Giving Compass' Take:

• This webinar from Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees explores the role that philanthropy can play in addressing the challenges that refugees face during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• How can you best support immigrants in your community? What long-term solutions can you support to prevent the need for emergency response for immigrants during future crises? 

• Read about the specific challenges that urban refugees face during the pandemic. 

Refugees live at the intersection of many of the inequities and vulnerabilities that COVID-19 has illuminated and deepened. Many worked in hotels, restaurants, and other sectors that are now shuttered. Others are essential workers and are now risking their safety on the frontlines as grocery store clerks, healthcare aides, and meat plant workers. Few have the social networks or family wealth that long-time residents can rely on during this time. Larger households can make social distancing difficult, while limited digital literacy poses challenges to distance learning and remote work opportunities. And black and brown refugees face the systemic discrimination and structural racism that have led to higher death rates in those communities.

Yet the policy response has repeatedly left out refugees. Cash payments’ narrow eligibility blocks many refugees. Unemployment benefits require work history that some refugees do not have. Paid leave omits large employers—and a large share of refugees work for such employers. And navigating these systems and others are challenging for many Americans, let alone refugees who are still learning their new country’s processes and practices.

This webinar will consider what role philanthropy can play in responding to these issues, both in the short-term and to advance long-term change. Our panel of experts will consider these gaps and needs—and where the greatest opportunities for leverage and transformation lie.

Read the full article about supporting refugees at Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees.