The Welcome Center of Austin is getting busier.

Welcome Center officials say they are helping far more people than normal, largely due to an increasing number of Karen and Karenni people moving to Austin.

The Welcome Center served about 2,200 people over the center’s last fiscal year compared to 1,500 in 2012. In addition, Welcome Center staff helped people almost 5,900 times from summer 2013 to summer 2014, a huge increase from about 4,800 services the previous year.

“Our Asian numbers really jumped,” said Jake Vela, executive director of the Welcome Center. “We went from 463 to 1,224.”

Vela said the increased demand for services has meant much more work for a staff of four, from interpreting and translation tasks to filling out forms, setting up appointments and helping people navigate the area.

Contrary to the misconception that the Welcome Center only helps Latinos, the staff assist many newcomers from Eastern European immigrants to Sudanese refugees. Yet Vela said there’s a growing need to help more Asian refugees, specifically the Karen and Karenni, originally from Burma, who are moving to Austin in larger numbers. More than 110 families settled in Austin last year, according to Welcome Center data, and Vela expects many more families to come here this year.

In fact, the Welcome Center helped more Asian residents than Latinos last year. About 816 Latino residents sought help from the Welcome Center in 2013.

“In the first time in the 14 years of our existence, this is the first time this has ever happened,” Vela said. “Another ethnic group has surpassed the Latino community. It’s a pretty big deal.”

Burmese refugees have moved into the area to work at local meatpacking plants since 2011. Community leaders have sought to bring more Karen to Austin as many commute from St. Paul, which has a large Karen population.

Increasing need has spurred Welcome Center staff to track even more services and related issues for new residents, from community housing issues to health insurance sign-ups. A few weeks ago, dozens of residents filled the Welcome Center for more than six hours one day to sign up for insurance through MNsure. Vela said the increased data will be useful to explain what the Welcome Center does for the public.

Yet higher demand requires more funding. The Welcome Center earned a slight increase in funding from the city of Austin earlier this month when the Austin City Council approved $7,500 for the Welcome Center in 2015. The council rejected Vela’s request for $10,000, which would have doubled the city’s usual $5,000 annual grant to the Welcome Center.

Vela hopes to secure more funding for the Welcome Center soon, as more people are asking for help every day.

“We are seeing a significant number of people coming through our doors,” he said.