WES Blog

On June 17, the Welcoming Center launched a new toolkit to help employers recruit, retain, and promote immigrant and refugee workers. The Engaging Immigrant Talent toolkit shares with employers proven actions they can take to tap into the potential of immigrant talent and make their workplaces more inclusive. The resource is designed to meet employers […]

St. Louis’s Bevo Mill neighborhood—home to a corridor of immigrant-owned restaurants, markets, and salons—is known as “Little Bosnia,” a testament to the city’s revitalization by the tens of thousands of Bosnian refugees who arrived there in the 1990s, fleeing conflict in the Balkans. The newcomers made important contributions to the city, launching both businesses and […]

In honor of World Refugee Day on June 20, learn about one of our grantee partners with the WES Mariam Assefa Fund. Nada El Masry’s family fled Palestine during its vicious ethnic cleansing effort in the 1960s. Displaced to Libya, they were denied citizenship—which limited their access to basic human rights. “There were constant reminders […]

This spring President Biden revised the annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500, reversing course on the record-low level of 15,000 set by the previous administration. The president’s decision ended months of uncertainty and reconfirmed the commitment of the United States “to protect the most vulnerable.” Following yesterday’s observance of World Refugee Day, the president can […]

In 2018, Nada El Masry co-founded the Refugee Livelihood Lab (RLL) as a way of building social, economic, and political capital for racialized refugee and migrant communities in Vancouver. RLL, a grantee partner of the WES Mariam Assefa Fund, is a social innovation lab housed within RADIUS at the Beedie School of Business at Simon […]

In this piece, Nomzana Augustin, the Fund’s Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships Manager, shares her experience and perspective, and highlights the importance of collaboration to create an economy that works for all.  This interview originally appeared on Economic Opportunity Funders’ website on June 1, 2021 and is cross posted here with permission. The WES Mariam Assefa […]

For over a decade, World Education Services (WES) maintained an “apostille” requirement for several countries. Applicants who studied in those countries needed to mail their original documents, with apostille authentication, to WES. Once their report was complete, their original documents would be returned. As of May 2021, WES is no longer requiring original documents with […]

As the IMPRINT coalition welcomes new member organizations, WES Global Talent Bridge is publishing a series of blog posts that highlight the critical work and unique perspectives of this dynamic network. Mohamed Khalif is founder of the Washington Academy for International Medical Graduates (WAIMG), a non-profit that supports the efforts of international medical graduates (IMGs) […]

Ninos Ishaia and his wife Nancy are just two of the 6.6 million Syrians that left their country to escape its civil war. Before coming to Ontario, Canada, the couple had lived for more than two years in Lebanon. Five years have passed since Ninos joined more than 70,000 Syrian refugees who settled in Canada, but he vividly remembers the fears that came with the transition.   “I arrived in January 2016, thinking that my biggest challenges were the […]

“Building Momentum for a New Decade,” the 2020 Immigrant Economic Integration Virtual Summit hosted by WES Global Talent Bridge, featured state and local practitioners, immigrant and refugee leaders, and policymakers committed to advancing the academic and economic mobility of immigrants and refugees in the United States. In light of critical shortages in regulated professions exacerbated […]

Growing up in the Carolinas, Andrea Plaza and her family were one of the few Latinx families living within a 100-mile radius. “I think my family had two lives,” Andrea recalls. “The kind we lived at home and the kind we lived outside the home. That certainly presented some questions for me in terms of […]

World Education Services (WES) believes in the power of storytelling and shared resources. In 2019, we reached out to immigrants across North America. We asked about their reasons for leaving home, their challenges along the way, and the advice they would like to share with other newcomers. In this new blog series, we are now […]

As the IMPRINT coalition expands to welcome new member organizations, WES Global Talent Bridge is featuring a series of blog posts that highlight the critical work and unique perspectives of this dynamic network. José Ramón Fernández-Peña, MD, MPA, is director of Health Professions Advising at Northwestern University and president of the American Public Health Association. […]

Immigrant youth have been among the demographics hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic across employment, education, and health (including mental health). The challenges highlighted by the pandemic were not new, but continued long-standing patterns, especially relating to unemployment and underemployment of immigrant youth in Canada.   With this in mind, on March 30, WES convened more than 60 contributors to discuss immigrant youth workforce development in an #ImmigrantsThrive Twitter chat. Influential participants from government, service provision, and post-secondary institutions reviewed the challenges and also opportunities for increased labour market inclusion of […]

While the pandemic is highlighting challenges in Canada’s health and long-term care (LTC) systems, it is also shining a light on the thousands of internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs) who are licensed to practice in other countries but are unable to fully contribute their skills, education, and experience in Canada.   Since last spring, WES has been working with many partners to raise awareness of the deep disconnect between the underutilization of IEHP talent and the needs of Canada’s health and LTC systems. WES has been convening with IEHPs and system stakeholders to develop and advocate for structural and policy changes that can create more access for immigrants and […]

Rosemarie Powell, who leads the Toronto Community Benefits Network (TCBN), has been at the forefront of pivotal community development and organizing throughout her 32 years in Canada. Rosemarie first arrived in Montreal from Jamaica at age 16 with her siblings to reunite with her mother. Ever since, she has worked to provide immigrants, youth, and racialized communities […]

World Education Services (WES) believes in the power of storytelling and shared resources. In 2019, we reached out to immigrants across North America. We asked about their reasons for leaving home, their challenges along the way, and the advice they would like to share with other newcomers. In this new blog series, we are now […]

Immigrants and refugees with international credentials are integral to the economic vitality of the United States, yet many are unable to contribute their skills, talents, and experience to the U.S. workforce because of systemic obstacles to employment. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the essential role of immigrant and refugee workers and emphasized the urgent need for […]

The WES Mariam Assefa Fund’s principle of “learning by doing” as a funder is a constant. Every day, we learn from our 35-plus grantee and investee partners about which solutions hold promise, where we can do more, and what it takes to create lasting change to build a more equitable future for immigrants and refugees. […]

In 2019, the WES Mariam Assefa Fund partnered with the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation to explore how catalytic financing tools could drive more capital toward addressing the needs of immigrant and refugee workers. The impact of the pandemic made this work even more pressing. The Fund and the Beeck Center are now […]