Five months after Welcome Neighbor’s plans to bring refugees in St. Louis were dashed, the local nonprofit got great news: It’s been approved to work with the International Rescue Committee, or IRC, to resettle at least 18 refugees in the region this fiscal year. Executive director Jessica Bueler says the organization’s hope is that the first few families will lead to more: “We think that this is a good start for us to understand all the processes, all the procedures, and to make sure that we do it right for these families.”
As SLM first reported in August, Welcome Neighbor’s plans were previously thwarted by the Missouri Office of Refugee Administration’s refugee coordinator, Paul Costigan. He’s also a vice president at the International Institute of St. Louis, which could be perceived as a competitor.
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But Costigan had told SLM at the time that he had no conflict and was open to Bueler’s group applying again in October—and so they did. Now they have an official greenlight for a remote placement community partner program via the IRC, which allows them to serve as a sponsor for families needing support as they begin in a new nation. Welcome Neighbor’s ultimate goal is to become a full-blown resettlement agency, much like the International Institute.
Bueler says she’s since had a good meeting with Costigan via Zoom and feels positive about working together. In a statement, International Institute CEO Arrey Obenson said he welcomed Welcome Neighbor’s efforts.
“We are happy that St. Louis is adding another refugee resettlement agency to the community,” he said. “We are strengthened by the immigrants who call St. Louis home, and the more people do this work, the better. We have seen positive growth attracting immigrants into our region, and there is value in strengthening support systems for a growing community. Welcome Neighbor has long been a partner organization invested in the immigrant community and aligned with our vision for a multicultural city, and we continue to work with them in the spirit of collaboration.”
Welcome Neighbor’s efforts are a small piece of what Obenson’s agency hopes to provide this fiscal year, which began in October. The International Institute says it’s cleared for just over 1,900 this year—a big increase from the 1,300 it was authorized to handle in 2024.
Its work is in line with St. Louis’ goals of attracting more immigrants and refugees to the region to grow its population. But even with the new groups like Bueler’s coming on board, it may be difficult to continue to increase that number in the coming years: As president, Donald Trump previously slashed annual refugee admissions from 85,000 across the U.S. to 15,000, and is likely to do so again.
Says Obenson, “Like many other immigrant service providers, we are expecting to see changes in federal immigration policy under the incoming administration and will see if and how refugee resettlement may be affected. We do serve the immigrant community already here in St. Louis, so regardless we will be here to support our immigrant neighbors.”
That is the case for Welcome Neighbor as well. Bueler first got involved with helping refugees in 2016, organizing a Thanksgiving toiletry drive for Syrians who’d already been resettled in the city, but were struggling with housing conditions and other problems. From there, she found herself growing more and more involved—and coordinating with others interested in helping immigrants make a home here.
Looking back to that first drive, she says, “Never in a million years did I think that exactly eight years later we would be going into full fledged resettlement with a staff of 15 people.”
