Refugee workforce

Bigelow Nurseries works with the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants and with Lutheran Social Services to employ people from all over the world.The Massachusetts Green Industry Career Development program (GICD), developed by the Massachusetts Office for Refugees and Immigrants (MORI), was originally a mentoring initiative to help refugee farmers learn how to farm in the United States. Recently it expanded to include career development.

Farming careers in the green industry are many and can be lucrative. Grower associations, such as the Massachusetts Nursery and Landscape Association and the Massachusetts Flower Growers Association, have horticulturalist certification programs that offer career development. The salaries for jobs in these fields range from $35,000 to $70,000. For some refugees this type of work also leads to owning landscaping, farming, turf management or tree-pruning businesses.

The GICD program began in 2007 as a partnership between MORI, Lutheran Social Services (LSS) of New England and Bigelow Nurseries, one of the largest nurseries in Massachusetts. Refugee clients from agrarian backgrounds took a field trip to the nursery to get a sense of what they would be doing.

Transportation from urban areas to the farm was an issue, so LSS secured use of a van, and clients were able to start working in March 2008. LSS also created a Vocational English Language Training program that focused on nursery and greenhouse industry terminology and provided interpreter services.

Refugees are not only getting great work experience, they are also learning valuable skills that will help them develop their careers. Types of work include transplanting, pruning, greenhouse work, and forklift operation.

Settling in
The refugees have integrated well into a diverse workforce, sometimes learning both Spanish and English.

“I learned a little English here [in class] but not much. I learned much more at the farm because I had to talk to the boss and to coworkers in English every day,” said Marko Ngendabanyikwa, a Burundian refugee who arrived in Massachusetts in September 2007. “I love getting money from my own sweat.”

In Africa, he had to work on the refugee camp farm, but didn’t get paid.

“It was similar work, except the technology at Bigelow’s is much better,” he said.

It has taken careful planning to make the program successful. As with any new job placement, MORI and LSS looked for an employer who was conscientious and understanding of refugees’ needs and challenges. Bigelow Nurseries fit that bill and was eager to make the program work, both to help their business and to help refugees.

“The success of this project has been twofold for us,” said Pat Bigelow, owner of Bigelow Nurseries. “Our refugee employees were extremely enthusiastic about working here. It is inspiring for us to see, and motivating for the rest of the staff. And in terms of integrating into the business community, we just blinked and they were integrated, each discovering aspects of the business that they enjoyed most.” 


For more: MORI, www.mass.gov/ori. Bigelow Nurseries, www.bigelownurseries.com.

Mitch Klasky is the former coordinator of MORI’s Massachusetts Refugee Agriculture Program. He moved to a new position in September 2010.