Last weekend, President Donald Trump said he would “try to save” Afghan refugees stranded in the United Arab Emirates who had served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan – and who are now at risk of being deported back to Afghanistan, where they would likely face persecution by the Taliban.
We welcome this news, and we hope that it will lead to a broader shift in the U.S. government’s policies towards welcoming Afghan refugees instead of imposing severe restrictions on their resettlement. Over the last six months, the Trump administration has admitted very few refugees as a result of its decision to pause the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, though a judge has partially suspended the pause. The program is administered by multiple U.S. government agencies and has historically had bipartisan support. The State Department has also cut government programs and staff responsible for resettling refugees.
These severe restrictions on refugee admissions and protections will have a terrible impact on our Afghan allies. There are an estimated 200,000 Afghans around the world who face persecution by the Taliban for supporting the United States during its war in Afghanistan who will face major hurdles seeking refuge in the U.S. due to the weakening of the legal and orderly U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. These individuals directly supported U.S. military and diplomatic operations in Afghanistan, working side by side with American forces and diplomats as interpreters, cultural liaisons and in other vital roles. The Taliban has put a target on them for doing just that.
While the moral outrage of abandoning our Afghan allies has sparked some attention, the impacts on the U.S. economy remain hidden in plain sight. American businesses face a persistent talent shortage, and the Trump administration’s effort to limit the resettlement of Afghan and other refugees to the country misses a crucial opportunity to address this shortage and strengthen the U.S. economy.
While the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program has offered lawful resettlement to those in need of humanitarian protection since it was established in 1980, it has also provided a vital pipeline of skilled workers who strengthen the U.S. economy.
Just last year, a study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that refugees from across the world in the U.S. contributed over $123 billion more than they had cost the government from 2005 to 2019. These individuals don’t just earn their keep; they actively lift up our economy. These contributions came through paying taxes, which led to a $31.5 billion net benefit to the federal government and a $92.3 billion net benefit to state and local governments.
Afghan refugees in particular have made meaningful contributions to the U.S. economy. A 2022 study by the International Rescue Committee projected that roughly 40,000 Afghan refugees who came to the U.S. legally after the fall of Kabul in 2021 contributed over $1.4 billion to our economy that year alone, including paying over $189 million in taxes.
The real impact, however, goes deeper than just purchasing power and taxes; these professionals bring expertise in key sectors where American businesses face critical shortages. Mustafa saw this with his own family. His dad was a doctor in Afghanistan who, after coming to the U.S. as a refugee, ended up working at a pharmacy, where he leveraged his medical expertise to help Americans with their pharmaceutical needs.
Mustafa’s father, along with so many other Afghans, have utilized their skills to strengthen U.S. businesses.
The distribution of Afghan refugees’ skills reads like a wish list for hiring managers who are struggling to find talent. According to Upwardly Global, 21% of these individuals bring expertise in business logistics and operations – crucial abilities as companies continue rebuilding supply chains. Some 13% have technology backgrounds, 9% are engineers, and 8% are health care professionals – all sectors facing particularly acute labor shortages. The list goes on.
The skills alignment is not a coincidence, since many of these professionals gained expertise working directly with the U.S. military or other American organizations in Afghanistan, so many of the capabilities they developed are naturally aligned with U.S. workplace needs.
The latest data shows that the U.S. has 7.8 million job openings but only 7 million unemployed workers. This is a chronic gap that has persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic – one that requires an effective long-term solution that Afghan refugees can ably help address.
The business community has rallied to support Afghan refugees in the past few years as American companies have recognized Afghans’ potential to address labor shortages and bolster the economy. Refugee workforce integration has become a key pillar of the talent strategies of the more than 500 major companies working with the Tent Partnership for Refugees in the United States to connect refugees to jobs. Tent was founded in 2016 by Hamdi Ulukaya, the CEO and founder of Chobani, to mobilize the world’s largest employers to help refugees access local labor markets.
U.S. military veterans have played a significant role in supporting the economic integration of the Afghan allies they once stood shoulder to shoulder with. More than 700 military veterans working at large companies have mentored Afghan refugees in the U.S. so far to help them navigate the U.S. job market and rebuild their careers through a program that Tent and the Afghan-American Foundation organized in collaboration with Hiring Our Heroes, an initiative of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation.
The facts are clear: Afghan refugees bring proven expertise in many of our highest-demand sectors along with a drive to rebuild their lives and contribute to their new communities. At the same time, businesses have the desire and capability to integrate Afghan allies into the U.S. workforce, oftentimes driven by their veteran employees who are passionate about supporting Afghans.
Beyond the moral imperative to protect those who risked their lives alongside U.S. forces, the weakening of U.S. refugee admissions squanders a critical opportunity to strengthen the U.S. workforce and puts American companies at a disadvantage. Welcoming and integrating Afghan refugees is a win-win-win for Afghan refugees, the U.S. economy and American society as a whole.
We should continue our bipartisan tradition of welcoming our Afghan allies.
Yaron Schwartz is the director for Tent U.S. at the Tent Partnership for Refugees, an international network of more than 500 major companies committed to connecting refugees to jobs.
Mustafa Babak is the co-founder and vice chair of the board of the Afghan-American Foundation, for which he served as its first full-time executive director. Since 2021, he has helped lead AAF in advocating for the evacuation and resettlement of more than 95,000 Afghans in the U.S.
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