Airbnb helps to resettle refugees
Mousa and Rasha Alkhafaji were already anxious when they emigrated from Iraq to the United States in 2017.
Even though Mousa Alkhafaji had finally received a Special Immigrant Visa for his work with the U.S. Armed Forces in Iraq, his family’s original flight had been canceled when the Trump administration ordered a ban on travel from Iraq. Rather than wait for the ban to be lifted, the Alkhafajis decided to risk a big chunk of their savings to book another flight and hope for the best.
Whatever the reception they’d receive in the United States, they felt, it would lead to a better life for them and their two young sons.
After two days of flights — from Baghdad to Qatar to Boston to Denver, their unfamiliar new hometown — the tired Alkhafajis arrived outside their first American home, a modest gray brick ranch.
“I cannot forget that picture,” said Mousa Alkhafaji. “It was around 10 p.m., and there was a nice lady standing in front of the house on the porch with a man, and they were both smiling at us. They welcomed us and gave me a hug.”
That embrace came from Susan and Steve Bailey, Airbnb hosts who, like tens of thousands of others, agreed to house refugees as part of the online lodging marketplace’s philanthropic program to provide emergency temporary housing to the needy. It’s a program now seen as a model for those working to resettle refugees and a core mission of Airbnb.org, Airbnb’s nonprofit program, which marks its first anniversary Tuesday.
“I think we’ve proven that the model of Airbnb is phenomenally successful at housing people for vacations and business travel,” said Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of Airbnb and chairman of Airbnb.org. “It also happens to be phenomenally successful at housing people when they need shelter the most, when they’re in times of crisis.”
What the Baileys did for the Alkhafajis, Gebbia says, builds on what they learned as successful Airbnb hosts and could apply to people who need timely help and a safe place to stay.
In its first year, Airbnb.org helped provide more than 100,000 first-responders with housing during the pandemic to help them avoid spreading COVID-19 to their families. In recent months, the nonprofit has worked to resettle 7,600 Afghan refugees after the Taliban takeover of the country and has pledged to resettle 12,500 more.
Jennifer Bond, founder of the University of Ottawa Refugee Hub, chairwoman of the Global Refugee Sponsorship Initiative and a member of Airbnb.org’s board of directors, said Airbnb “really taught the world new ways to think about hosting” and has applied that know-how to Airbnb.org. Airbnb’s philanthropy started in 2012, when a Brooklyn host suggested the company temporarily house people displaced by Hurricane Sandy. That continued for years, including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, before it expanded its scope.
Airbnb.org is now helping refugee aid organizations refine the sponsorship model of resettlement, first used after the Vietnam War, when American communities would join to welcome Vietnamese refugees to their areas.
Though their initial arrival in America was a high-risk struggle, the Alkhafajis are thrilled with how it has turned out.
“We have a big belief in God and also in karma,” Mousa Alkhafaji said. “So if you do something good in your life, you will meet the good people in your life to help you.”
“It was life-changing,” said Rasha Alkhafaji. “It made all the difference in our life now. And we have friends that have become like family.”
