Haider Rizvi

NEW YORK, Jun 17 2005 (IPS) — Fleeing civil war and economic and political chaos in their home country, they came to the United States a few years ago, where they tried to settle down in a small town. Though initially welcomed by the locals, they didn’t have to wait long to face hostility and xenophobia.

Within months after the Somali refugees arrived in the small town of Lewiston in the northeastern state of Maine, some groups began to see them as a burden on the local economy and as aliens who were taking jobs away from the natives, while receiving free cars and apartments.

Yielding to pressure from anti-immigrant groups, the city’s mayor Larry Raymond, declared: “It’s time for the Somali community to exercise discipline. We have been overwhelmedàOur city is maxed out financially, physically and emotionally.”

The Somali leaders denounced the mayor’s statement as “inflammatory and disturbing”, saying he was an “ill-informed leader who is bent upon bigotry.” Some residents of the town joined their voices in solidarity. But the anti-immigrant wave continued to gather steam.

More recently, in another small town in the neighboring state of New Hampshire, the local government placed a moratorium on new arrivals of refugees, saying their presence was straining the public health system.

By contrast, in Buffalo, an old industrial city in the state of New York, local authorities are actively wooing refugees to rebuild the languishing city left by residents who had moved to the suburbs. They have a created a task force to find ways to bring in about 3,000 refugees a year.

“It’s humanitarian, but it’s also about economic public policy,” Antoine Thompson, one the city’s common council members, told a local newspaper. “There are more upsides to it than down. This is how we built America.”

This dichotomy in attitudes towards refugees is prevalent all over the world. However, Thompson’s view is shared by many population experts. They believe that refugees and immigrants create as much employment growth as the relocation of domestic residents.

Recent studies show that immigrants have no negative effects in the labour market on any person except other immigrants.

“The long-term impact of an immigrant is strongly influenced by his or her age at the time of arrival and years of education,” concluded a recent study by Twin Cities United Way, a U.S.-based non-profit group.

The group’s study indicates that since most refugees enter the host country at a young age, they provide a fiscal surplus because “they work, pay taxes, and often do not draw social security, or health benefits. Their eligibility for public services is limited.”

Another recent study on the impact of refugees on local economies had similar findings.

“Eventually, refugees can be a big benefit for communities,” said Prof. Paul Hagstrom of Hamilton College in upstate New York. “They should be welcomed.”

This year, the U.S. government plans to re-settle about 70,000 refugees in a number of cities. Of those allowed to enter the United States, about 13,000 are East Asian and the rest from Europe, Latin America/Caribbean and Near East/South Asia.

Refugee rights groups in the United States are currently pressing the U.S. government to pursue models of assistance that are compatible with “human rights” and not contingent upon long-term “hand-outs, dependency, and idleness.”

“We are failing those who need us most,” said Lavina Limon of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a non-profit group that released an annual report on the state of world’s refugees this week, expressing its concern over the warehousing of refugees.

“The international law dictates that refugees have the right to live with dignity,” she said.

Her call for better and humane treatment of refugees is well received at least in one U.S. town, where local authorities have been successful in executing plans to recruit refugees.

From 1990 to 2000, Lansing, a small town in New York State, had lost more than 8,000 residents who moved to other cities, leaving behind run-down homes and faltering neighborhoods in dire need of an efficient workforce.

By allowing thousands of refugees to move in and work as grocery store workers, dishwashers, pediatricians and professors, residents say once again their city is thriving and growing.