Geo Political InsidersLos Angeles
Fineas sits down with Jorge Abedin, Operations Manager at the International Rescue Committee's Los Angeles office in Glendale, to talk about how refugees rebuild their lives in Southern California. They discuss Jorge's path from a UCLA graduate program to the IRC as the son of a Cuban refugee, the IRC's mission "from harm to home" and its founding at the call of Albert Einstein, how resettlement actually works from the airport to the first apartment, and why housing and work permits are the hardest parts of starting over in Los Angeles. They also cover the IRC's policy and advocacy work, why nonprofits fill gaps the government can't, the Lautenberg program that made Glendale a resettlement hub, the war in Ukraine, crises that get too little attention like Sudan, the biggest misconceptions about refugees, and how students and young people can help.
Jorge Abedin is the Operations Manager at the International Rescue Committee in Los Angeles, where he also leads community relations. He joined the IRC more than four years ago after graduate study in comparative literature at UCLA, and speaks English, Spanish, Russian, and French.
Transcript lightly edited for clarity. Click any timestamp to play the video from that moment.
Fineas Hi, my name is Fineas, founder of GeoPolitical Insiders, a site devoted to conversations with diplomats, policymakers, scholars, and national security experts about the forces shaping international affairs. Today I'm joined by Jorge Abedin on behalf of the International Rescue Committee in Los Angeles. The IRC helps people affected by conflict and displacement rebuild their lives here in Los Angeles. That means supporting refugees and other newcomers as they find housing, look for work, access essential services, and settle into their new communities. Thank you, Jorge, for joining me. Let's get into it.
Jorge Abedin Of course. Thanks for having me.
Fineas Can you tell me about your journey to become the Operations Manager at the IRC? What led you to this career, and what's your role at the office?
Jorge Abedin Yes. So I moved out to LA in 2020, and I came out here to do graduate school at UCLA in comparative literature, so I was studying languages. My languages at the time were English, Spanish, Russian, and French. It was around the time of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, and I really liked what I was studying. I thought it was really fun. But I wanted to do something a little more involved. Academia wasn't what I wanted to do; I didn't want to teach. And so I had all these languages, I was living in LA, and I wanted to do something else.
My dad's a refugee. He and his family came from Cuba at the time of the revolution, so the identity of refugees has always been a strong part of my family. My dad became very successful in the U.S., his family became very successful, so those organizations have always been ones I've really admired. I saw there was an office in LA, and I started at a pretty interesting position. I was an inventory specialist, so I was basically cataloging and recording all the distribution of donated goods, what we call contributions in kind. I had this big Excel sheet: we have 100 diapers, size six, size five. If a client needed something, I would have them sign it out. And then slowly, over four and a half years, I've added more responsibilities. I became operations, which included the inventory, and then added on community relations. I think the longer you stick around here, the more things just kind of snowball a little bit.
Fineas Right. So as the child of refugees, you took that and turned it around to helping more refugees. It's very admirable.
Jorge Abedin Yeah. And especially being from New Orleans, too. I didn't really think about it until I started working here, but we'd evacuate for hurricanes every couple of years, so that experience has also been in my mind. Obviously it's significantly different, but having to leave your home and not knowing for how long...
Fineas So you can still understand a little bit of that sort of panic. So how would you describe the International Rescue Committee's mission to somebody who's never heard of the organization?
Jorge Abedin The International Rescue Committee, as an organization, our kind of tagline is "from harm to home." At our core, we're a humanitarian aid organization. In the United States we're doing refugee resettlement, but globally we're doing more than just that. Overseas we're doing humanitarian aid and supporting country programs. So basically, it's getting people out of harm's way into a place where they can recover and rebuild their lives.
Fineas Do you have people on the ground in countries where there are crises, helping them out?
Jorge Abedin Yeah. Traditionally we say something like within a month, and usually even sooner than that, we have some presence, whether it be an environmental disaster or a humanitarian disaster, war, whatever it may be. IRC staff are there as soon as possible, within a week or a month.
