Latinos Connect bridge skills, language gaps for migrants with professional skills

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Latinos Connect monthly meeting can place a former therapist next to someone with advanced degrees in another nation while both of them are trying to figure out what their future looks like in the United States.

Latinos Connect was started in late 2023 as a way for people who migrated to the United States with professional skills and degrees to relaunch careers capitalizing on their knowledge.

"Our goal is try to really connect not only inside the Latino community but also outside and connect with American people." said founder Maria Jose Ramirez Braiz . "Have American people that want to be mentors and that want to help Latinos to connect and go in these professional fields."

It's already helped people like Carlos Rios.

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"In 2014, I already had a bachelors degree in IT, so I was working for the government installing telecommunications systems," Rios said.

He was only in his early 20's but when he came to the United States, he didn't speak a lot of English and got a job setting up tables and chairs for big events. Eventually he moved on to entry level roles in manufacturing plants until machines broke down and he had the knowledge to fix them.

"A manager said, 'How do you fix it,' and I started to say, 'Well, I am an engineer in Mexico, I cannot explain it because I cannot speak English, but I can use Google Translate," Rios said.

Rios went to community college soon after to improve his language skill and find a career with more upward mobility, setting him up to potentially get a masters degree soon.

It's the kind of success story that Braiz wants to make more common.

"To show our next generation of Latino kids that they can be professionals," Braiz said. "If they don't see professionals in their field, it's really hard for them to move forward."

In the Mexico, Liliana Rodriguez was a social psychologist.

"You lose yourself," Rodriguez said. "When you cross that border, you are the other person."

In the United States, she started her own cleaning business but can only use her training as a volunteer, helping a group of Spanish-speaking parents who are grieving children they've lost.

"Liliana had a job in Mexico," Rodriguez said. "And here, nothing."

Gustavo Restrepo was a pharmaceutical sales representative in Columbia until threats from the rebel group drove him to move to the United States.

"I started working at this beautiful place called Jack in the Box, the best burgers in town," Restrepo said.

Braiz says it's a combination of language skills and bias that keep Hispanic immigrants with professional experience underemployed.

"How we look, they automatically put you in categories of work," Braiz said. "They don't imagine we can be doctors, lawyers, architects, teachers."

But, she says, sometimes the misperceptions come from migrants themselves.

"Sell yourself as a professional is what I say," Braiz said. "We have a bias that people don't see ourselves as a professional people."

Networking events like Latinos Connect's monthly meetings can help.

Restrepo turned early fast-food jobs into retail positions while he improved his English and now works as a realtor. He says it's a challenging road but the community built through Latinos Connect can help.

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"Because you feel that you are not alone," said Restrepo. "That everybody is crossing that bridge in some point of their life."

"Without any professional connection, it will be impossible to move forward," Braiz said.

You can find more information about Latinos Connect here .