14ymedio, Ángel Salinas Cortés, Mexico, 8 February 2024 — Fifty companies have joined the Tent organization to help migrants and refugees find work in Mexico. Through this project, presented this Wednesday, Cubans, Haitians and Venezuelans will be able to work for such prestigious firms as AT&T, Coca-Cola, Microsoft and PepsiCo.
The NGO Tent, founded in 2016 by the Turkish tycoon and Greek yogurt manufacturer in the United States Hamdi Ulukaya, is currently present in 12 countries and has a total of 350 associated companies
In Colombia, its work was implemented through the Bancamía project, which granted loans and insurance products to 200 Venezuelan entrepreneurs to help boost the growth of small businesses in that country. In Germany, it helped more than a million refugees, many of them Syrians.
The objective, according to a statement by Tent, is to “facilitate” the labor integration of refugees and migrants, in this case in Mexico, a country that “in recent years has welcomed more than 600,000 displaced persons” from Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela. In addition, this work fills the one and a half million vacancies that the Employers’ Confederation of the Mexican Republic has reported.
In 2023, the Government of Mexico recorded the presence of 700,000 foreigners in the country without authorization. Of these, the Mexican Refugee Assistance Commission assisted 18,386 Cubans, 44,239 Haitians and 5,517 Venezuelans.
In 2023, the Government of Mexico recorded the presence of 700,000 foreigners in the country without authorization. Of these, the Mexican Refugee Aid Commission served 18,386 Cubans, 44,239 Haitians and 5,517 Venezuelans
According to a study carried out by the Tent organization, consumers in Mexico support companies that hire refugees. “Seventy-four percent of respondents are more likely to buy from companies with these initiatives.” Tent proclaims that “this percentage is higher than any of the other eight markets where it has carried out similar research,” including Germany, Spain and the United States.
José Antonio Fernández Carbajal, president of the board of directors and general director of Femsa, the largest Coca-Cola bottler in the world, said that the hiring of refugees and migrants “has had a tremendous impact on the company and on the collaborators.”
None of the parties gave details about the type of jobs and salaries that migrants will be able to receive.
“Incorporating these people into the workforce represents an act of community commitment, global solidarity and social responsibility,” said Mexican Foreign Minister Alicia Bárcena.
The strategy is different from the jobs granted by some companies in 2021 to irregular migrants. The state authorities of Sonora opened occasional places for cleaning, loading and unloading services in warehouses and assistants in restaurants. At that time, 13 Cubans benefited, receiving salaries of $200 per month.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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