Hourie Tafech is a 2020 US-Canada Program MMEG grantee, from the West Bank and Gaza. She is a program manager at Refugees International in Washington DC. She is also an Advisor for the United States Refugee Advisory Board (USRAB) and a special Advisor for NASH Refugee Resettlement Initiative. She previously served as program manager for the University Alliance for Refugee and at-Risk Migrants and was a postdoctoral fellow at Guilford College, North Carolina.
Hourie earned her PhD in global affairs from Rutgers University, and her research focuses on refugee economic integration and entrepreneurial activities. In 2021, Hourie was awarded an international fellowship from AAUW. In Malta, before coming to the United States, Hourie co-founded Spark15, the first refugee-led organization recognized by the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). As president of Spark15, she advocated for the rights of refugees in Malta before the Office of the President of Malta, the Minister for European Affairs and Inclusion, the Ministry of Education, and UNHCR-Malta.
Hourie’s most recent publication reviews the US refugee resettlement program and examines refugee entrepreneurship in US cities, finding that cities with a smooth business registration process, affordable housing, active resettlement agencies, and minimal social and political discrimination are most encouraging of refugees’ economic inclusion.
