Last fall, Easterseals NH launched a children's residential training program tailored specifically to immigrants and refugees for whom English is a second language.Courtesy photo.
They fled advancing armies, oppressive dictatorships and ethnic genocides, often arriving here with little more than the clothing on their backs and the prayer for a better life. But NH’s refugees—despite the language, cultural and employment challenges they face—may represent the economic “future of tomorrow,” in the words of Eva Castillo, executive director of the NH Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees and director of Welcoming NH. In a state with an aging workforce, the refugees arriving are of working age with a greater entrepreneurial drive.
“They’re the survivors,” says Amy Marchildon, director of Services for New Americans at Ascentria Care Alliance in Concord, which helps resettle refugees. “They’re the ones who made it here, and there’s a high degree of resilience and determination of wanting to start their lives over. Many refugees will work two or three jobs. They’re just driven.”
A Demographic Portrait of Refugees
Many refugees quickly become business owners. Nationally, 13 percent of refugees were entrepreneurs in 2015, compared to 11.5 percent of non-refugee immigrants and 9 percent of the U.S.-born population, per a June 2017 New American Economy report.
That same report estimates NH is home to more than 6,000 refugees, defined by the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants as people who have fled their countries and cannot return because of “a well-founded fear of persecution based on religion, race, nationality, political opinion or membership in a particular social group.” The exact number is uncertain, as many become American citizens after five years of permanent residence and are no longer considered refugees, and others have left NH for jobs or family reunification, says Barbara Seebart, state refugee coordinator with the Office of Health Equity.
What is known is that 3,763 refugees were resettled in NH between 2009 and 2016, according to Seebart’s office, with the greatest number coming from Asian countries like Bhutan, followed by Africa, the Middle East and Europe. More than 3,000 found new homes in Manchester and Concord, with another 481 settling in Nashua and 107 in Laconia.
The influx “largely reflect the areas of disruption around the globe at any given time as refugees tend to arrive from nations or regions undergoing civil war, violence and other forms of unrest,” states a 2015 report by the NH Center for Public Policy Studies. Persecution of ethnic Nepalese in Bhutan, ongoing strife in African countries like the Democratic Republic of the Congo and years of war in the Middle East are among the conflicts driving refugees to NH.
Resettling Refugees
Most spent years in refugee camps before arriving in the United States following an exhaustive process that begins after a referral by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, U.S. embassy or a non-governmental organization and security clearances and in-person interviews with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. An approved refugee must then undergo a medical screening and cultural orientation and is given a travel loan that must be repaid. Each refugee is assigned to a voluntary agency in the U.S., which partners with local agencies to assist refugees upon arrival. In NH, the International Institute helps resettle refugees in Manchester and Nashua, and Ascentria Care Alliance does so for Concord and Laconia. These communities adopted resolutions to welcome refugees.
Ascentria Care Alliance employee Alen Omerbegovic was resettled by the agency, worked in the Services for New Americans program, and worked his way up to management in the Language Bank program. Courtesy photo.
“It’s definitely a different lifestyle,” says Kate Bruchacova, health educator for the Immigrant Integration Program in Laconia. “You have to learn how to go to a doctor. How do you navigate things that are simple for us—what do you do at the appointment? Who do you need if you don’t speak English? Where do you pick up your prescription? Things you would learn growing up in this country. Many have to learn what are healthy foods, what to avoid if you have chronic disease, how to go to school in the U.S. and take a bus.”
From left: Kazuko Okubo; Jie Riel; Kate Bruchacova, health educator; and Susan Laverack, director of the Immigrant Integration Program at their annual Soupathon, which serves as a fundraiser for Hands Across the Table. Courtesy photo.
That’s where the International Institute and Ascentria step in with a range of services including language classes and citizenship programming. “We are responsible for getting refugees established in new communities,” says Marchiland at Ascentria. “We secure housing for them, get them household goods and supplies, help them connect to benefit programs they’re eligible for and help them apply for Social Security cards right away. The program is designed to provide upfront and front-loaded support with the expectation they’ll be self-supporting as soon as possible, so we help them with creating resumes, go through the job interviewing process with them, do a lot of job readiness preparation… We help with coordination of future health appointments, help the children get registered for school, help parents learn about the education system, help people understand the new community systems they’re in. All this is scheduled out over a three-month period with different topics.”
The federal government provides assistance to refugees once they arrive, usually amounting to several hundred dollars per month, per the New Economy report, and they have temporary Medicaid benefits. But assistance is short-lived, usually eight months or less, and many refugees turn away benefits before then, once they land a job.
Challenges to Self-Sufficiency
Having endured so many hardships, refugees are particularly motivated to embrace their new country and become citizens, according to the New American Economy report, with 84 percent becoming naturalized in 16 to 25 years compared to 51.1 percent of other immigrants nationally.
But economic self-sufficiency, or finding a job, is the first order of the day. And challenges abound. Frequently, college degrees or certifications from other countries are not honored in the U.S. “There are problems with people with nursing degrees and medical degrees who have trouble breaking into those professions,” says Jim Snodgrass, executive director of Second Start, a nonprofit educational corporation in Concord that works with refugees. “Same thing with someone who’s an engineer and can’t get an engineering job here.”
Castillo says she has a friend who came from Iraq eight years ago with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and, though he taught other engineers in his native Iraq, he couldn't find a job in his field despite applying to 30 to 40 companies. He ended up driving a bus for three years and is now studying automotive technology, she says.
Discrimination can be a barrier. “Iraqi refugees have a really hard time finding jobs,” says Bruchacova at the Immigrant Integration Program in Laconia. “We knew a journalist whose name is Ali and if he writes somewhere that his name is Ali, he doesn’t get a job. It’s heartbreaking that kind of discrimination.”
