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Tigran Torosyan was listening to one of the many podcasts that he tuned into to pass the hours as the war raged outside his home in Kyiv, Ukraine. The podcast mentioned Tulsa, the mid-sized Oklahoma city of 400,000.
“To be honest, I had never heard about Tulsa,” says Torosyan, 33. “And I didn’t know much about Oklahoma in general.”
But the podcast described a Tulsa nonprofit program that intrigued him. Half a world away, there was a group that would pay to relocate him and his wife, Hanna, to the city and help set them up with living accommodations, not to mention a work permit and high-paying job as a software engineer for Torosyan. All in an effort to bring in more highly skilled immigrants and refugees to the city.
Tulsa in recent years has become, at least by one measure, one of the most welcoming places in America for immigrants and refugees. With significant help from local funders and nonprofits, it built infrastructure to help newcomers find their place in the community and economy, focusing on civic engagement, economic development, education, health and public safety.
Amid President-elect Donald Trump’s calls to deport undocumented immigrants, and high-profile harassment of refugees and migrants in places like Springfield, Ohio, and Aurora, Colo., the city’s leaders — Democrats and Republicans — embrace newcomers as vital to the area’s health and prosperity.
Last year, Tulsa was certified as a “Welcoming City” by the national nonprofit Welcoming America — one of 24 cities or counties to earn the designation and the first to earn three stars, the highest rating awarded so far. “Tulsa is really a resourceful and creative place, where the community really comes together when they see a need,” says Meg Shoemaker Little, chief program officer for Welcoming America.
Leading the Way
About 11 percent of Tulsa residents are immigrants, according to the city. Nearly two-thirds of those were born in Latin America, with another 25 percent coming from Asia. Among them, thousands are Zomi, an ethnic minority in Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar that is persecuted for practicing Christianity. They are drawn to Tulsa in particular as a strong Bible Belt community.
G.T. Bynum, a Republican whose second term in the nonpartisan role of Tulsa mayor ends in December, launched the New Tulsans Initiative in 2018 as a community-driven effort. Increasing global turmoil is boosting the number of people coming to the United States, says Krystal Reyes, the city’s chief resilience officer. “We, as a country, continue to be a place where people see a better life. So we’re going to see that more and more. I think the cities that are proactively looking at how to integrate and welcome immigrants and refugees are the ones that are planning for the future.”
Many of the region’s nonprofits are key to the plan. The George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF) backs the inTulsa Visa Network, the immigration and job-placement program that attracted Torosyan. Since its founding in 2022, the network has brought immigrants to the region from 16 countries, including Uganda, Russia, Haiti, and Nicaragua. It has nearly 50 active participants, not including family members who have also been relocated.
The program started in response to the Russian invasion in Ukraine, says Stan Khrapak, who leads the network.
“There’s a lot of incredibly talented Ukrainian software developers — tech talent — in that part of the world,” he says. The program “was largely created to combine elements of humanitarianism and ways to drive the economy here in Tulsa by bringing top-tier talent from all over the world to Tulsa.”
GKFF is also a big funder of the Global District in East Tulsa, an example of the grant maker’s revitalization efforts. About one in five residents in the district are immigrants, with most coming from Latin America, according to Luisa Krug, executive director of the district’s Main Street program, which promotes local businesses and works to make the area a welcoming place for all.
The community uses underutilized parking lots for events and to create community-building spaces like pop-up parks and playgrounds. A public-private partnership has created a business incubator for immigrants and refugees, and others who run small businesses. It will support classes, workshops, and vendor space, Reyes says.
La Cosecha, or the Harvest, is an immigrant-led nonprofit in East Tulsa that started as an initiative to feed neighbors, community members, and friends. It now provides nutritious food to about 5,000 people every week, says founder and CEO Rita Gallardo, who moved to Tulsa from Mexico in 1998.
“You’re only going to find fresh ingredients in our boxes,” Gallardo says. “There’s a lot of fruits and vegetables and dairy and things like that. We try to stay away from processed foods.”
With about 30 volunteers, the team provides food every week in a church parking lot. “I was reading that some people are one paycheck away from being homeless,” she says, “so we really want to help them out and make sure that they don’t have to sacrifice their money that they have to buy groceries.”
License to Thrive
Tulsa in recent years has welcomed a small number of Afghan refugees after the U.S. withdrawal from the country and the Taliban’s return to power. In 2021, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, and leaders of refugee resettlement agencies said the state could take in 1,800 Afghan refugees — the third-highest number of refugees by state and the largest number per capita.
Around 850 Afghan refugees came to Tulsa, where local organizations stepped up to help. The YWCA already offered English-language courses and other support to immigrants and refugees, but it quickly saw that the Afghan newcomers lacked the means to get to jobs and appointments or take their children to school. The city has limited public transportation, and many parts are not pedestrian friendly.
The need was especially apparent among the Afghan women, many of whom did not have experience driving on their own or owning a car. With funding from the Open Society Foundations and the Lesher Family Foundation, the YWCA, through a local driving school, began teaching women to drive, offering classes to learn road signs, English language skills, and other driving basics. The women also practiced on a driving simulator.
Without a driver’s license, it’s hard to go anywhere or hold down a job, says Lima Eftekhar, women’s interpreter and driving supervisor. “If you want to be really successful in your life, you need to have a driver’s license.”
More than 30 women have received their driver’s license, with others working toward the goal. “One of our main goals here at YWCA is to help clients achieve self-sufficiency, and that can look different for each client,” says Melissa Shepard, the YWCA’s refugee support manager.
Shepard has been struck by the bravery of the women. “I’ve seen them really tentative to attend the classes, very frightened to get in the car and start driving, and then to begin to see their confidence build after practicing and even taking the test.”
Humaira, who asked that only her first name be used due to safety concerns, recently completed driver’s education. She wanted to learn in order to take her five children to school and other activities. She says it will allow her to thrive in her new country.
To help the women purchase cars, a zero-interest loan is available for up to 20 women. The loan is administered by the International Rescue Committee’s Center for Economic Opportunity and was established and supported by GKFF. Masouda Basharat, a financial coach, walks the women through the process. For many of them, it’s the first time learning about credit, credit cards, and other financial topics.
“It makes you feel very good when you see the joy and happiness in their faces,” Basharat says.
What’s Ahead
Not everyone sees newcomers as a boon to the city. Earlier this year, a city council member introduced an ordinance that would have prohibited public money from funding services for undocumented immigrants, including those provided by nonprofits. The council rejected the measure.
Monroe Nichols, who won November’s mayoral election, has pledged support for the work of the New Tulsans effort. City officials like Reyes hope to institutionalize the work so that there is continuity.
“It’s not extra to do inclusion work,” she says. “It’s not extra to be welcoming, and it should be embedded.”
Gallardo, the leader of the La Cosecha food program in East Tulsa, says the city has become more open to newcomers since she moved to Tulsa a quarter century ago.
“I feel like it is a more welcoming city, and I feel like there are more opportunities for people who are new in town to be able to access products that they are familiar with, and just in general, more organizations and more places to go to feel like you belong,” she said.
Torosyan, who came to Tulsa in July from Ukraine with his wife, is now spending his free time exploring the city as a local might: going to the Gathering Place, a large outdoor urban park, or a local FC Tulsa soccer game.
“We are still exploring the city,” he says. “We found a couple of other program members who are also from Ukraine, and we found friends here again, with the inTulsa program.”
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