This week, we read about fee waivers for Afghan refugees and what Ted Lasso teaches us about the benefits of working with immigrants.
Biden administration will waive immigration application fees for thousands of evacuated Afghans
The Biden administration plans to waive government filing fees for 70,000 Afghan refugees that resettle in the U.S.
An influx of Afghan refugees that worked with the U.S. have been resettling since August after the Taliban regained control of the country. Many of them arrived with little to nothing. The administration will be exempting them from costly application fees, which can be thousands of dollars.
Afghan refugees who arrived after July 30th will be eligible for the fee waiver.
“By providing these evacuees with access to streamlined processing and fee exemptions, we will open doors of opportunity for our Afghan allies and help them begin to rebuild their lives in communities across our country more quickly,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
Hiring High-Skilled Immigrants Brings A ‘Ted Lasso’ Effect
As it turns out, there’s a lot we can learn from Apple TV’s Ted Lasso. A new research paper on European Football Clubs (similar to the premise of Ted Lasso), finds out whether employing immigrants improves performance. The research showed that companies have a lot to gain by hiring immigrants. Economists recommend hiring immigrants for finding success.
The cost and effort required to employ skilled immigrants continues to increase, and managers—now more than ever—need to understand the competitive payoffs of those costs and whether hiring skilled immigrants does indeed improve the performance of their organizations,” said Britta Glennon, an assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
The researchers pointed out that government policies have made it more difficult to hire immigrants. Certain immigration limitations have led to companies seeking jobs and research outside of the U.S.
As it relates to Ted Lasso, researchers found that immigrant managers are associated with better performance when the club has a high number of immigrant players. In general, the findings show that national diversity is a benefit to club performance. This can also be applied to corporate environments outside the sports world.