Oregon Public Broadcasting

Earlier this year we brought you a series of stories about refugees in the Northwest. They've been struggling to begin new lives in this country in a down economy.

Entry-level jobs have historically been a good fit for refugees. But those have been in short supply.

Now, some refugees in the Northwest are finding work in an unlikely place - an industrial dairy in Boardman, Oregon.

In a follow-up to her series, Starting Over, reporter Sadie Babits takes us to Threemile Canyon Farms.

Ram Luitel watches dozens of dairy cows move through this milking parlor on a metal carrousel.

Ram Catndra Luitel  is a refugee from Bhutan. He wants to work in the medical field but right now he's making a living working at one of the milking parlors at Threemile Canyon Farms.

He helps supervise workers here as they clean udders and attach milking machines.  And he checks to make sure the milk being pumped doesn't have any problems.

Ram Luitel:  "I need to first test the teet of the cow and figure out which teet has bad milk and if this is bad milk I need to tie a ribbon on the leg." 

Tying a ribbon around the leg of a cow with bad milk is just one of Luitel's tasks here. He started working at Threemile Canyon Farms about three months ago.

He's one of thirty refugees who have settled in Boise, Idaho and have recently found jobs at the dairy.

Ram Luitel "This is my first experience in my life working at a farm because I have never touched a cow by my own hand before."

Luitel is a refugee from Bhutan. About a year ago, his family was resettled in Boise. But the economy was uncertain and their eight months of federal assistance was running out fast. 

Then they found out that this farm some five hours away in Boardman, Oregon was hiring.  Luitel now works with his dad and uncle at the dairy.

Turns out the farm has had a hard time filling jobs, even in a recession. Big farms like this one rely on workers from Mexico. And it's been harder to tap into that applicant pool.

Walt Guterbock : "We as a matter of policy about two years ago  we started checking social security numbers of new employees."

That's Walt Guterbock. He's the farm's livestock manager.

Walt Guterbock: "And the problem we had was we'd interview people and say out of ten, we'd like five and only one or two would have their numbers checked out."

Without enough Hispanic workers to fill all the jobs, Guterbock went looking elsewhere. He heard about unemployed refugees in Idaho.  So he got in touch with the IRC - that's the International Rescue Committee.

Walt Guterbock: "Some of these people would end up in homeless shelters because if they don't have a job. So I think we've saved some of them from that fate." 

Baby calves at Threemile Canyon Farms.

Guterbock is himself a child of refugee parents. The starting wage at the farm is $9.45 an hour. Workers and their families get full benefits after six months. That's more than these refugees could have hoped for back in Boise.

Refugees from Burundi to Iraq make up only a sliver of the farm's workforce. The majority of the workers are still from Mexico. Guterbock is among those who want long-term immigration reform but he says hiring refugees has helped fill a labor gap.

Walt Guterbock: "That is not the solution to the agricultural labor issue facing the U.S. In other words we need to address the undocumented people who are already here working."

Refugees like Ram Luitel face long drives to see their families in Boise. One car-load of refugees recently had a head on collision, killing one of them. At the dairy, Luitel works 50 to 60 hours a week and doesn't get paid overtime. But he says he doesn't mind.

Ram Luitel : "I am Hindu so Hindu, cow is a  god. So we say that we are serving god."

Luitel sees working at the dairy as a way to start over and get his financial feet firmly planted. He one day wants to work in the medical field maybe become a veterinarian. But for now he's learning a lot -- to navigate the dairy world, to integrate into a new community, and lately he's been learning --  Spanish.

Online:

Three Mile Canyon Farm

International Rescue Committee