Immigrants and fellowship alumni of the African Bridge Network spoke Wednesday night about their struggles to find work in the United States.

The event at Tartufo Restaurant in Newton Centre, attended by about two dozen people, focused on gathering support for the ABN’s mission of bridging the gap between the untapped talent in immigrants and jobs.

Founded in 2015, ABN is a nonprofit workforce development organization that helps internationally educated immigrants reconnect with meaningful careers through career advising, credential reevaluation, and partnerships with employers for participants to enter their respective industries.

The inspiration for ABN started in a supermarket, said Emmanuel Owusu, ABN founder and executive director.

Owusu told the story of a man he met bagging groceries at a supermarket. The man had an engineering degree in his home country, but when Owusu asked how he would pursue engineering in the U.S., the man stayed silent. Owusu decided to help.

“It wasn’t a random encounter I had on that day,” Owusu said. “It was a much more pervasive issue that requires more than what I can do on my own.”

Owusu had gone through similar difficulties entering the U.S. workforce. After graduating from the University of Ghana, Owusu decided to join his mother and move to the U.S. Despite attending career centers and resume workshops, and using all other available resources, Owusu kept getting rejected from jobs.

“Employers can see the resume is good, but then they look at it and say, ‘You don’t have U.S. work experience,’” Owusu said. “I was trained overseas. All my work experience was overseas, but now employers are asking for the U.S. work experience. If nobody gives me a chance to get the U.S. work experience, how am I going to get it?”

Kerenne Joseph, who was in ABN’s 2023 cohort, shared a similar experience. Joseph moved from Haiti, where she had worked as a trained physician. When she moved to the U.S., Joseph worked as a Doordash driver and a clerk in Malden City Hall.

“When you’re a medical doctor from outside the United States, it’s not easy to just come in here and start working,” Joseph said.

Although she was skeptical at first, Joseph decided to join the program after a friend’s recommendation.

ABN holds around eight in-person orientation workshops for skilled immigrants and refugees throughout the year. These are aimed at providing information to address immediate structural and practical barriers to career development, including researching and developing career opportunities and strategies, accessing English-language resources, navigating U.S. workplace culture, and building local professional networks.

The African Bridge Network held an alumni networking event on Nov. 4, 2026. Photo by Ethan Pott

These workshops are hosted jointly with partners including the Boston Public Library and Holyoke Community College.

After this orientation, individuals working with ABN can follow myriad pathways. Some connect with employers and get jobs right after the certification program. Those with experience in healthcare go on to the fellowship. 

For Joseph, it took only two weeks before McLean Hospital wanted to terminate her fellowship and hire her full time.

“Everybody who knows me personally will tell you that I’m somebody who loves to work and I just cannot stay still,” Joseph said. 

According to a Massachusetts Business Roundtable October 2023 report, there are around 240,000 skilled immigrants in Massachusetts, 106,000 of whom have at least a bachelor’s degree. Although ABN started working with only the African community, it is now open to helping any skilled immigrants in Massachusetts.

Maryrose Mussa, who attended Wednesday’s event, used to work for World Education Services, a nonprofit that supports the inclusion and integration of immigrants, refugees and international students in the U.S. She learned about ABN through her work experience. 

“As someone who has a degree from Lebanon, or any country, to just come here and not have experience in the U.S., it’s hard for somebody to take a chance on you,” Mussa said.

Credential requirements and licenses can be “systematic barriers” for immigrants, Owusu said. ABN focuses on providing their members with the tools and work experience to be able to overcome these barriers and obtain these credentials.

ABN Fellowship aluma Kerenne Joseph (left) and The Clowes Fund Executive Director Megan Reilly (right) speak at an alumni networking event on Nov. 4, 2026. Photo by Ethan Pott

Although language can be a barrier for skilled immigrants, Owusu said that, most of the time, language is not the issue, it’s their access to opportunities.

“Our hope is we can continue to engage more employers and create opportunities for this population who are our neighbors, who are our friends, who are the people that contribute to the economy,” Owusu said.

ABN has just started a clean energy apprenticeship career pathway and has plans for two additional sector pathways in 2027.

In 2024, Massachusetts passed the Physicians Pathway Act, which will create an alternative licensing route for experienced, internationally trained physicians, so they can practice medicine without having to go through the U.S. residency program.

ABN has served around 4,000 skilled immigrants since its founding. In previous cohorts, 86% of fellows secure permanent roles, 76% remain in those roles after two years, and 46% have earned promotions.

“We need to find a way to make Massachusetts a beacon of hope again,” Owusu said, “a place where individuals who have so much talent, who have so much to offer, when they are thinking, ‘where do I take my talent?’ they should think, ‘I want to go to Massachusetts.’” 

****

This story is part of a partnership between the Newton Beacon and the Boston University Department of Journalism’s Newsroom Initiative.