Fineas What are some of the specific locations where the IRC is currently operating and helping people out?
Jorge Abedin We have big, long operations in Ukraine. Unfortunately we're winding down a lot of our programming in some countries, not because the crisis is fixed, but because of funding and changes in funding structures. We've been in Afghanistan for a long time, supporting operations there, and a handful of country programs in Africa, the DRC, Sudan. And basically, we don't like to stay in a place for very long. We usually work with the local population, so we end up hiring nationals and getting the work done in the country with people who have lived experience. They're going to be the ones who are able to support the most.
Fineas So you get there fast, and you said you don't like to stay in any country for a long period of time?
Jorge Abedin Well, the idea with humanitarian aid is kind of interesting. You want people to get the support they need, but the support is there to help them rebuild their lives. It's the same thing as the work we do here in Los Angeles: we're here to make a soft landing in the U.S., so people can restart and rebuild their lives, as opposed to being here forever. We're here to support anyone who needs us, especially our former clients and immigrants of any status. But the real goal is to get them back on their feet so they can be self-sufficient and live their lives normally.
Fineas Can you talk a little bit about the history of the IRC? Why and when was it founded, and how has its work evolved as the reasons people leave their homes have changed?
Jorge Abedin We were started at the call of Albert Einstein in the 1930s for Jewish refugees fleeing during World War II, and it just grew from there. I always like to bring this up: the first United States operation was during the Cuban Revolution, so the IRC's first refugee resettlement in the U.S. was at that time. Our office here in LA opened 51 years ago now, mostly as a way to resettle Vietnamese refugees during the Vietnam War. That's why the California offices have resettled so many clients, because a lot of the Vietnamese refugees came almost exclusively to the Los Angeles office, our San Diego office, and a lot of the military bases in California. So that's kind of how the IRC in the United States started.
Fineas How does your Los Angeles office fit into the IRC's international operations? And what geographic area does this office serve?
Jorge Abedin We serve basically all of Southern California. We have an office in San Diego, and they're a huge office. They resettle a lot of refugees in San Diego, but they're also along the border, so they have different programming than we do, and they serve San Diego County and the county to the east. We serve LA, of course, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Ventura, Kern, San Bernardino. How I like to say it is: from San Diego north, and from the desert to the sea. That's our service area, but most of our clients are in Orange County, LA, and San Bernardino.
Within the greater IRC, our part is called RAI, Resettlement, Asylum and Integration, formerly called U.S. Programs. All of our offices across the U.S. are resettlement offices. In a functioning refugee admissions program, we get a list of arrivals from the federal government through our headquarters. So clients may be getting support from the IRC in their home country or in a second country before resettlement, and when they come to the U.S., our caseworkers pick them up from the airport. They take them straight from the airport to our office to fill out paperwork, and then we get them into temporary housing, like a hotel. That night we buy them food, and we try our best to get them something culturally appropriate, like taking them to a grocery store where they'd be able to get something they'd like.
And then we've expanded, because the needs of our clients are huge. It's not just come here, have a caseworker for 90 days, and then see you. That's why our programming has expanded to immigration services. We're helping clients get their green cards, do DACA renewals, get citizenship. We have that immigration team that supports them with the legal side, and then our adult education team, our integration team, supports them with English classes and with studying for the citizenship exam. And I always like to say it out loud when I can: our citizenship class has a 100% pass rate for anyone who takes the citizenship test, which is almost a statistical anomaly in the network and among other agencies.
Fineas It seems like the resettlement program is a major, if not the biggest, aspect of the IRC's mission. Could you walk us through what the resettlement program actually looks like in practice?
