The state already is home to 10 private sponsor circles in the new Welcome Corp. Mathias Shimirimana rang up orders of chicken strips and sandwiches for the college students crowding into the spicy fried chicken restaurant in southeast Minneapolis, quietly maneuvering through the dinner rush.
“For here or to go?” he asked. “Anything else?”
Watching from a nearby table, the sponsors who welcomed Shimirimana to the Twin Cities from Zimbabwe three months ago were impressed at his ease behind the counter, remarking that he was settling into his first job in America well.
Shimirimana, 37, had lived as a refugee for most of his adult life and likely still would be in a camp if not for a novel federal program allowing a group of local Ethiopian natives who had never met him to sponsor him to come to the United States.
Refugees have long come to America through nonprofit resettlement agencies that find them housing, connect them to social services and foster cultural orientation. But after the U.S. began using private sponsor groups to support masses of Afghans and Ukrainians fleeing civil collapse and war, the Biden administration announced a program in January called the Welcome Corps using the same model to resettle people from around the world. Calling it the boldest innovation in refugee resettlement in four decades, the Department of State said the program would tap into the goodwill of American communities.
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