BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — It is an issue that has a lot of different opinions, and several sides to it.
According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 110 million individuals have been forcibly displaced worldwide, as a result of persecution, conflict, violence or human rights violations.
The United States is currently witnessing the highest levels of displacement on record.
Over the summer, more than 500 asylum seekers made their way to Western New York from New York City, and that is just a fraction of the people who come to Western New York as refugees, seeking better lives.
Here is the impact the refugee community has on the Western New York community as a whole.
7 News is a voice for everyone, so 7 News' Pheben Kassahun spoke with organizations that place refugees in homes and help them start their own businesses.
A refugee who is now helping other refugees find their feet here in Western New York and a business owner whose restaurant is taking off in the heart of Downtown Buffalo.
In the food hall of the Downtown Buffalo Bazaar, is a woman who runs the show of the Abyssinia Ethiopian Cuisine restaurant.
Kassahun caught up with Ethiopian native, Zelalem Gemmeda, who has the hustle and grit of an entrepreneur.
It is something that she learned at a refugee camp in Yemen, while fleeing her native land due to political issues.
Abyssinia Ethiopian Cuisine owner, Zelalem Gemmeda said, "There is no means to get income. I was thinking to provide for the campers to sell Injera and spices."
After moving to Buffalo in 2005, Gemmeda studied general science and graduated with a liberal arts degree from Erie County Community College and eventually started her own business through the Buffalo Bazaar".
"I wanted to bring my experience from Yemen to Buffalo. Until I got WEDI, it was so difficult for me to open a restaurant. When I met the first time, WEDI, they make it easier for us to facilitate all this business ideas and support so that's how we start business," Gemmeda said.
Ten years later, Zelalem Gemmeda has solidified her restaurant at a new location in the Buffalo Bazaar downtown.
She is just one of the many success stories that have come out of WEDI.
"Immigrants and refugees are reclaiming neighborhoods that were pretty much abandoned at one point. They're just lightening up the city and adding real value. The thing that they are really adding value about though is making Buffalo a cultural hub. That's why the West Side Bazaar has become a community hub," WEDI External Relations Director, Erin St. John Kelly said.
WEDI helps create equity in Buffalo's underserved neighborhoods so everyone can thrive.
The way they get to that is through education.
There are two pillars: one of them is education for English language learners in grades 1-12. The other pillar is economic development through technical assistance and loans.
"We give loans of $500 to $20,000 to people who have no, low or bad credit and often people have zero credit because they are immigrants or refugees but we also serve anyone who qualifies for our help economically," Kelly said.
Kelly said 85% of WEDI's businesses that it is a micro-lender for are minority-owned and 60% are women-owned.
"We like to make sure people leave us better than they came, and so you have a constant connection with that person to help and we also have mentoring and volunteering and we also have webinars, what we have technical assistance for people like how to make a business plan, how to hire somebody, how to get licensing. We have a legal clinic," Kelly said.
Entrepreneurship is just one way refugees and immigrants contribute to the Western New York Community.
No success story is met without tenacity.
The road from resettlement to a common citizen can be a long one.
Once refugees are assigned an American city to live in, the journey starts with a 90-day integration period.
This can be anywhere from picking up the family from the airport to bringing them to permanent or temporary housing and assisting them in getting their first medicals done.
"Helping children enroll in school, getting benefits set up for them, teaching them how to ride a bus, setting up a bank account," Journey's End CEO Karen Andolina-Scott said.
"The reality is that everyone needs more than 90 days. I can't imagine what it would be like to leave my home for how ever many number of years, living in a refugee camp or as a refugee, getting permanently resettled and then expected to be on my feet within 90 days," Andolina-Scott said.
She added that when clients come to their location at the Tri-Main Center, they each have a "unique and individual need".
"Refugees come from all different walks of life. We have refugees who were professionals back home. We have refugees who were entrepreneurs, inventors or teachers. Refugees are all people. When they start their new lives here, many of them are looking to do the same," Andolina-Scott explained.
Once the 90 days are up, refugees are then placed in housing and in most cases have their kids enrolled in school and have landed a job, with the help of Journey's End.
Siti Khadijah Abdul Salam is the Refugee School Impact Program (RSIP) assistant for Journey's End.
"Based on my personal experiences, my mom was the bread winner in my family. Even though she was not educated, she wanted us to have at least something we can bring up and we can bring our own future," Salam said.
Salam came to the U.S. from Rakhine State, Mayanmar after a genocide forced her and her family out.
In November 2015, her first stop was in Utica, where she had a U.S. tie.
In July 2019, her family moved to Buffalo.
She tells me her mother emphasized the importance of getting an education.
Now after receiving her degree from Buffalo State University, she is able to give back by helping incoming refugees through Journey's End.
"I want refugees out there, especially children to have fun learning something new, learning new cultures especially language because English is the universal language," Salam said.
Adolina-Scott said, "From an economic standpoint, we do see that they are making that positive impact. That doesn't even know the food, the dancing, the language, all of the cultural benefits that they are bringing to a place like Western New York."
Additionally, with the support from the community near and far, refugees and immigrants are able to continue to thrive with the help of agencies, consumers and through perseverance and ambition.
"When you come here, you see all kinds of people who you wouldn't necessarily see in Buffalo; truck drivers, foodies, hipsters, people searching for a taste from home, college professors. Everybody's here getting some food," Kelly said.
"We get a lot of support and I am appreciative of what they do for us," Zelalem said.
"You cannot have an increase in economy, positive impacts on economy without people. Certainly, it is refugees and immigrants who are coming to Buffalo who are helping to keep that population decline to a steady, if not keep it from an incline to a decline," Andolina-Scott said.