Jorge Abedin Yeah. Like I said, the resettlement manager will be told about arrival dates in advance, and then we plot out which caseworker they'll be assigned to. It's kind of funny, it seems like it would be more involved, but at our peak we were working in close to 19 or 20 languages. We pick up the clients and get to know them a little bit, bring them to the office, sometimes late at night depending on the day, and help them fill out some paperwork. We're basically the organization that administers their direct assistance: the money they get from the U.S. government for their resettlement. We help them spend that down on things like temporary housing. So the first thing we'll do is get them into a hotel, and we try not to stay in a hotel for very long. That's one of the most difficult things about resettlement in Los Angeles, across the network, and specifically in California: temporary housing, and then long-term housing after that.
You have to get a work permit, or work authorization, so we're supporting them to be legally allowed to work as quickly as possible and to get into an apartment as quickly as possible. And little things, like helping them go grocery shopping, but also making sure a caseworker gets the kids enrolled in school. If the parents need other services, we refer to everything, and that's why we have all these other programs, so we can refer to ourselves. Let's say an adult was a certified professional in their country of origin: a caseworker will help get them enrolled in English classes, but also in a recertification program, at one of the community colleges, for example.
The technical part of it, honestly, is the humanity. It's exactly what you think. Somebody moves with very little from a different country, and the caseworkers are social workers supporting them to get everything they need. And the beautiful thing about LA is that it's a city of immigrants, so we have amazing community partners. There are so many organizations that support refugees and immigrants in the city, so it's not only through us. If there's something we can't provide, we refer out, and they refer to us. We're definitely in a good position to be in a place that is very welcoming to immigrants and has been for a really long time.
Fineas So you really make sure that they're able to integrate properly and have everything they need.
Jorge Abedin Yeah. Because when you look at the population, like I said, my dad's a refugee. He's an engineer. My uncle, his brother, is a dentist. His other brother is a stockbroker. Refugees aren't coming because they want to; they're coming because they're escaping conflict. When you look at it through a humanitarian lens, of course it's the right thing to do. These people need support, so let's do it. But that's also why this has been going on for so long: economically it's really advantageous, too, because these are usually educated populations. Refugees have always been a really good economic support to a country. If agencies like us can help them get a job, ideally in their own field, it's a really big support. Morally, it's a great thing to do, but it's also really effective. It's important economically as well.
Fineas So you've talked about how the IRC is able to help immigrants and refugees. What type of person typically comes into your office, and how do they actually find you?
Jorge Abedin For non-refugees, and refugees who weren't resettled through our office, there's a big web of referrals. Agencies are funded for specific purposes, so a lot of the work is prescriptive, and it's also restrictive: our immigration department can only do X, Y and Z, and other immigration organizations can do other services. There's no competition; we all have a similar mission and are all trying to achieve the same goal. So a lot of clients will find us through other organizations, which is really nice.
We also have programming through the City of Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Public Library, so we're actually in the community, in different public library branches across the city. We have our legal and immigration teams in the libraries: a licensed attorney in two different libraries throughout the week, and our senior legal representative in a few others. Our legal representatives are all Department of Justice accredited, and they speak five, six, seven languages in total among them. A lot of the clients we meet are in the libraries, and the library does a lot of that outreach too. What's really nice about that program is that it's in their community, so they don't have to come all the way to Glendale, and transportation is obviously a huge issue. They can go to a public library in their neighborhood, usually a community hub with easy public transportation.
And we do have a brand that's pretty well known, as one of the biggest NGOs in the world, so a lot of people will just find us from a Google search, or they'll say, "I was resettled by the IRC years ago, do you offer this service?" or "I have a friend who came to the IRC." We don't have the biggest visibility to the public in LA, but we do to clients and immigrants.
Fineas They're searching for those services. So it's typically other NGOs and nonprofits that help with other aspects of the resettlement process and refer people to you, and the library work.
Fineas What makes rebuilding a life in Los Angeles particularly difficult? And how do you help people navigate the challenges that Los Angeles brings specifically, such as housing costs, employment, and language barriers?
