This job was facilitated by
EB5 Global Regional Center
Lian Khan Nang
Food and Beverage Lead
Pearl District Marriott Hotel
Portland, Ore.
Lian initially applied to the front desk when the hotel
opened in 2014, but he was offered a job in the food and
beverage division as a breakfast attendant instead.
“When I first started working food and beverage, I didn’t
know anything about it,” Nang said. After a few weeks of training and another couple of months on the job, he grew to love it.
Relocating as a refugee can be a traumatizing and dramatic
experience. When moving to the United States, refugees often
face cultural and linguistic barriers that can hinder their acclimation to the American lifestyle. Like anyone else, refugees
must find employment once they settle here.
“My co-workers and supervisors are great and they are very
friendly,” he said. “Now I feel like this can be my career job.”
Resettled refugees are authorized to work in the United
States by the Department of Homeland Security, and many
look forward to the employment opportunities offered by
their new host country. Despite hardships, Lian Khan Nang
has dedicated himself to advancing his career and building a
life in the United States.
“A few months ago someone contacted me and asked if
I was still looking for accounting work,” Nang said. “I told
them, ‘it’s OK, I really like this job, I am happy here.’”
That is exactly what Nang did when he resettled in Portland,
Oregon as a Burmese refugee in 2012.
“Life in Burma is hard, especially where I was,” Nang said.
“We were forced by the government to leave with only one or
two days’ notice and we had to carry all of our things with us.”
“My parents were farmers in rural Burma,” he said. “We
cultivated rice paddies. We liked what we were doing.”
When he resettled in Portland, Nang went to school at Mt.
Hood Community College to earn an accountant assistant
certificate. But after months of looking for work, he couldn’t
find anything. That is when he found his current job at the
Pearl District Marriott Hotel in Portland.
Nang was recently promoted to food and beverage lead. He
carries much more responsibility now, and he could not be
happier about his career prospects.
Since he started working at the Pearl District Marriott, Nang
has regained a sense of normalcy in his life, and he has plans to
further his education to take his career to the next level.
“Right now I am not taking any credit classes, but I am taking ESL classes. I want to improve my writing. I am planning to
take more classes, maybe in management or food and beverage.”
Nang noted the differences be GvVV