Refugee family turns struggle into success
The Rawas, who fled their home in Syria, now have a budding catering business in California
BERKELEY, CALIF.— With 30 days’ notice, the Rawas family were plucked from their temporary home in Jordan, where they’d fled the Syrian civil war, and resettled in Oakland, Calif.
As refugees, they knew no one, had no job prospects and didn’t speak a word of English.
Three years later, Mohammed Aref Rawas, Rawaa Kasedah and their four children are running a budding catering business that serves authentic Syrian food, such as smoked basmati rice, falafel and fattoush salad. They’ve hired their first employee. Their clients include big tech companies. And the days when starting over seemed impossible are far behind them.
They are among a large population of refugees who, after fleeing a homeland overrun by violence and political turmoil, started a business, integrating quickly into the economy and life of a new country. The family’s entrepreneurial approach is common among immigrants, studies show.
An estimated 11 per cent of all Syrian immigrants in the U.S. labour force are business owners — nearly four times the rate of U.S.-born business owners, according to a study by the New York-based Fiscal Policy Insti- tute and the Center for American Progress. A significant part of that success has been the ability to master the English language, the report said.
Meanwhile, a 2016 study by the institute that followed Bosnian, Burmese, Hmong and Somali refugees found that they, too, moved up the occupational ladder and started businesses after settling in the U.S. Thirtyone out of every 1,000 Bosnian refugees in the labour force are business owners, as are 26 out of 1,000 Burmese, 22 out of 1,000 Hmong and15 out of1,000 Somalis, the study found.
“There’s a hunger for dignified work,” said Thane Kreiner, executive director of the Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship at Santa Clara University.
Kreiner launched an accelerator program known as Social Entrepreneurship at the Margins, which assists businesses and organizations around the world that are run by refugees, migrants or victims of human trafficking.
The Rawas family started Old Damascus Fare last year. Rawas had owned a successful clothing factory in Syria, where he oversaw about 50 employees. The family lived comfortably in a suburb in their native Damascus.
But increasing gunfire, kidnappings and the presence of military groups forced them to leave, and their temporary escape to Jordan in 2012 lasted until they immigrated to the U.S. in 2015. More than 500,000 Syrians have died and nearly six million have fled during a civil war that began seven years ago with an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
After the Rawas family settled into the Bay Area, new friends and acquaintances in the Arab community asked Kasedah to cater birthday parties and other events. Soon they were catering events for area tech companies, including Facebook and LinkedIn.
“We got to the point where we realized it’s not only about food,” said Batool Rawoas, one of the couple’s daughters. “We are making new friends, we are hearing about new opportunities. It’s a way to share our culture with the people here.”
The family admits it’s still struggling. Their expenses regularly exceed their income, and they’re overwhelmed by the painstaking details of operating a business.
“The main challenge for any refugee family is navigating how to survive in the Bay Area because it’s so expensive,” said Rawoas, who is attending community college and hopes to transfer to a four-year university to study psychology and public health.
“We lived in Syria, we were from the middle class and we had a very comfortable life,” she said. “But we’re hoping, in the future, this will be a good thing to support us financially.”
Because refugees like the Rawas often have to reinvent their lives, that makes them resilient entrepreneurs, said David Miliband, a former British foreign secretary and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, which resettled the family three years ago.
“In a way, being a refugee, having to flee for your life, having to figure out who to trust, having to figure out new ways of survival … there could hardly be a more effective job-training program,” he said.