Jorge Abedin We really try to meet the need as it changes. If I could pull up our org chart over the time I've been here, positions have come and gone. We had a housing specialist, or housing navigator, for however many years; we had an employment specialist, and that position has changed over time. So it's a lot of reacting to what the current issue is, because it's not the same year in and year out, and it's not the same for each population. Our office has traditionally resettled clients with what we call a U.S. tie: someone who is able to sponsor them in the United States, a lot of times a family member. A lot of the work we do is family reunification, and that's one way we deal with the high cost of living and housing.
And then, like I said, it's going to donors and saying, look, this is an issue. We have some really strong partnerships with funders that have helped us with housing costs. It doesn't happen too often, but we'll get a pot of money from, let's say, a private corporation like Uber to help with transportation, which really helps our health team. A caseworker can be here in Glendale and get a client to and from a doctor's appointment in Ventura. Other funders, like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have given us money to support housing. It's tough, but it's a lot of putting that ask out there to different funders: this is the work we're doing, this is the number of people we're serving, this is what they need. And then being able to switch, to make a new position fast or shift the focus of a program to what the need is.
The state is really helpful, so there's always a lot of good job-readiness programming. It's still really hard, but it's also that wraparound support, like having English classes. We did those English classes for free for a long time. You'll see a lot of nonprofits do this: they'll see a need and do it for free, unfunded, paying for it out of unrestricted fundraising money, because all these clients need it. And then a funder, like the public library, will come in and say, okay, that's a service people need. It's always easier if you get the money first, but it's really cool to see when that happens. I'd say housing is the biggest problem, and getting people jobs. But it's also the backlog and the slowness of filing all this paperwork. Some clients want to work, they're ready to work, and they could probably get a job pretty fast, but their work permit isn't here yet. Work authorization is so important.
Fineas So there are a few barriers you can't do anything about, all the bureaucratic stuff. But in general, it seems like the IRC really understands the very specific issues at every turn of being an immigrant or a refugee, and is there to help them through that in any way.
Jorge Abedin Yeah. A fun example: last year we launched a digital skills team, partially free, partially funded, and it's been so great. We have these big workshops, usually with elderly adult clients, and we show them how to open an email account, or schedule a doctor's appointment online. These things seem a little simple. They're not big technical programs, but they are so helpful, and the community really loves them. I think what people forget is how much cultural difference there is across borders. Things we take for granted, things you may have learned growing up without thinking twice, but as an adult here from somewhere else, something like learning how to make a new email is significant.
Fineas How does the IRC coordinate with the U.S. government, national governments, and local organizations? How does it work with them to advance its goals?
Jorge Abedin Previously, with the United States, there was USAID, and I think the United Kingdom has a similar mechanism. We work directly with the federal governments of different countries, because, similar to what we were saying about the economic impact of refugees, if we're able to bring vaccines to poverty-stricken areas in different countries in Africa, that ultimately supports eradicating illness around the world. These are things federal governments are usually interested in supporting. That's the high-level work of our policy team. They'll suggest policy to lawmakers. We have a very robust global policy team, not just in the U.S., and it all cascades down. We have a pretty strong advocacy team in California; that's how our office gets a lot of its funding, through advocacy to the state Senate and the state government. And it's magnified the rest of the way up: lawyers writing policy and suggesting it to members of Congress, so it reaches the federal level, and the same in other countries.
And then we're a contractor for a lot of these governments. Refugee resettlement is work we do on behalf of the U.S. federal government, so it's a lot of trust we've built over a long period of time. It's big contracts, but also policy and advocacy work across the world.
Fineas So it's a lot more than just trying to get funding from the government. You're really trying to be involved there and work with them to support their interests, since supporting different countries is in their interest, but also to pass policy.
