Monitor staff
Friday, June 08, 2007
It's heartwarming to think that the newcomers, who have survived some of the most horrific conditions on the planet, are here and safe. But with the news that sometime this summer the Bantu will be joined by as many as 80 refugees from the central Africa nation of Burundi, it's natural to wonder what that will mean for Concord's beleaguered taxpayers. The answer is not much.
The federal government requires each state to do its part to aid the world's dispossessed, and Lutheran Social Services is one of two agencies chosen to fulfill New Hampshire's commitment. The feds send money along with the refugees. It's not a lavish sum, but it's enough to provide a period of housing assistance, job and language training and eight months of cash payments equal to what they would receive if enrolled in a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
Refugees are also eligible to receive federal food stamps and Medicaid, whose cost is split 50-50 between federal and state governments.
Like any other residents, refugees may apply for local welfare assistance, but they've had a minimal impact on the city's welfare budget. Most have proven remarkably resilient, resourceful and grateful, and they have a work ethic employers value.
Almost all refugees are self-supporting, minus food stamp and Medicaid assistance, within four months, and their employment rate statewide is 80 percent. They work in entry-level jobs in housekeeping, manufacturing, agriculture and the like and live humbly by American standards. Only individuals and small families will be sent to Concord because affordable housing for large families is impossible to find.
About 100 Somali Bantus came to Concord, but perhaps one-third of them have since relocated. Often they do so to reunite with family members and friends who arrived in the United States before them. Concord will be the primary destination for the Burundians because, though housing is scarce, the small group of Africans already here will ease their assimilation. The most educated Burundian refugees will speak French; the others will be fluent in Kirundi, their national language, and some will also speak Swahili.
The federal resettlement program has slowed, and the number coming to New Hampshire this year, 125, is a historic low. The refugees will help change Concord's complexion but not, in any significant way, its tax rate. Some will struggle, and misunderstandings are inevitable. When they occur, try to remember how much the newcomers have suffered.
It will be odd to see a group of black people in unfamiliar garb gathered on a lawn or in a park and chatting in a foreign tongue, but befriend them. They will enrich Concord.
The culture they come from is, in many ways, closer to the one New Hampshire residents lived a century or two ago than today. It was a time when farmers helped each other hay, women went to quilting bees and big family gatherings were routine. The refugees may have something to teach a society where neighbors barely know each other and free time is spent in front of a computer or TV.
Source: Concord Monitor, June 08, 2007