Partner in Employment (PIE) serves the Somali, Burmese, Bhutanese, Rohingya, East African, West African, Central African, Iraqi, and Afghan communities living in Seattle. Refugees and immigrants are faced with the overwhelming challenge of learning to operate professionally in a culture often vastly different from their own. The US job market can be a confusing barrier as one learns how to apply for jobs, interview, and accept positions. These challenges have been found to result in many immigrant communities being left behind, financially. Data on foreign-born adults (aged 18-64), living in Seattle, indicates that, of those who have Limited English Proficiency (LEP), only 14.2% are actively employed. At the same time, one-half of King County population growth is driven by foreign-born individuals. The fact that many of the businesses Washington State residents depend on are owned by immigrants and refugees, yet their contribution to the economy continues to go unrewarded is a major indicator that barriers to a successful, empowered adjustment to life in America are still present.
For this reason, PIE is committed as ever to its mission of providing culturally relevant assistance to its clients. Additionally, PIE prioritizes working with ethnically diverse business owners, and community members, to create opportunities for King County's Emerging Communities.