Jorge Abedin Yeah, it's a lot of policy and a lot of relationship building, and a lot of it is credibility, too. The IRC will get contracts more easily because we've been doing the work for so long, and we do it well. That's why we have a very strong risk and compliance function. Even the work I do at this level has the same scrutiny as it does overseas. We really try to keep risk to a minimum, because one slip-up could have reverberations across the whole network and really affect funding. Fortunately that doesn't really happen, but it could. It's definitely better safe than sorry. Keeping the organization's integrity is a big part of it; the brand is a big part of the organization.
Fineas So what kind of policy has the IRC passed, or written and proposed?
Jorge Abedin In California, I can speak to most of what we've done here. Just recently, two programs ended: the Afghan Newcomer Support Program and the Ukrainian Newcomer Support Program. Our former executive director was very involved; he was an attorney. Those two programs were very significant when the presidential administration changed and federal funding just completely evaporated. They were kind of our bridge, a way we could still support our Ukrainian and Afghan clients. California resettles more clients than any other state, and not even close, so the second the federal programs stopped, we had to do something new. It's not like these clients aren't still here and still in need of support.
Those programs just ended on October 1st of this year. They were very well funded, and they were great programs that let us support clients even with the loss of federal dollars. Things like that happen pretty frequently here, where we're able to pivot quickly because of really great advocacy and really great policy. And those programs didn't only support our office. A bigger organization like the IRC will be around even if federal funding shrinks more; the lights will stay on, is the way I look at it, even though the field offices fund themselves. But that funding was especially needed for the smaller refugee-serving organizations that really relied on federal dollars. For that advocacy to happen, and for those offices to get the funding they needed, was essential. It kept the infrastructure going for a couple of years, so these smaller places could survive, diversify their funding, figure out new programs, and keep their offices afloat, or refer their clients out before they had to say, we can't do this.
Fineas So it's a real-world result of some really amazing policy work. Working to create that policy is a major aspect of the IRC as well.
Jorge Abedin Yeah. And like I said, it's also a lot of the relationships. It's a matrix of support, so it's definitely really essential.
Fineas The IRC has chapters all over the country, but also a lot internationally, that don't just work in the field with immediate refugee relief. What is the process for immigration into other countries that the IRC supports? If you're a Ukrainian trying to come into Canada, for example, how is it different?
Jorge Abedin That's a good question. I'm honestly not too sure; I have a better understanding of the Americas. We do a lot of work in Latin America, and we have Europe too. It's a very similar process, but it ends up being dependent on the regulations of each federal government. We have an office in Germany that just does refugee resettlement, and an office in Italy that just does refugee resettlement. So I'd say it doesn't look too different, but it's interesting to look at the programs they're offering. Even in the U.S. it's like this. For example, our office doesn't have a program for survivors of torture and trafficking, but I'll get an email from somebody saying, I live in LA, but I know this person who really needs support, and they're in Italy or wherever. In that case I contacted a few people from our Italian field office. They didn't have the program she needed, so they couldn't support her exactly, but they were able to refer her to a different organization.
Honestly, they don't look too different; it's just the cultural context. We don't really choose who is coming where, so at the end of the day the services end up being somewhat similar, just adapted to the local context and to whatever the federal government is doing.
Fineas So you try to serve them in any way you can, or refer them to other people if you can't. And there is that connection between the different branches.
Jorge Abedin I don't have too much contact with a lot of our overseas work, but I have some contact with the resettlement offices over there. We used to have a lot more programming in Latin America, but a lot of that has shrunk in the last couple of years, so a lot of staff now support several regions. My regional supply chain manager, for example, supports my office, but she also supports Latin America. So there are connectors across different parts of the organization: they'll serve Europe and the U.S., or Latin America and the U.S. There's some overlap.
Fineas One might assume that taking care of refugees coming into the country would be the government's responsibility. So why are NGOs like the IRC needed? Where do government responses fall short, and how does the IRC step in?
