Home in the Green Mountains

Author: Megan Michelson

"Going back to Somalia would be to plunge back into the flames. Going to America is a dream. It is the choice between the fire and paradise," says Abdullahi Ali Ahmed in the magazine Refugees, published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Ahmed is one of 12,000 Somali Bantu-speaking refugees who the U.S. State Department has agreed to place within resettlement programs throughout the United States during the next two years. Around 200 refugees plan to relocate to Vermont with the assistance of the largest resettlement organization in the state, the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program.

Most Bantu-speaking tribes in Somalia were brought to the East African country as slaves in the 1700s and have suffered as persecuted minorities for centuries. During the civil war in Somalia, which has lasted through the past decade, they have been living in refugee camps along the dangerous Somali-Kenyan border. In 2000, the United States agreed to help them find safer homes.

This is the first time that there has been a resettlement of an entire ethnicity - the 12,000 expected refugees comprise 100 percent of Bantu-speaking Somalis. After strict security and physical examinations, as well as literacy and English language courses and an in-depth cultural orientation, thousands of refugees are currently being resettled in up to 50 towns and cities throughout the United States.

"We are all illiterate, but we will learn," says 40-year-old refugee Mohammad Yarow in a Refugees magazine interview. "I will do anything. I will live wherever they put us. We will eat what you eat. We are very adaptable. In a few months, we will fit in to any new life. Our ancestors had to change from being Bantu to being Somali. We can do it again."

The Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program seeks to ease the transition to life in America, assisting in everything from job placement to finding housing and providing foreign language interpreters. Since last spring, three Somali Bantu families have immigrated to Vermont, and one more family is expected in the next month. The 19 individuals are currently living in Winooski - a Burlington suburb that accommodates the families due to its low cost housing and active public transportation system.

"The families started out staying with host families for several weeks, and now they all have their own apartments. Most of the adults have found jobs, working in warehouses, hotels or restaurants, and several are still looking for employment," said Stacie Blake, the director of the Refugee Resettlement Program. The program has already approved the arrival of 60 refugees, but many are still detained by immigration and security regulations in African refugee camps. "The delay is a result of a combination of factors and problems within the camps, but the State Department has assured us that the glitches have been worked out. We should see the arrival of the rest of the Somali Bantu soon," said Blake.

According to Blake, the resettlement of the first group of Somali Bantu has been extremely successful. "The Winooski and Burlington communities have been very welcoming. The schools have done everything they can to make the refugee students feel comfortable. The city management threw a welcome party for them, and the [local] police have come by to say hello," she explained. "We could not ask for a better start."

There is, however, a degree of negative reaction to the influx of refugees in a state already inundated with its own financial and social problems. Some Vermonters argue that state facilities and funds will be depleted by foreign refugees, when they are needed for native residents. "It's important for us as a nation to be compassionate, but school budgets are going down. If we are having trouble educating the students we've got, the refugees place too much of a burden on the community," said Burlington resident Beth Cornwell-Friese in an interview with the Burlington Free Press. But the positive support remains ever present. "As the director of the program, on occasion I get a call that is pretty hateful. But at the same time, I have over 100 volunteers willing to help support the new families," said Blake.

Nikki Holland '04 has experienced the community support behind the refugees firsthand. She began working as an intern at the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program this semester. Originally her main task was to find jobs for the refugees - helping with applications and assisting with interviews and job etiquette. Now, however, Holland has been assigned to help a specific Congolese family who has recently resettled in the Burlington area. She serves as their French translator and helps them do everything from buying groceries and winter clothes to setting up bank accounts and fixing kitchen appliances.

She has been overwhelmed by the positive support from people in the area. "We were in the grocery store and an old Vermont farmer sat next to the Congolese mother on a bench outside. They proceeded to have a conversation with each other - her speaking French and him speaking English. Neither of them seemed to notice they weren't speaking the same language. The father of the Congolese family came over and shook the man's hand. It was an incredible sight," said Holland.

As an African Studies major, Holland appreciates having the chance to apply what she's learning to actual personal interaction. "I'm finally working with people, not working with paperwork," she said. "It's nice to put real people and faces onto an issue that is important to me and important to the United States."

For the Somali Bantu, as well as the other refugees from all over the world with whom the Resettlement Program works closely, the transition to life in America, and specifically life in Vermont, is not easy. "For the African refugees, the weather in Vermont is obviously questionable. But people adapt. It may not be the most pleasant initially, but it's certainly a better environment than where they have come from," said Holland.

In fact, Vermont has a history of welcoming outsiders. In the past, large groups of Sudanese, Congolese, Albanian and Bosnian immigrants have successfully resettled in the Vermont communities. "Vermont is a liberal state and has been really receptive to refugee immigrants. From what I have seen, most people are not only willing to give and provide families with what they need, but they have also been interested in learning from them and seeing how the immigrants' experiences can benefit the local communities," Holland said.