In the warehouse of a company called Colographic in Commerce City, migrant worker Marcos Adel Fido Batista can be seen plotting his purpose.
“All immigrants come here with a purpose,” he said.
CBS
Colographic specializes in vehicle graphics and signage, and Batista says the Colorado business owners, Cathy and Jimmy Burds, are the reason he’s here.
“They helped me. They reached out to me,” he said.
The business has been in operation for more than 45 years, but in recent years it has been having trouble finding applicants to work there.
“One of our team members here said, ‘Why don’t we hire in the refugee pool?’ I thought, ‘Hmm, what do we do?'” Kathy said.
The company works with national institutions to attract potential immigrant and refugee employers.
“And they brought Marcos and other people to us for interviews as well, but we hired Marcos,” Kathy said.
CBS Colorado’s Gabriela Vidal interviews Kathy Bars and Jimmy Bars. CBS
The Byrds said that although it was a learning curve to bring in the immigrant worker, the company did everything possible to accommodate him and even found unique ways to help him train and communicate in Spanish. Ta.
“I have a translator that’s like a pair of headphones, and it works through an app, and I set it up and it translates directly in my ears,” Batista said.
Batista says this helped him learn how to do his job quickly while still feeling like part of a team.
“When you work hard enough and people want you to do well and you want to get ahead, I don’t think there are any obstacles,” he said.
Batista’s hiring helps remove stigma against the Denver metro area’s growing immigrant population.
“It’s not easy for immigrants to find work,” Batista said.
CBS
Kathy Bars agrees.
“The rhetoric that we hear about refugees and gangs and things like that is not at all what we experienced,” she said.
Kathy said she has heard that other companies are following suit as they network and want to hire more people from among immigrants and refugees.
“It’s filling a gap that we didn’t know how to fill,” she said.