Jorge Abedin I think probably the biggest thing that differentiates us from the federal government is our staff. The federal government can obviously staff whoever they want, but we've built that trust with our clients, and a lot of our staff are former clients. Our resettlement manager has been here for 30 years; our old finance manager was here for 20 years. I'd say more than half of our staff are former clients. So it's the lived experience you don't get with federal immigration support. They usually don't speak the language, so you have to call an interpreter. We're able to do these things because we have the experience, overseas and here. We know what the needs are when people are in their country of origin, in their second country, and then when they're here.
It's that experience and that language capacity that really make us stand out. And we're not tied to the federal government, which changes. Refugee resettlement has always been an issue that everybody agreed upon. That's changed in recent years, but there are different ways of doing it. We're able to be that non-party voice: we're here to serve the clients. The federal government wants to support newcomers, at least that's what I believe, but we're neutral. When things change, we're still here, and our mission is the same. All we're here for is to support the mission and support the clients.
Fineas Right. So by not being part of the federal government, you're able to take a nonpartisan stance and focus only on helping refugees in any way they need, and you can have a much more personal office that connects with them in a way that a much larger organization like the federal government can't.
Jorge Abedin Yeah. And being nonpartisan, we're able to work with both sides. We don't have that same agenda. We're neutral; it's self-explanatory.
Fineas So you serve lots of clients in very different ways. What does success look like for the people you serve?
Jorge Abedin Success would be kids thriving in school, and whoever in the family needs a job has a job. They're coming back here for one of our events and having a good time, connecting with their community, and really just fitting into life in LA. That's a really beautiful thing about Los Angeles: our clients really have enclaves, support from people who speak their language. We're the host of however many diasporas, and we embrace that. It's a beautiful thing. So for our clients, it's to become, and I'm a transplant myself, an Angeleno, and to really feel that they're an Angeleno.
The physical indicators would be citizenship, a green card, getting a job, finding a nice place to live, celebrating language skills. And for our economic empowerment team, buying a car, making a big purchase. Like I said, self-sufficiency is the goal, but there are those little goals, and all the little goals make the big goal, and they're always there to be celebrated.
Fineas Right. And in a city like Los Angeles, the diaspora communities are a big thing. For several different diaspora communities, it's the biggest community outside of the home country.
Jorge Abedin Like Korea, Armenia, and several others. Our office is actually the hub of the Lautenberg program. Armenian and Iranian clients have gone to places throughout the U.S., but the big reason why so many are in LA is that our office has been the hub of this program. The program was amended to include Iran, so Armenians and Iranians were able to come through it as well. It's a family reunification program, so there's a big population here. And during the war in Ukraine, we were able to resettle a lot of Ukrainian refugees through this program too.
Fineas And it's for people from the former Soviet Union?
Jorge Abedin Yeah. That program specifically is for people from the former Soviet Union. In a regular year we're resettling people from all over the world, but because we work a lot with U.S. ties, these families already have cousins here, and that's made us a hub for this program specifically. It's kind of unique in resettlement.
Fineas And does that program bring in a lot of Armenians, because Glendale has such a large Armenian community?
Jorge Abedin Yeah. The program hasn't been reauthorized in a number of years, but we have been filing applications so that the second it restarts, we'll start resettling through it again. I think we have something like 17,000 clients in the pipeline, and they'd be resettled almost exclusively through LA. When I talk to staff who have been here a long time, they talk about the days when Lautenberg was running: the whole lobby's filled, families here, caseworkers, kids running around, people upstairs. It's a really fun environment to be in. We're always really hopeful that it'll restart. I run our social media, and we'll get messages asking whether Lautenberg has reopened. So it's essential to the community, essential to our office, and has been pretty essential to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program for a long time.
Fineas What is the process of getting that reinitiated?
Jorge Abedin That's a good question. Basically, Congress would reauthorize it. But there are other little things that go into it. There was a processing office in Vienna and one in another country, I can't remember which, and those processing offices closed. So reauthorizing would also involve reopening an office. These aren't big things, but there are a few steps besides a bill getting signed or a vote happening.
Fineas So Congress hasn't passed it yet?
