Job Fair Helps New Americans Fill Workforce Need in Metro Area

The New American Job Fair is the first of its kind to help those coming to the country.

Over 300 people came looking for work.

The fair offered resources to help New Americans succeed at getting hired.

Organizers say this is designed to help bridge the gap that many new Americans face due to language barriers.

“The job force issues in Moorhead and Fargo are so great that we try to pair the willing participants,” says the Moorhead Business Association Executive Director David Hunstad.

Organizers are putting eager employees together with eager employers.

This job fair provides a session for job seekers to get resumes and application assistance.

There are also translators to help with those struggling with English.

These available resources are what make this job fair distinctive.

“You see the other ones, we use to go and take applications. Someone never interview us. And this one they’re interviewing immediately. It’s kind of amazing to them. They never find something like this before,” says Afro American Development Executive Director Hukun Abdullahi.

This unique job fair is giving new Americans a chance to land their first jobs in the states.

For some this was the help they needed to start their American Dream.

“I find a job today. I very happy,” says Ibrahim Mira.

Mira will be a bus driver for the city.

He left Somalia to come to the states in 2012.

The day he got his Visa, he was so ecstatic to be living the American Dream.

It’s been a bumpy road and up until today, he’s been unemployed for four years.

He hopes in the future he’ll one day have his own trucking company since that is what he has experience in.

Another job seeker chasing the same dream is Mohamed Mohamud.

Coming to the land of the free in 2013, he left St. Louis after three months to the cold North.

“I was told that Fargo was a place where you can get opportunity and where I can call home,” says Mohamud.

“We’re just hoping they get some real life experience from filling out applications and interviews and we’re hoping that some of them go away with jobs,” says Hunstad.

The Afro American Development Association and Moorhead Business Association will evaluate this job fair and continue to host if there is a demand for it.