Starbucks to Hire 10,000 Refugees, Leading to Calls for Boycott-Truth! & Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has announced plans to hire 10,000 refugees in the wake of President Trump’s executive order banning refugees from seven countries from entering the United States.
The Truth:
Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz pledged that Starbucks would hire 10,000 refugees to work in 75 countries that Starbucks does business in over the next five years — and some have mistaken that to mean Starbucks has pledged to hire 10,000 refugees in the United States alone.
Starbucks pledge to hire 10,000 refugees followed an executive order signed by President Trump on January 27, 2017. The stated purpose of the executive order was to “protect the nation from foreign terrorist entry into the United States” by temporarily banning immigrants and suspending the visas of those from seven countries deemed “countries of a particular concern.”
The Starbucks CEO responded with a message posted in the Starbucks Newsroom in which he expressed “deep concern, a heavy heart and a resolute promise” amid “an unprecedented time, one in which we are witness to the conscience of our country, and the promise of the American dream, being called into question.” Schultz outlined specific steps the company would take in response to Trump’s agenda, including the executive order on immigration:
Hiring Refugees: We have a long history of hiring young people looking for opportunities and a pathway to a new life around the world. This is why we are doubling down on this commitment by working with our equity market employees as well as joint venture and licensed market partners in a concerted effort to welcome and seek opportunities for those fleeing war, violence, persecution and discrimination. There are more than 65 million citizens of the world recognized as refugees by the United Nations, and we are developing plans to hire 10,000 of them over five years in the 75 countries around the world where Starbucks does business. And we will start this effort here in the U.S. by making the initial focus of our hiring efforts on those individuals who have served with U.S. troops as interpreters and support personnel in the various countries where our military has asked for such support.
Starbucks’ pledge to hire 10,000 refugees quickly sparked a backlash online. The response quickly led to calls for a boycott of Starbucks over its pledge to hire 10,000 refugees like this one:
There seems to be some confusion about Starbucks’ pledge to hire 10,000 refugees, however. Those who didn’t read Schultz’s full statement, or had been informed of it by word of mouth, seemed to misunderstand the hiring pledge. Again, Starbucks has pledged to hire 10,000 refugees over the next five years to work in 75 countries around the world — not 10,000 refugees to work in its American coffeehouses.
Given that, we’re calling claims about Starbucks hiring 10,000 refugees “truth” and “fiction.”