Posted on 08/27/2005 8:32:31 PM PDT by MRMEAN
CONCORD, N.H. — Besides his meager income as a landscaper, a Somali man has relied on food stamps to support his seven children and his pregnant wife. But there's little left for things like soap, diapers, utilities - and rent. Next week, against his family's wishes, Mohamed Mohamed plans to move everyone to Maine, where he's heard that life is cheaper and easier for Somali immigrants. They've been in Concord for 10 months.
His is not an isolated case, said Nasir Arush, a Somali translator who assists the family and other members of the Bantu communities in Concord and Manchester. A persecuted minority in Somalia, the Bantus fled to refugee camps in Kenya after civil war erupted in 1991. Many adults had no education and their children had lived in refugee-camp tents.
Arush said he is trying to help four other families in Manchester who have received eviction notices. Other families are just barely holding on.
"It's an emergency," Arush told the Concord Monitor in a story published Friday. "I think people will be on the streets soon."
Arush said the family isn't happy about leaving. Mohamed's family felt welcome in Concord. Volunteers helped interpret his mail, negotiate complicated phone bills, and enroll his children in recreational programs.
Lutheran Social Services, a federal subcontractor that resettles refugees in New Hampshire, has placed 68 Bantu immigrants in Concord since last October. Lutheran and other resettlement agencies help with rent, job placement and other services, but offerings are limited by federal funding. Most of the benefits run out within eight months, said Ann Dancy, Lutheran's director of refugee services.
"The big thing here is that rent is simply too high," said Ellen Kenny, who teaches English for Speakers of Other Languages at the Rumford School and is one of the organizers of the Concord Multicultural Project, a confederation of volunteers who assist the city's refugees.
"It's just not affordable for people with low income, and that's true of the Americans that live here in Concord as well as everybody else."
Mohamed's rent and utilities can exceed $1,100 a month.
The Bantus are having a harder time than other refugees at achieving self-sufficiency because their learning curve is steeper, Arush said.
"You have to teach everything," he said, from how to cross a street safely to how to use a toilet.
More and more Bantu refugees are telling Arush they dream of life in Lewiston, Maine - a Somali destination that, they have heard, offers cheaper living, more public immigrant aid and shorter waiting lists for Section 8 rental assistance.
But for those who do leave, the decision is difficult and puts a lot of strain on the family.
Mohamed's wife, Habibo, said it will be a very hard transition and hard to understand, Arush said.
"The kids are very active (here). It will be very hard for them to leave in two to three days," Arush said, translating.
Get your teeth fixed before you move to Maine.
As mean as it sounds, I applaud NH for making it so difficult that the man has to go to Lewiston, ME and be around other Somalis who know how to work the system. This is not a country for people who will not get ahead, and NH understands that.
Yeah, but that's true of anyone with an intelligence centered a standard deviation or more below the mean. What else is new?
Might as well name your DNA Dumb Dumb.
If I ever get evicted I hope they do a story on me lol
My heart bleeds. Are we supposed to feel sorry for them? I'm confused here, help me out.
I suppose they relocated the Bantus to New Hampshire on account of the similarity of the climate to their native Somalia.....
It sticks in my mind because of a great little northern Michigan town called Lewiston, also.
Don't expect help from the public schools, now condom use, that's another story.
I hear it's even cheaper in Somalia.
Actually, he heard it's life the way it should be.
No, you idiot, the "big thing" is that this baby maker has number 8 in his wife's oven.
Ahem..
I suppose they relocated the Bantus to New Hampshire on account of the similarity of the climate to their native Somalia.
After having talked with many Somali co-workers at the company where I use to work the reason why the Somalis left places like Georgia to go to NH and Maine was actually 2-pronged. Africans do not get along well with African Americans. This was also confirmed by my African American friends. The Somalis mock their way of speaking English saying to me "I can't understand a word they say" and they have a look of discust on their face. The African-Americans do not get along with them either. And ofcourse, they are attracted to Maine because of the easy access to government money.
Sometime somebody should research and compare other states where it's easy to get government money but heavily populated with African Americans...compare and see if the Somalis are also going to those cities as well.
Another thing I had learnt from my Somali co-workers. Many of them who are in Maine (and it's probably the same in every state) they did not come here directly from Somalia. Many of them are the refugees Europe had accepted and after a few months to 5 years of living in Europe they moved to the US...however on paper it shows them as coming from Somalia directly. In other words, they got their Assylum 2 times. The US government is blind to this like they are many things.
PS: The Somali who was arrested in Italy for the London bombing...he was from Italy actually. But on the paperwork he too got Assylum 2 times...once from Italy and again in UK.
Another thing I had learnt from my Somali co-workers. Many of them who are in Maine (and it's probably the same in every state) they did not come here directly from Somalia. Many of them are the refugees Europe had accepted and after a few months to 5 years of living in Europe they moved to the US...however on paper it shows them as coming from Somalia directly. In other words, they got their Assylum 2 times. The US government is blind to this like they are many things.
PS: The Somali who was arrested in Italy for the London bombing...he was from Italy actually. But on the paperwork he too got Assylum 2 times...once from Italy and again in UK.
Sorry for the duplicate post.
Here's one other thing I learnt from one of the Somalis. They have multiple wives but can only bring over one of them from Europe when they come over to live. Some I have heard are claiming the ones left behind on their income tax as dependents.
"Somali man has relied on food stamps to support his seven children and his pregnant wife."
People who can not feed kids should not have kids.
Right now sterilization is what the taxpayers should be funding.
Why are we bringing them here? Everytime I read about them they have six children and the wife is expecting. There was just an article in L.A. times about the community of
Somali's in San Diego. I know Church groups think they are doing the right thing but I disagree. I'm sorry but I think we are bringing in future home grown terrorists. I am sure the women have had genital mutilation and I won't be surpised to read in the next few years that they are continuing the practice here on the young girls.
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