Mirjana Kulenovic’s team at Jewish Vocational Services in Boston works with over 400 new refugees a year. With little or no English a refugee can get work within two months in hotel housekeeping, she told me. After her English improves, she could become a bank teller. After formal education, such as at Bunker Hill Community College, she then might move into the pharmacy industry or a higher level job in financial services. “There’s a definite labor shortage for healthcare jobs such as lab technicians,” she said.
She and husband are Croatian. They were living in Serbia and put on a list to be shot. Eventually we got into America on asylum visas.
Photo credit: Earl Dotter, 2016.