Hiring guideRead at source, 29 September 2026

How to Recruit Immigrants and Refugees: Partners, Ads, and the Rules That Apply

To recruit immigrants and refugees, partner with your local refugee resettlement agency or state refugee program, run job ads in the languages your community reads, and keep the application short and mobile. Put pay, schedule, transportation and training in plain words, and require English only where the job needs it. Refugees and asylees are authorized to work incident to their status, and federal law bars citizenship-status and national origin discrimination and document demands beyond what Form I-9 requires.

Who you are recruiting

Immigrant workers are not a niche. In 2025, foreign-born workers made up 19.1% of the U.S. civilian labor force, according to BLS. They were more likely than native-born workers to be employed in exactly the jobs frontline employers struggle to fill: service occupations (21.2% of employed foreign-born workers versus 15.6% of native-born), natural resources, construction and maintenance (13.3% versus 7.9%), and production, transportation and material moving (15.1% versus 11.4%).

"Immigrants" covers a wide range of people: naturalized citizens, permanent residents, refugees, asylees and others with work authorization. Refugees are a much smaller group, and in 2026 an even smaller flow of new arrivals: the Presidential Determination for fiscal year 2026, published in the Federal Register on 31 October 2025, set admissions at up to 7,500 refugees. Most refugees you can recruit today have already been resettled and are building their working lives here.

Work authorization: what refugees and asylees can do

Federal regulations list refugees and people granted asylum among the classes of noncitizens authorized to work in the United States "incident to status", meaning the authorization comes with the status itself, without restriction on location or type of employment (8 CFR 274a.12(a)(3) and (a)(5)). For asylees, the regulation adds that an expiration date on the employment authorization document means only that the document must be renewed, not that work authorization has expired. Pennsylvania's refugee program tells employers the same thing in plainer words: refugees may work from arrival, in any position except those that require U.S. citizenship.

You verify work authorization for every new hire the same way, on Form I-9, whatever the person's background. Our guides to work authorization and Form I-9 requirements cover the documents and the 2025 changes to employment authorization document extensions.

The anti-discrimination rules that apply

Three federal rules shape how you can recruit, and all three are easier to follow than to break by accident:

• Citizenship status and national origin. Under 8 U.S.C. 1324b, it is an unfair immigration-related employment practice to discriminate in hiring, discharge, or recruitment or referral for a fee because of national origin, or because of citizenship status against a protected individual. Protected individuals include U.S. citizens and nationals, lawful permanent residents, and refugees and asylees (with some exceptions for people who do not apply for naturalization in time). The section does not apply to employers with three or fewer employees, and its national origin rule does not apply where Title VII of the Civil Rights Act already covers the conduct. A citizenship requirement is only permitted where law, regulation, executive order or a government contract requires it, or where the Attorney General determines it essential to doing business with a government agency. The Justice Department's Immigrant and Employee Rights Section enforces it.
• Documents. The same statute treats asking for more or different documents than required, or refusing documents that reasonably appear genuine, as an unfair practice when done to discriminate. Let the employee choose from the Form I-9 lists.
• Job ads and recruiting methods. The EEOC states it is illegal to publish a job ad that shows a preference for, or discourages applicants because of, national origin (among other characteristics), and gives the example that relying on word-of-mouth recruitment by a mostly Hispanic workforce may violate the law if almost all new hires end up Hispanic.

The practical takeaway: recruit immigrants and refugees by adding channels and removing barriers, never by writing ads or requirements that screen anyone out because of where they were born or their citizenship.

How to recruit refugees

The best starting point is the network that already supports refugee employment. The federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funds Refugee Support Services, delivered through states and local providers, which include employability assessment, job placement, job maintenance, training and job development, vocational training and skills recertification, and English language instruction. Refugees can receive these services for up to five years (60 months); referral, interpreter and citizenship and naturalization preparation services have no time limit.

• Call your state refugee program or local resettlement agency. Ask for the job developer or employment services team. Tell them the roles, pay, shifts and location, and what the job actually requires.
• Use the employer services they offer. Pennsylvania's program, for example, describes pre-screening, work orientation, job coaching, vocational English instruction and guidance on Form I-9 for employers who hire through its contractors.
• Solve transportation. Many newly resettled workers do not drive yet. A site on a bus line, a shift that matches the bus schedule, or a carpool program widens the pool more than any ad.
• Hire in small cohorts. Several people starting together, with one bilingual colleague or interpreter available, makes training and the first weeks far easier for everyone.

How to recruit immigrants

Most immigrant workers are not in any program. They are neighbors, parents at the same school and people already working a job they would leave for a better one. Reach them the way you would reach anyone local, with the barriers taken out:

• Ads in the languages people read. Run your Facebook and Instagram job ad in English and in the other languages common in your hiring area, with the application in the same language. Meta employment ads run in the Special Ad Category, so you cannot target by age, gender or ZIP code and the radius must be at least 15 miles; the language of the ad is what reaches the right readers.
• Adult education and English classes. Community college and adult education English classes are full of working adults looking for their next job. Offer to speak, post flyers, or host a hiring event there.
• Community and faith organizations. Cultural associations, places of worship and community centers are trusted sources of job information.
• Referrals, as one channel among several. Your current immigrant employees know people who would thrive in the job. Pay referral bonuses, but keep other channels running so recruiting does not depend on one community's word of mouth.

What the job ad must say

Write the ad for someone reading in a second language on a phone. Short sentences, common words, and the facts that decide an application up front:

• Pay as an hourly figure, not "competitive".
• Schedule and location, including whether the site is on a bus route.
• Training provided and "no experience needed", if true.
• English level, only if the job genuinely requires it, stated as the task ("read safety labels in English") rather than as a general requirement.

Our what makes a good job ad guide covers the anatomy in more detail.

Keep the application short, and ask only what matters

A long application with a required resume upload loses candidates, and a form in a second language makes every extra question harder. In Boostpoint's 2026 benchmark, the apply experience explained 70% of the variation in cost per applicant between campaigns. Ask for contact details and the two or three knockout questions the job truly needs (the shift, a required license, the location), then have a person, ideally one who speaks the candidate's language, follow up the same day. Our guide to pre-screening questions covers what to ask and what to leave out.

Keep the people you hire

The first weeks decide whether a new hire stays. Pair each new worker with a buddy, translate safety training and key policies, explain pay stubs and benefits in person, and give supervisors a simple way to get interpretation when they need it. Where you can, offer English classes on site or reimburse them; the English instruction your local refugee program provides can continue after someone is hired.

Frequently asked questions

Sources: 8 U.S.C. 1324b; 8 CFR 274a.12; U.S. Department of Justice, Immigrant and Employee Rights Section; EEOC, Prohibited Employment Policies/Practices; Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2026 (Federal Register, 31 October 2025); Office of Refugee Resettlement, Refugee Support Services; Pennsylvania DHS, Employing Refugees; BLS, Foreign-Born Workers: Labor Force Characteristics, 2025; Boostpoint 2026 Social Job Advertising Benchmark. Read at source 29 September 2026.