in just one refugee. But now we find a way,” Jalali said.

He said many of the refugees he comes into contact with live in Stone Mountain, Decatur and Clarkston, where the nonprofit Clarkston Community Center offers ESL classes, links to legal help for refugees and other services.

Unifi has already hired more than 200 refugees since 2022, including at airports in Atlanta, Houston and Seattle.

It is one of more than 200 companies across the country that are members of the Tent Partnership for Refugees to help refugees find jobs in the United States.

They include Delta Air Lines, which co-owns Unifi; Accenture, IHG Hotels & Resorts, UPS, Amazon, Google and others.

“Refugees are looking for work. Businesses are in shortage,” whether it’s at a Starbucks, McDonald’s or Target, said Archana Arcot, Unifi’s chief human resources officer.

The post-pandemic increase in travel motivated Unifi to find more workers and decide to “start having a formal structure to go out and hire refugees,” Arcot said.

“Programs like this take a lot more effort to set up (and) establish, but once you have the right structure… then it creates a multiplier effect,” Arcot said. She said the company is trying to create more ecosystems for hiring refugees, like in Minneapolis.

Refugees have the advantage of being eligible to work in the United States – so the employer does not need to sponsor a work visa, Arcot noted.

And airports have long attracted “people coming to the country looking for jobs,” particularly in cities like Minneapolis, Detroit and in border state cities like New York and Seattle, she said . Airports also often have public transportation to easily get to work.

Jobs at Unifi and airlines typically offer flight benefits, which are valuable for those who want to return abroad to visit family members.

Airports also tend to offer jobs that require physical labor and for which language skills are not as big a barrier, Arcot said. Many jobs start at $15 an hour, she said.

“There’s a limit to where you can put them,” she said. But she also sees higher retention rates because these workers are “not trying to go work for three different employers.”

Those who speak languages ​​other than English can succeed in jobs such as loading snack carts for onboard catering and janitorial work, especially working in teams, she said.

Those who are proficient in English can qualify for customer service positions, according to Arcot.

There may be some restrictions on the type of work some are comfortable with, she said. When loading carts with drinks, “they may not be comfortable with alcohol,” Arcot said. “It’s important to know the culture and recognize what works in that culture and where you can give them work. »

In Atlanta, Arcot said Jalali was a key part of that strategy as a “high-contact recruiter.”

Jalali said some recruits may not speak English, have never used a computer and don’t have an email address. He completes applications for them and helps them create an email address.

“You make these commitments and investments for the long term,” Arcot said.

The long-term goal is for workers to be able to access different jobs, use their language skills and help “attract a multicultural passenger clientele, which will always be the topography of large international airports,” she said.

Hogai Nassery, CEO of the Afghan-American Alliance of Georgia, said upward mobility is important.

“We have people who are pretty well educated and speak English pretty well,” Nassery said. “The jobs themselves are great – people need to land on their feet. »

She also said, “Whatever they do now, I hope it’s geared toward jobs that definitely have clout.” »

Airport jobs, such as at Unifi, are considered better than work in warehouses, chicken plants and manufacturing plants, said Shaista Amani, program manager at the Afghan-American Alliance of Georgia. But she said workers also need a way to advance, gaining certified skills such as ServSafe certification for food handling.

But it’s difficult for even the most educated Afghan refugees to find professional employment if they don’t have U.S. work experience or personal connections, she said.

Jalali also said that he knows workers who are highly educated and who, like when he arrived, start from scratch.

“We have doctors. …We have a minister,” Jalali said.

“It’s up to you to decide how you want to build your future.”