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In 1975, following the political upheaval in Southeast Asia, Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians began fleeing their homelands by the tens of thousands. The majority of these people fled over land to Thailand or by boat to Malaysia and other countries in the region. However a fortunate few were airlifted out of Vietnam by the United States in April 1975 during the fall of Saigon.
In response to this humanitarian crisis, the United States opened its doors to help resettle Southeast Asian refugees, with Oregon and Washington being two of the first states offering new opportunities and homes.
In the mid 1970s, the Portland area was ill equipped to provide resources for the large influx of refugees. Local agencies such as Lutheran Family Service and Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon struggled to provide for the new arrivals.
In 1976 it was apparent that more assistance was desperately needed. A group of Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian refugees formed a partnership and founded a new community-based agency — the Indochinese Cultural and Service Center. Staffed by bilingual Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian refugees, ICSC worked closely with existing volunteer agencies — Lutheran Family Service, Sponsors Organized to Assist Refugees (SOAR), Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, and Catholic Charities — to assist newly arrived Southeast Asian families in becoming oriented to American society and finding jobs locally. In 1980, another group of Southeast Asians formed an additional community-based organization known as the Southeast Asian Refugee Federation. SEARF implemented an economic development project that provided business training and entrepreneurial loans in addition to the first interpretation services for refugees.
By the mid 1980s, the United States began accepting an ever-increasing number of refugees in response to political repression, war and forced relocation among the refugee population. Accordingly, the ethnic composition of newly arrived refugees in Oregon began to alter and included Afghanis, Ethiopians, Eritreans, Iranians, Romanians and other Eastern Europeans. In response to this new influx of refugees, the State of Oregon Refugee Program sponsored an inclusive retreat among all local refugee service providers to develop an integrated approach to assisting refugees in becoming self-sufficient through early employment. A result of the retreat was that the ICSC and SEARF merged to form the International Refugee Center of Oregon — IRCO.
Under this new structure, IRCO became the sole service provider of employment services and job training for all newly arrived refugees in the tri-county area, a role IRCO has retained since then. IRCO retained SEARF’s economic development and language interpretation/translation services, known as the International Language Bank, and broadened its ethnically based board of directors and staff to incorporate members of the newly arrived refugee populations from Africa, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
In order to meet the community development and social adjustment needs of refugee and immigrant families, IRCO began to expand its service range in 1987 to include a variety of social services, while at the same time retaining and strengthening existing services in training, employment, economic development, and interpretation and translation. Diversification of services has also meant that IRCO has had to diversify and expand existing funding sources. IRCO became a United Way member agency in 1989, and funding sources now include Multnomah and Washington counties, the State of Oregon, Worksystems, Inc., the cities of Portland and Beaverton, the federal government, and private foundations.
Mission
To assist refugees, immigrants, and multi-ethnic communities develop self-sufficiency and cultural awareness while affirming and preserving each culture within an ever-changing global environment.
Traditions
Service: Building economic self-sufficiency for refugees and immigrants. Promoting cultural endurance, community strength and social adaptation.
Values:
Diversity — creating a culturally diverse workforce and society.
2. Empowerment — empowering communities, families and individuals to become self-sufficient and contributing members of society.
3. Inclusion — ensuring that our communities and services are culturally and linguistically inclusive of all ethnic groups.
4. Opportunity — providing equal opportunities for refugees and immigrants to succeed and improve their quality of life in the United States.
Numbers
2005 Revenues: $8,690,087
Funding: 80% government grants, 7% fees for services, 13% donations and other.
Governance: 21-member board of directors — 51% of which must be refugees.
Address: 10301 N.E. Glisan St., Portland, OR 97220 — at this location since 2001.
Phone: 503-234-1541
Fax: 503-234-1259
Web site: www.irco.org
Percentages
30%-40% of clients are immigrants or local.
Immigrant: A person who leaves one country to settle permanently in another.
Local: IRCO contracts with federal, state and city agencies for services to area youth, domestic violence victims, at-risk youth, seniors and young mothers.
60%-70% of clients are refugees or asylees
Refugee: A person who is outside his or her country and cannot return due to a well-founded fear of persecution because of race, religion, nationality, political opinion or membership of a particular social group. A refugee’s request for asylum must be approved by the State Department at consular offices overseas — as in refugee camps — before coming to America. Once approved, refugees are assigned to international resettlement agencies that find resettlement communities in the United States.
Asylee: A person who exercises the right to be recognized as a bona fide refugee and receive legal protection and material assistance. Asylum seekers arriving in the United States without refugee status must have their request for asylum approved by the State Department before they can be legally assisted.
Clients Served: Since inception in 1976 — over 55,000.
Cultures served
Asian: Vietnamese, Laotian, Cambodian, Hmong, Mien, Indian, Pakistani, Tibetan, Burmese, Samoan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Afghani
Former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, Belorussian, Romanian, Polish, Moldovan, Czech, Bosnian, and Kosovar
Africa: Ethiopian (which includes the Oromo ethnic group), Eritrean, Somali, Sudanese, Angolan, Sierra Leonese, Rwandan, Liberian, Congolese, and Nigerian
Caribbean and Latin America: Cuban, Haitian, Mexican, Guatemalan, Honduran and other Latin American cultures.
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