The International Institute

The International Institute of St. Louis (IISTL) is an immigrant service and information center for St. Louis. Currently in its 101 year of service, the IISTL continues to build and promote a better society for immigrants, their families and the St. Louis community as a whole. They provide services for over 6,000 foreign-born people for 80 different countries. The services include but are not limited to career-path assistance, job placement, counseling and English and citizenship classes.

Initially the organization’s purpose was to aid displaced individuals that hail from war-torn European countries.

According to the 1920 census, 16% of St. Louis’s total population were foreign-born. Something had to be done to bridge the gap between foreign-born and native-born citizens, so one of the first multi-cultural events, The International May Festival, was celebrated in May 1920. The Festival of Nations, which was first held in 1934, can trace its roots back to this festival.

Since 1979, between the locations in Springfield, MO and St. Louis, the International Institute has sponsored more than 23,000 refugees including Ethiopians, Eritreans, Poles, Somalis, Syrians, Afghans, Bosnians and many more.

The Bosnian American resettlement program has been St. Louis’ most recent big project. Bosnians re-occupied neighborhoods, filled open jobs and enrolled in public schools. The IISTL played a large role in the process. Paul Costigan, IISTL’s Senior Vice President for Operations & Missouri Refugee Coordinator, explained that the Institute is in charge of running the statewide refugee program. Missouri is one of a small group of states that have nonprofits run their refugee programs, so the International Institute is tasked with coordinating refugee service agencies across the state. Though it still functions as an independent nonprofit, it is officially an affiliate of the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). The State Department and USCRI work together to allocate refugee families across their network of local affiliates. 

“So with advance notice of families coming, the International Institute, as part of their contract with USCRI, has to find an apartment, has to outfit that apartment with all the supplies that are on this really long list, towels and pots and pans and all that other kind of stuff,” said Costigan. “And then they have actually 90 days to provide a series of services for that family, which include health screenings, include enrolling kids in school, enrolling adults in ESL, getting parents into job readiness classes, getting them set up with a primary care physician.” 

The International Institute functions by providing this holistic support even in the absence of a global refugee crisis. However, the organization is now gearing up to handle a major influx of families, similar to the wave of people fleeing Kosovo that Costigan remembers in 1999. 

As Costigan explained, 60,000 parolees have been evacuated out of Afghanistan. The Department of Homeland Security Effort called Operation Allies Welcome has several operational phases, including screening prior to arrival in the U.S, COVID-19 testing and vaccination, processing at U.S. military facilities and integration support services in coordination with state/local governments and organizations such as the International Institute. Many of the arriving Afghans, including around 45 that Costigan reported arrived at the International Institute in August, worked with the United States on its mission in Afghanistan and hold Special Immigrant Visas. Others qualify for P1 and P2 visas because their careers as activists or journalists put them at risk in Afghanistan, and thousands more are humanitarian parolees including women and LGBTQ+ individuals. Those arriving as parolees will be especially in need of support. 

“Their status as a parolee does not allow them to be served under refugee programs. They’re not eligible for refugee cash assistance because they’re not refugees, and they’re not eligible for refugee support services and things like that,” said Costigan. “The federal government has set up a program to allow for agencies to support those families for the first 30 to 90 days and help them pay for rent and utilities and things like that, but that is really the reason why agencies are doing big donation drives.”

Federal programs like Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) are off-limits to the majority of the people fleeing Afghanistan. Refugee cash assistance is also inaccessible, which is a monthly payment program that in Missouri is run by the Missouri Office of Refugee Administration, an intermediary organization between the federal government and local resettlement agencies.

As the only resettlement agency in St. Louis, the International Institute is scrambling to prepare for the families set to arrive between now and December. Their efforts to build out their network of services and turn to the community for volunteers and donations have ramped up in order to accommodate 300-350 people. Costigan estimated that the number will end up closer to 500, despite what the organization has told the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants.

 Costigan encourages the people of St. Louis to financially support the International Institute as they prepare to handle this crisis, but also to help by spreading the word in their communities. “There’s so much shared experience,” he said, “even though people have come from a faraway country and have fled either persecution or death threats and things like that, once they come to the United States, they want the same things as every other parent does. They want their children to be safe.”