2025 was a difficult year for immigration and refugee agencies in the United States, with new policies from the federal government restricting migration and halting funds to resettlement agencies. Still, for local community organizers, the work is continuing. Ozarks at Large’s Daniel Caruth reports.
All right. Well, now this is the same as it is after hours at the Fayetteville Public Library, but you can still hear a buzz of people mingling in the Walker Community Room on a chilly Thursday night. The smell of cardamom-tinged Turkish coffee and sweet baklava wafts through the door. Tonight is the immigrant-owned Business Expo for the latest graduates of the Canopy of Northwest Arkansas entrepreneurship program.
And as the night gets underway, the entrepreneurship coordinator for Canopy, Devin Newman, takes the stage to welcome the crowd.
“This is our ninth cohort. So around the room you will see six brand new businesses that are either operating or very, very close to operating in the next couple of months. So please support them...”
Tables and booths lining the side of the room, offering services from lawn care and baked goods to samplings from a new Afghan food truck. And to the left of the room is Ali Faizy, standing in front of his table with a white construction helmet and high-vis vest.
“I’m building a general contractor company. Yeah. So yeah, it’s almost one year that I moved to the States.”
He is the new owner of Faizy Brothers General Contractors, which he began with help from Canopy’s entrepreneurship course.
“It’s like a pathway. It gives you that initial important fundamental, like outlook and knowledge. So this is a huge help for those who have some ideas in their mind, but sometimes they hesitate or they don’t see the road very clear. So this is quite amazing. I learned a lot of stuff, and I recommend to those who have some ideas in mind, go for it. It’s worth your time and your investment.”
And Faizy is not a novice at construction. The civic engineer worked in construction in his home country, Afghanistan, before he had to flee the Taliban. Faizy also worked installing wind and solar plants for a company in France before resettling with his family in the U.S. But he says navigating the administrative, permitting and business processes in America has been one of the more difficult parts of getting his business started.
“When you are new, everything is challenging. The idea of adapting and adjusting to a new situation is challenging. And I see that here in the States the opportunities are huge. Plus the challenges are huge. There is no free lunch nowhere in the world, but at least here, you have more freedom of doing business, bringing your ideas. And then of course, you have to travel the hard way. You have to do your homework. So I see here things move very fast.”
Faizy says his business is brand new, but hopes that tonight’s expo will help him find his first client. He says trying to start a business, especially in this political climate toward refugees, has been difficult.
Since President Trump froze refugee resettlement almost immediately after taking office, Canopy, the lead refugee resettlement agency in Arkansas, has seen its resources and funding dissolve. So the agency has had to find other ways to operate and serve the refugees who are already calling northwest Arkansas home. And Devin Newman says the entrepreneurship program is one of those measures.
“So Canopy’s main goal is to stay open for the next three years, right? We have lots of families that want to be unified that haven’t arrived yet. And so we’re really doing everything we can to keep our doors open so that in three years, when the next administration maybe raises the refugee number, we’re here for them. So entrepreneurship is one way. I think the program has just been refunded for the next three years. We’re going to expand the program to include a class in a language entirely. So either Spanish or maybe Arabic to really help entrepreneurs who don’t have any English skills. But Canopy is really doing a multitude of things to widen how we can get some federal loans.
“I think the reception has been really good, and I don’t really know how you can argue against small business. Right? It’s important and vital to any economy.”
So at a booth just in front of the stage, Saja al-Shafi’i pulls a package of baked naan bread from a basket and hands it to a customer. Al-Shafi’i is program coordinator for Inspired Hands, a program from Canopy which provides refugee and immigrant women a way to work either making bread or baked goods, or crafts and cultural items to sell online or through local farmers markets.
“We are helping ladies from Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Guatemala, and we are expanding as well. We may include more nationalities. All the refugee women here in the area are welcome to join the program. It’s for them because they don’t have the opportunity to work outside home for many reasons like culture, transportation, child care, language. So we did this initiative to help them make income from home, engage with the community, be seen and heard and also open up other opportunity for them so they can step up to take the entrepreneurship class. So maybe with us it’s going to be the beginning. And then they take the next step to join the class and maybe one day they are entrepreneurs themselves.”
Devin Newman says one criticism she often hears is why should we be helping immigrant entrepreneurs specifically instead of American citizens? But she rejects that premise.
“I would say absolutely there are Americans who want to start businesses, and I have a long list of organizations that are excited to help them. But if you want better food options, in my opinion, Afghan and Indian food and Turkish food, right? We need people from those places. Nobody really wants to have a restaurant that isn’t authentic, right? So it also opens up more services. We’ve had nail technicians come through. We have handymen. We have contractors. Tonight we even have a woodworker. So they have different styles that they’ve learned from their countries that I think everybody would appreciate. So it really just diversifies the tapestry of business ownership, which uplifts the economy, creates jobs, and also gives us more options.”
Two of tonight’s attendees are Fayetteville residents Carol Reeves and Ann O’Leary Kelly. Reeves says she learned about the expo through a friend and wanted to come out to show support during a difficult time.
“I’m friends with one of the families and just wanted to see what the other people are doing as well.”
O’Leary Kelly says if more Americans got involved with programs like this, she thinks it could help change people’s perceptions and fears around immigrants and refugees.
“And I would just say, come to an event like this and meet some people. And I think you would be very surprised that these are wonderful folks. And it’s not some scary thing. Difference is not evident, commonality is evident when you come to a warm room like this with all the good feels and smells and conversations.”
Canopy of Northwest Arkansas’ next entrepreneurship class begins in April, with another business expo expected in July.
Ozarks at Large transcripts are created on a rush deadline. Copy editors utilize AI tools to review work. KUAF does not publish content created by AI. Please reach out to kuafinfo@uark.edu to report an issue. The audio version is the authoritative record of KUAF programming.