Workforce Resource
But most NH refugees do find jobs and in 2015 had combined household incomes of $141.7 million, paid $23.1 million in federal taxes, contributed state taxes of $8.8 million and had $109.9 million in spending power, as reported by the New American Economy.
“They really provided the help that many employers in our area needed,” says Bruchacova. “We have a lot of hospitality business [in the Laconia area]—restaurants, hotels.
There’s a shortage of people to do these jobs like dishwashing and housekeeping. It’s not easy for employers to find people for these jobs.” Susan Laverack, director of the Immigrant Integration Program in Laconia, adds the need extends beyond entry-level positions, and refugees can fill the gap because “they’re so driven.” Snodgrass at Second Start sees “a strong economic benefit to provide workers who are going to foster economic growth. To me, that’s a no-brainer. We are an aging population in New Hampshire, and there’s been a lot of press about college graduates leaving the state. There’s not enough workers to fill jobs to make the economy grow.”
Nationally, an estimated 77.1 percent of refugees are of working age (25 to 54), compared to 49.7 of the U.S.-born population, reports the New American Economy. Snodgrass adds that NH is following in the footsteps of those cities that “have embraced refugees and immigrants because they need them to grow. I think New Hampshire is getting that message much more than, say, three years ago.”
Assisting Refugees
Besides the federal government, state Office of Health Equity and resettlement agencies, several organizations are working to facilitate such refugee integration and economic growth here. The Bhutanese Community of NH, founded by ethnic Nepalese who escaped persecution in Bhutan, works to help new Americans learn English and workplace skills.
The NH Alliance of Immigrants and Refugees seeks to engage immigrants and refugees as voters and leaders in public policy. Second Start in Concord has provided child care, adult education and classes for adult English language learners for more than 30 years. The Manchester-based Organization for Immigrant and Refugee Success provides training and opportunities, such as Fresh Start Farms, which sells immigrant-grown products at farmers markets.
Increasingly, such groups are partnering in broader enterprises to boost economic opportunity for refugees and immigrants, and for the state as a whole. The Endowment for Health has launched a NH Immigrant Integration Initiative and works with groups to integrate immigrants and refugees into the state’s communities and workforce.
The industry-driven Sector Partnerships Initiative, for example, helps businesses find workers, and immigrants and refugees are a critical component. “These industries are looking for professional and skilled workers, and refugees present opportunities to fill critical work gaps,” says Marchildon. “Refugees come with a wide range of skills and educational backgrounds. If we can figure out pathways to get them credentialed here or narrow a skills gap and plug them into jobs that will help New Hampshire businesses and employers to grow, that’s the benefit. I see a lot of stars aligning right now—the possibility of integrated education and training programs. ”
Some communities—Manchester, Laconia, Concord and Nashua among them—have adopted resolutions as part of Welcoming NH, an affiliate of Welcoming America, which represents “cities across the U.S. that are immigrant-friendly cities trying to build an immigrant-friendly economy,” says Peter Cook, a partner in the architecture and engineering firm Cook Associates and a member of the leadership team at Welcoming Manchester. “There are probably 15 to 20 cities in the rust belt that have been very successful in growing population, as well as growing goods and services. The model we’re using here in the four cities is based to some extent on that model.”
Push Back and Progress
Some communities have not always been so welcoming.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas made national headlines in 2011 when he asked the State Department for a two-year moratorium on new refugee settlements in Manchester, citing strained resources and poor communication between the International Institute and City Hall. The request was denied, as was his later request to the Executive Council to vote against contracts that fund nonprofit groups that work with refugees in NH.
Amadou Hamady, site director for the International Institute in Manchester, said Gatsas’ concerns about strained Manchester resources were partially addressed when the Institute opened a second site in Nashua. The person who was site director when the mayor complained is now gone and “we started talking to him [Gatsas],” Hamady says.
Gatsas now says today is different from 2011, in part due to NH’s low unemployment. “The issue came because of the refugees not having the ability to get a job,” he says. “And that has changed.” The mayor notes he is a second-generation American, as his mother’s parents are from Lebanon and his father’s from Greece. Castillo adds Gatsas spoke at a Welcoming NH event about his roots. The mayor also attended an International Institute’s “Home for All” event at the Millyard Museum earlier this year.
Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas speaks at a Welcoming NH Event. Courtesy photo.
Snodgrass says when Second Start was seeking to have Concord’s City Council declare Concord a “welcoming” community, the group had to go through the economic development subcommittee. “Six of the seven [members] really supported the idea,” he says. “One was just, ‘they’re lazy, they’re shiftless, they take our jobs,’ all those stereotypes you don’t want to acknowledge. He got outvoted significantly.”
To be truly welcoming, a community must incorporate immigrants and refugees into daily social life, Castillo says.
“It’s pretty hard to become integrated if the receiving community is not willing to give you the chance,” says Castillo. “Integration is a two-way process. You cannot integrate into a society that does not accept us or want us.”
To help with integration, Welcoming NH sponsors community conversations and films for discussion, provides speakers at churches and “brings people together so we can hear from them [immigrants] first-hand,” says Castillo. The International Institute offers meet-and-greet programs where new arrivals share their stories with interested neighbors.
And, says Snodgrass, “time helps.”
Exposure also helps tear down misconceptions about refugees, says Marchildon.
“I think people sometimes think refugees come here on a free ride and literally, they have to pay back the travel loan, have to start making repayments six months later,” she says.
“When refugees come here, they’re already in debt. That’s one reason refugees are so quick to get established and become contributing members of their communities.”
Says Castillo, “Once we talk to one another, we see that what makes us different is really superficial.”
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