Jorge Abedin No, it needs to be reauthorized.
Fineas And if it does get reauthorized, that would mean 17,000 people being resettled into Los Angeles?
Jorge Abedin Well, it's a process, a pipeline, so not all at once, but slowly over however long, and there would probably be some changes to paperwork and everything. But for the most part, that's the way to look at it: if Lautenberg gets reauthorized, that's 17,000 clients who will come almost exclusively through our office. So that would be really massive. And it's the program that, I mean, that's why we're in Glendale. Lautenberg was our biggest resettlement program, and that's what kept us in Glendale. We debated finding a new office location, and we said if Lautenberg gets renewed, we want to be in Glendale.
Fineas Right, of course. It's the place to be.
Fineas What's the biggest misconception you'd say Americans have about refugees and the experience of starting over in a new country?
Jorge Abedin I'd say what we end up seeing, and I wouldn't really put fault on anyone, is this image of someone really destitute, really far behind. Refugees come in all forms; it's humanity. Some people come with a lot of resources, some come with none. And like I said before, refugees end up being a significant boost to the economy. Not everybody can be as lucky as my dad or my uncle, but I'd say the biggest misconception is that refugees are coming because they want to. They're not. They're usually educated, they have support systems, they don't need the world. I think people are worried that they're going to be on public services, and it's like, no, they don't want to be. They want to be self-sufficient. They have the education.
Fineas So they're good for the economy, and most people don't understand that.
Jorge Abedin Yeah, I'd say it's a misconception that they need crazy amounts of support.
Fineas They're not taking crazy amounts of resources.
Jorge Abedin Exactly. The investment is very worth it.
Fineas How has the war in Ukraine specifically shaped the IRC's work here in Los Angeles?
Jorge Abedin In Los Angeles, in the last few years, Ukrainians have been one of the largest populations we've served and resettled, in the top three. We have Ukrainian clients in all of our programs, and a lot of our staff have lived experience as refugees from that program. That program has changed a number of times. It started as Uniting for Ukraine, U4U, and it's gone through a number of different iterations because of how U.S. funding for the war has changed. I think we've served more Ukrainian clients than any other office in the network.
There's different funding that supports different populations and programs, and I learned maybe a couple of months ago that ours is the only IRC office with programs specifically still supporting Ukrainians. There are probably some offices supporting Ukrainians in some capacity, but our office, through these federal programs, is the only one still doing it, and we still have a lot of Ukrainians in our services. Like I said, the Ukrainian Newcomer Support Program was essential to continuing this work.
Fineas Ukrainian refugees are obviously a big thing; millions of people left Ukraine in the wake of the war. So it's interesting to hear that you're the only office still supporting them. What can that be attributed to?
Jorge Abedin I think, and you can't speak for everybody, a lot of Ukrainians came with some English language skills and some support, though obviously that's not the case for everybody. But LA has that diaspora. Other offices were able to give them support, and then they just didn't have a large enough population to keep those case management programs going. They'd already received the services, so there was no one left. Our office could keep enrolling clients just because there are so many in the region.
Fineas So you said Ukrainians are in your top three. Are the other two Armenians and Iranians? What other groups do you serve?
Jorge Abedin I'd say of arrivals in the last ten years, it's Ukrainians and Afghans, and we had a lot of refugees from Central America too: Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador. We had a pretty big program that supported unaccompanied minors from those countries as well. So those are our largest client populations: Armenian, Iranian, Afghan, Ukrainian, and Central American.
Fineas How does the level of international attention and support for people displaced by the war in Ukraine compare with other crises happening? And what explains those differences?
