Flourish Tulsa Helping Immigrants Find Jobs In The United States

Immigrants come to the United States thinking their professional credentials won't transfer to their new home but now the city of Tulsa has a new program that will allow immigrants to start where they left off.

Flourish Tulsa is a new program that is part of the New Tulsans Initiative which aims to provide immigrants with opportunities to better integrate with the city. The new program focuses on helping U.S. immigrants and refugees find jobs in the fields they studied in their native country.

The City of Tulsa will also be partnering with Tulsa Community college YWCA Tulsa and Workforce Tulsa to help immigrants with a career pathway and helping them learn English.  According to the New American Economy in 2018, there were 55,000 immigrants in Tulsa county alone.

The New American Economy also says in 2015 more than 21% of immigrants in Tulsa have at least a bachelor's degree. I spoke with Martha Zapata who immigrated to Tulsa in 1998. She says she understands first-hand how hard it is to find resources as an immigrant. She says these kinds of programs are going to help Tulsa immigrants contribute more to the city.

These initiatives are really important to our city. Because I think they're a lot of immigrants in the shadows and they don't realize that sometimes because we are not very visible sometimes,” said Zapata.

If you are an employer or service provider who wants to know more about how you can support immigrants and refugees we have more details HERE