IMMIGRANTS

In sharp contrast to President Donald Trump, Kasich is opening his arms to immigrants and the economic benefits he says they can bring.

To do so, he is enlisting the help of immigrants. As the saying goes, “You can’t be what you can’t see.”

“I hope that my personal experience of coming to this country and learning and trying to find my own way will inform this initiative about the challenges that exist and the gaps in services,” said Nadia Kasvin, a member of the committee and director of US Together, a job placement service for immigrants and refugees located in Bexley.

For Kasvin, the role of the New Americans Advisory Committee is multi-faceted. Not only does the Ukrainian immigrant want to help others like her find jobs, but she also wants to celebrate their achievements.

“I want to highlight the successes that refugees and immigrants have had since coming to the U.S.,” she said. “We often focus on those challenges and barriers. We want to create an environment to promote integration, but it’s also important to celebrate those successes.”

Those successes — in Ohio, and Columbus in particular — are plentiful, immigration advocates say.

Columbus has become a magnet for refugees from all over the world. They’re drawn by relatively affordable housing, an abundance of jobs and, most importantly, family members who are already here.

And the state continues to take in a significant number of refugees, bucking the national trend. Only Texas took in more refugees than Ohio from October of last year to June 30, according to the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, an office within the State Department.

While known for its vast Somali population, the city also is a hub for Bhutanese refugees, housing America’s largest population, most of whom are Buddhist or Hindu and were cast out during a government-led ethnic cleansing campaign against ethnic Nepalese in the early 1990’s.

To Sudarshan Pyakurel, Executive Director of the Bhutanese-Nepali Community of Columbus, it shows how welcoming and accommodating the state is to immigrants.

Pyakurel has been in Columbus for eight years, and the center he runs serves as a primary resource for the more-than 20,000 Bhutanese in the city.

“To describe in one word what we do would be too difficult,” Pyakurel said. “But if I had to, I would say integrating is what we focus on.”

Pyakurel says that having a job is key to integrating — and retaining — Columbus’ growing immigrant population. Additionally, he said, it is an important component of the symbiotic relationship between immigrants and their newfound community.

His center offers workforce education, language skills and citizenship classes, among other resources.

Both he and Kasvin, along with 10 other committee members, will pave the way for how the state embraces immigrants moving forward. In today’s polarized political climate, where immigration is one of the most hotly-debated issues, they both said they are grateful Ohio has set the example.

Kasvin believes there is no right or wrong way to think about the contentious issue, but thinks it is best to be open-minded and listen to immigrants about their own experiences when trying to best accommodate the growing population.

“There are different ways of solving things, different ways of looking into things,” Kasvin said. “Hopefully we can integrate both together.”