Jobs in health care offer hope for refugees

BOISE - Many local refugees are finding work in the health care fields - even during the worst recession since the 1930s. In some cases, refugees' cultural heritage is an advantage.

In a high-rise off State Street, Kumari Luitel and Margaret Whitman have decked out Whitman's apartment in so many sparkling holiday lights - pink, purple, rainbow-colored icicles - that there are more than enough for both Christmas and Diwali, the Hindu festival of light. The soundtrack: American Christmas classics mixed with the Bollywood Luitel loves.

"I accept Kumari, and she accepts me," Whitman said.

Whitman has become a vegetarian, inspired by Luitel's Hindu faith.

Luitel works for ABC Home Health in Meridian, and spends three hours every evening with Whitman. A former teacher in Nepal, Luitel said she likes having a job in which she helps people, and she plans to continue her education in the nursing field.

The challenge of finding a job in the down economy becomes even more acute for refugees - many of whom come to the U.S. with profound language and cultural differences.

In 2010, more than 30 percent of Idaho's employable refugees left the state to look for jobs, voluntarily stopped their job search, or are still looking for work.

But there are bright spots - and home health care is one of them.

Luitel arrived in Boise in 2009 from Nepal where she had lived in a refugee camp since she was a small child. She trained to become a Certified Nursing Assistant in the U.S., but her initial training came much earlier, and more informally, she said, when she cared for her own mother in the refugee camp.

Whitman, a retired nurse, is a diabetic who takes supplemental oxygen. She relies on a walker and wheelchair to get around - and on Luitel. Luitel cooks meals for Whitman, helps her into bed. Most of all, the two have become so close Whitman considers Luitel's baby her fifth grandchild.

"I trust Kumari with my life," she said.

Many refugees come from cultures where it's common for younger family members to care for their elders. That tradition works to refugees' advantage in the United States, making jobs in health care a natural fit for some.

It's a practical fit, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the health care industry will generate three million new wage and salary jobs between 2006 and 2016.

"All those Baby Boom babies are getting to be my age," said Whitman. "They are all going to need care."

The Idaho Office for Refugees recently hosted a summit in Boise to introduce local health care companies to an untapped pool of caregivers in the refugee community.

The field has a built-in career ladder with lots of ways to advance, said Tara Wolfson, a regional employment coordinator with the agency who is working with several former refugees.

Wages in entry-level health care professions typically range from $7.50 to $9.50 an hour - modest, but a start in a profession with a lot of demand.

What's good for new Idahoans can also be good for Idaho businesses, Wolfson said. Businesses that hire refugees are eligible for tax credits and support from resettlement agencies, including language interpreters, vocational English instruction and job coaching.

Petar Amador, owner of ABC Home Health, spoke at the recent summit and said between 30 and 40 percent of his employees are refugees.

Amador started hiring refugees a couple of years ago after he got a call from a resettlement agency about a refugee who needed care. Amador met with the agency and ended up hiring another refugee to be a caregiver for the first.

That arrangement worked so well, and the caregiver turned out to be so competent, that Amador decided it was worth his efforts to develop his own training program for refugees. The program includes interpreters, videos, exercises and testing. Since that first introduction through the resettlement agency, he's hired between 50 and 60 refugees as caregivers.

Amador admits he was a bit wary at first because there are so many lawsuits in the health care business.

"It's been an investment for us to have trainers, interpreters, but at the end of the day it's worth it, because we've been able to hire really good, honest, talented workers," Amador said. "Refugees are grateful for opportunity to prove themselves. That comes out in fewer people calling in sick, fewer complaints from clients."

In hiring refugees, ABC has also benefitted from tax credits through the Work Opportunity program and "HIRE," the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act. Amador said he's reinvested that windfall back into refugee training and has started a scholarship program.

ABC Home Health awarded its first scholarship this year to one of its employees, a refugee from Somalia, to pay for training as a certified nursing assistant.

"Our goal is to award four scholarships a year to our employees," Amador said. "We want our employees to use us as a stepping stone to something better."

He tries to encourage friends and fellow business people to consider hiring refugees for entry-level positions. He gets mixed responses. Many worry about the language barriers, despite the willingness of agencies to provide English assistance. Others say they don't want to hire refugees at a time when so many native-born Americans are out of work.

"Refugees are here. Not giving them jobs is not going to make them go away," Amador said. "They can either be in the welfare system, or we can give them the chance to become self-supporting."

Rutikanga Benjamin arrived in the United States from Rwanda 10 months ago with skills that translated to the health care field: 12 years as a minister and social worker in a refugee camp. He works for CommuniCare Inc. at a local group home caring for five men with physical and mental disabilities - and sometimes a combination of both.

"My job is to train them to be independent," said Benjamin, who's fluent in five languages. "I give them a bath today, but maybe tomorrow, they will know how to bathe themselves."

Benjamin said having a "caring heart" helps him in his profession, but he has still relied on the training he's received through his employer.

"Social work skills are a good start, but it's not enough," he said.

The health care path is bright for some refugees - though it's hard to ignore a certain irony. In 2010, only 22 percent of all refugees working in all fields in Idaho had health insurance through their jobs.

The struggle for some refugees to find work that pays enough to sustain their families will continue.

Reminders of that are close for Benjamin. He lost track of his wife and two children in the war in Congo. He hasn't seen them since 1997, despite his efforts to find them. His family, for now, consists of his sister and her 11-year-old daughter. They also live in Boise, though not with Benjamin, who stays in a tiny studio apartment near Downtown Boise.

His sister is learning English. She found a housekeeping job two days a week at a hotel, but doesn't earn enough to pay her rent. She recently received an eviction notice from her landlord.

"For refugees who don't have a basic education background, it's not easy," Benjamin said.