Why Accentuate!…?

The world is in turmoil and more and more people are either willingly leaving or forcibly fleeing their countries of origin in search of a safe and better life. According to Emi Suzuki of The World Bank, there has been a steady increase in refugees over the past decade .

I migrated to the US in 2008 because I wanted to advance my education and secure a better life that an advanced degree would afford me. Many people choose this path whether they are pursuing their studies in the US, Germany or the UK. There is a lot of uncertainty and struggle as you try to adapt to and integrate into a new culture and the subcultures within the workplace. Although you willingly left your support system in your home country, you quickly realize that you still need a support system that understands your experience as an immigrant and wants you to succeed in the new country of residence.

The Syrian War 2011-2016, especially the destruction of Aleppo, which led to a refugee crisis, had a profound effect on me. Thousands of miles away, with no connections there, I watched in shock and horror a country being destroyed along with its children and citizens. Unfortunately, a decade later, I am watching a very similar tragedy unfold in Ukraine. Leaving your country of origin to study can be challenging, but it is also exciting. However, when you are forced to flee your home or country because of a natural or man-made disaster, that pain is excruciating, very difficult to describe and to alleviate.

The greater tragedy of these crises is there are generations of families born into refugee camps and are considered stateless. Listen to my conversation with Hourie Tafech, who was able to overcome the limitations of a refugee experience. She was born into a refugee camp that has been in existence for 74 years and is the 3rd generation of her family to have been born there.

As a minority group, many times within other minority groups, it is easy for the voices of immigrants and refugees to be muted. Their needs may be mismatched to well-meaning social and organizational initiatives and their drive to succeed diminished by limited resources and apathetic public interest. The rise of nationalism and the spread of misinformation about immigrants and refugees have also fostered fear and negative sentiments towards us.

In one of those ‘get to know you’ moments we often have as professionals, a leader once told me that their pet peeve, in the workplace, is working with others who have accents. I have a Trinidadian accent. I didn’t say anything in response, but literally laughed out loud because the statement was so unexpected and brazenly inappropriate. They were confused by my response because what they said was intended to hurt me. However, I was thinking, ‘so much for diversity, equity and inclusion!’ I was disappointed.

These are the reasons Accentuate! has been created.

Accentuate! aims to foster an online global community, to amplify the voices of immigrants and refugees and to support them thrive in the workplace of a new country. Accentuate! also seeks to increase opportunities to understand immigrants and refugees through telling their stories, in their voices and to support inclusion efforts in the workplace.