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U.S. NEWSTuesday 9 February 2016
American Living:
Reborn Maine mill town offers lessons amid refugee crisis
“Black Hawk Down.” another. Shops feature col-
Some locals resented so
many black Muslims mov- orful clothing and African
ing to a Roman Catho-
lic community where the staples like fufu flour.
twin spires of the Basilica of
Saints Peter and Paul domi- Somalis have taken jobs
nate the skyline. Rumors
spread that the newcom- with L.L. Bean, Maine’s
ers were getting perks like
better housing and even iconic outdoors retailer,
free cars.
Then came a letter from and other local employers.
the mayor to the Somali
community in 2002, asking The city’s unemployment
them to discourage their
friends and family from and crime rates have
moving to Lewiston, say-
ing “our city is maxed-out dropped since the Soma-
financially, physically and
emotionally.” lis’ arrival, said Deputy City
An out-of-state white su-
premacist group seized Administrator Phil Nadeau.
upon the discord to hold a
rally. Refugees and asylum seek-
Residents were bewildered
to find their community ers will account for about
painted as racist in the na-
tional news, and that low half the city’s general as-
point became a turning
point. They began to em- sistance spending in the
brace the Somali commu-
nity, and thousands staged coming year, but overall
a support rally far larger
than the handful of people spending is the same as it
with the white suprema-
cists. was in 1990, he said.
“That was definitely eye-
opening, to see that they The success flies in the face
support and accept us,”
said Abdirahman Moham- of a wave of anti-immigrant
ud, Abasheikh’s son, who
Students and parents watch a high school basketball game between Lewiston High School and grew up in Lewiston. sentiment nationwide
Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine. The arrival of thousands of Somali refugees in Lewis- Three years after the rally,
ton, a former mill city in the nation’s whitest state, sparked a backlash. Fifteen years later, though, when someone rolled the that’s fueled by concerns
Somali shops, restaurants and mosques serve as an example of how far the city of Lewiston has pig’s head into the mosque,
come. swift condemnations fol- over recruitment by Muslim
lowed. The governor at
(AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) the time visited Lewiston extremists, something that
to denounce the act, and
police quickly charged the could cause problems for
perpetrator.
Today, the smell of deep- Syrian refugees, said Westy
fried samboosa fills a store
DAVID SHARP from residents through hard tion.” The first Somalis found in Lisbon Street, and the Egmont, director of the Im-
Associated Press work. “When Somalis came Lewiston after a refugee aroma of basmati rice and
LEWISTON, Maine (AP) — in, Lewiston people, Maine resettlement program was goat meat emanates from migrant Integration Lab at
The arrival of thousands people, they think we need established in Portland,
of Somali refugees in this welfare, but we don’t need Maine’s largest city. the Boston College School
former mill city in the na- welfare. We need jobs. We Because of a housing
tion’s whitest state sparked need peace. We need ed- shortage in Portland, they of Social Work.
a backlash at first, com- ucation,” said Abasheikh, looked 30 miles to the north,
plete with a rally of white who worked as a jani- where aging apartments Immigration opponents
supremacists and a pig’s tor before achieving her that once housed Lewis-
head rolled into the local dream of running her own ton’s mill workers provided include Republican presi-
mosque. business. plenty of low-cost homes.
Fifteen years later, the So- As the U.S. prepares to ac- Despite the bitter winters, dential candidate Donald
mali newcomers are solid cept thousands of refugees Somalis saw a safe place
members of the communi- from war-torn Syria in com- with good schools that was Trump, who wants to ban
ty, as evidenced by its pro- ing months and years, this walkable and not too big.
liferation of shops, restau- riverside community illumi- There was no formal plan. It Muslims, and several gov-
rants and mosques — and nates the challenges such just happened.
a championship-winning newcomers can face — At first, Lewiston residents ernors who have rejected
high school soccer team and shows that integration didn’t know what to make
featuring players from So- can be slow and painful, of these newcomers who the president’s call to ac-
malia and other African but ultimately successful. spoke no English, provid-
countries. Since February 2001, more ing a challenge for schools. cept Syrian refugees.
Shukri Abasheikh, owner of than 5,000 Africans have Many knew little of Somalia
Mogadishu Store, a gen- come to Lewiston, a city of beyond news coverage “Syrians, like all newcomer
eral store that caters to the 36,500 on the Androscog- of a soldier from a nearby
African community, said gin River, in a prime ex- town who was killed in a So- groups, will face both a
she and her fellow new- ample of what scholars call mali firefight that became
comers have won respect “rapid ethnic diversifica- the basis for the movie warm welcome and serious
opposition,” Egmont said,
“depending on where they
end up being placed.”
In Lewiston, which isn’t ex-
pecting Syrian refugees,
white residents now see the
black newcomers want the
same things they do — a
safe place to raise a fam-
ily, good schools, freedom
and jobs, said Abdi Said,
a refugee who was origi-
nally put in San Jose, Cali-
fornia, before he moved to
Lewiston.q
