Afghan refugees to settle in Akron neighborhoods
With the quick and urgent evacuations in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s government takeover, the city of Akron can expect around 150 Afghan refugees to settle in its neighborhoods, according to The International Institute of Akron (IIA).
One family already arrived in Akron in late August and another is set to arrive the week of Sept. 12. The rest of the refugees should filter in throughout the next six months after they complete the vetting and screening processes required for their entry into the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The IIA is expecting to work with many of the refugees coming to Akron. The institute offers an array of services to refugees from any country arriving in the greater Akron area. These include education, employment and immigration legal services.
Since the agency is located in the North Hill neighborhood, it’s anticipated the refugees will find housing in and around this area.
“The Institute’s been around for over a hundred years,” Walter said. “It started out largely as a teaching institution for English, but really since the modern refugee resettlement program started we’d have been primarily a refugee resettlement agency.” Photo provided by Kevin Walter.
“A lot of the relationships we have with landlords are around that area and greater Akron as a whole,” said Kevin Walter, the advocacy and community outreach coordinator for the International Institute of Akron . “Affordable housing is a challenge. We’ll be looking for some temporary housing options while we secure long-term housing mostly in Akron because transportation is always a barrier. So we’d like to try to settle with them close to the services.”
The greater Akron area includes Tallmadge, Cuyahoga Falls and Chapel Hill, said Phil Lombardo, the Ward 2 City Councilman for Akron. Refugees and immigrants from Nepal and Myanmar have settled in these neighboring areas as well, Lombardo said.
The Afghan refugees will also receive monetary assistance from the IIA. The amount varies depending on the visa a refugee holds.
“At least initially, this round will be what’s referred to as parolees, and sometimes they’re not eligible for a lot of the same assistance as a refugee that went through the typical process would be,” Walter said. “There will be some assistance that goes to them to help with housing and food and clothing.”
The monetary assistance is given to all refugees going through the IIA.
“A lot of people think that they get free tickets to live in Akron, but that that’s not the case,” Lombardo said. “Although the International Institute or the government may give them about $600 to get started there on their own.
The funding for the resettlement is coming from a number of sources.
“There are several levels of funding,” Walter said. “Some of it is city and state. We get a lot of private foundation grants as well, as well as individual donors, which is important to us.”
When refugees arrive in Akron, case managers at the IIA help them navigate the resettlement process, Walter said.
“The resettlement period typically is 90 days. So within that 90 days, their case manager works with them to make sure that all their benchmarks are being met; housing, jobs and education, if they’re going to classes,” Walter said. “If there’s any specialized stuff they need through employment or social services or legal help that we’ll go through somebody else.”
The crisis in Afghanistan
Most of the Afghans arriving are considered Special Immigrant Visa refugees.
“It’s people that have worked or assisted with the military or the U.S. government during the Afghan war,” Walter said. “So now that the Taliban has taken over, they’re now at risk and their families could be in harm’s way. Our government has a responsibility after partnering with them and throughout the war to now help them escape.”
With the current crisis in Afghanistan, the IIA is focusing on working with Afghans already settled in the community to bring over their family members still in the Middle Eastern country.
“Our primary focus has been people that are already here with a family over there,” Walter said. “We’re just trying to offer the best advice we can as to who to contact; the best approach to take if you still have family or friends that need to get out.”
One Cleveland resident said he still has family in Afghanistan.
“I tried to bring my daughter here,” said Hafizullah Solemanshah, an Afghan native who resettled in Ohio in 2003.
He applied to bring her to the U.S. in 2009, but there has been no news on whether she will be able to join him here, Solemanshah said.
A Kent State graduate student is in a similar situation as well.
Noorulbari Mal said his family is still in Afghanistan and wish to leave.
“There’s not too many options for them to come,” Mal, a journalism and mass communications graduate student, said. “They don’t have any any legal way to flee Afghanistan.”
Mal was able to obtain a Special Immigrant Visa to enter the United States back in 2017. In Afghanistan, Mal worked for the United States Agency for International Development to create projects aimed at developing the capacity of staff and government. Because he was working for the United States government, the Taliban said they would kill him. After finishing the application, screening and background check, the U.S. granted him the visa after about two years, Mal said.
However, while he was able to leave Afghanistan with this visa, his other family members were not as lucky.
“My brother also worked for some USDA funded programs. At the time, he did not want to come to the United States. He said, I have a good life here. I don’t want to go anywhere,” Mal said. “But now that he wants to come.”
Mal’s brother has been trying to contact his U.S. citizen supervisor to ask for a letter of recommendation for the Special Immigrant Visa, but has not been able to get ahold of him, Mal said. Therefore, he is unable to come.
The history of refugee resettlement in Akron
The IIA has worked with refugees and immigrants from Afghanistan and numerous other countries in the past. In 2019, 168 refugees from four countries resettled in Akron. Seventeen of those refugees were from Afghanistan.
The agency has helped refugees since its Refugee Resettlement Program began in 1979. Since then, refugees from Burma, Nepal, Iran, Pakistan and many other countries have settled in and around Akron.
“Akron has always been a welcoming community,” Lombardo said. “We just had a long history of welcoming immigrants into the community.”
In the 1900s, the city of Akron, and spIn the 1900s, the city of Akron, and specifically North Hill, welcomed immigrants from all over Europe, mainly Italy and Poland, Lombardo said.
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