Jorge Abedin It definitely got a lot of attention, and they needed it. It was a huge disaster, one that threatens the national security of however many countries, and it's still going on today. So Ukrainian clients were eligible for a lot of services, which was really great, and they were able to rebuild their lives fast, especially in LA, with a community and with family. And it was pretty concurrent: we had one program, the Office of Initial Resettlement Services, serving Ukrainians, Afghans, and Spanish-speaking clients too, so they were all receiving pretty similar services. The response was big. I've been here for a number of large humanitarian disasters, like the big Afghan evacuations, and Ukraine probably got the most attention, but the support has been coming in for a lot of disasters, and at least the clients we're serving have been getting proportionate services. I've been pretty happy about that.
Fineas So the IRC doesn't care what's in the news the most. A refugee is a refugee, and they're still serving them to the same capacity.
Jorge Abedin And I do feel like, in years past, there have been big disasters that got little attention, and that's the saddest part, because there are so many crises going on around the world that get zero attention. But specifically for the clients we serve, I think it's been heartening to see the response to Afghanistan, or even troubles in Central America. I'm happy that clients are getting what they deserve. It doesn't really matter who's in the news, I guess, though it does help with funding and with people caring and buying into this. No matter who they are, they still need the services.
Fineas What are some of the crises going on in the world today that you think don't get enough attention?
Jorge Abedin Definitely Sudan. Every day that war gets worse. There are some really great outlets that cover a lot of this. There's one newspaper, The New Humanitarian, and they have this amazing thing called The Rundown. Once a week I'll get an update on everything going on. Coverage of Gaza is covered in an interesting way, so you won't hear about everything happening. With outlets like this, I'm able to keep up and see that there's still fighting going on in this country or that country. But I'd say Sudan has been getting minimal coverage, and it's been really bad for a really long time.
Fineas Is that the situation in Darfur?
Jorge Abedin Yeah. It's awful.
Fineas How about the current civil war in Myanmar? Do you see a lot of Burmese clients coming in? How have you seen Sudanese and Burmese clients recently?
Jorge Abedin I wish I knew more about the work we're doing over there, with our Crisis Response, Recovery and Development team. I'm not too sure exactly what our programming is, but we are there and we are supporting. I've definitely been seeing a lot more in the news recently about Myanmar. I wish I could speak more to it.
Fineas But there is still an IRC effort there to relieve the crisis.
Jorge Abedin Yeah, and especially when the funding comes through, it'll be as robust as it possibly can be. The better way to put it is that, even stateside, we're ready to support: however, whenever, wherever.
Fineas What are the most useful ways that people in Los Angeles, especially students and young people, can support the work the IRC does?
Jorge Abedin We have open volunteer opportunities. Unfortunately they're 18 and up. We're basically always recruiting volunteers, whether for ESL teachers or civics teachers. We do our citizenship classes across libraries in LA, and different programs will have one-off opportunities, needing an intern or a volunteer. Language capacity is always really helpful, too, so if someone listening speaks however many languages, we'd love to have you. But the way I've been talking about it recently is this: whether through the IRC or not, nonprofits are really struggling right now. I see it everywhere, whatever field they're in, whatever services they offer. No one's really flush with cash. So find a place and be an ambassador. Be a champion of an organization, of a cause, and go beyond volunteering or donating.
Do this whole matrix of things: support an organization that could really use it, tell your friends about it, get your friends to donate, get your friends to volunteer, organize a donation drive if that's something they take. Because what we really need, in terms of funding for our office, is getting our name out there, and that's tough. We keep this line of wanting a big public presence while also wanting to protect our clients, and I can only do so much. So it's people telling their friends, "I'm doing this with the IRC, come check them out, come join me." It's kind of sad, the times we're in, but going above and beyond is what makes us operate a little smoother.
Fineas Right. So it's mostly raising awareness, spreading the message, and then volunteer service and volunteering your useful, unique skills, like language. And of course money is very helpful.
Jorge Abedin Of course. Funding, yes.
Fineas That's all I have for you today. Thank you very much for doing this.
Jorge Abedin Yeah, of course. It was a wonderful interview. Whenever I do something like this, it really reminds me of how much I like this work, so I appreciate the opportunity to speak on behalf of our office and talk about the work we do with our clients.