Lewiston, Maine -- Mayor appeals to Somalis to stem imigration.

Mayor Larry Raymond is hoping an appeal to the city’s Somali community will help stem the tide of new residents.

Raymond drafted an open letter to Somali leaders, asking them to pass the word to friends and family outside Maine that Lewiston is full.

“The large number of new arrivals cannot continue without negative results for all,” Raymond wrote. “The Somali community must exercise some discipline and reduce the stress on our limited finances and generosity.”

Local Somalis said Thursday that they wanted to discuss the letter among themselves before they responded to it.

Raymond’s missive was distributed informally around the community, through the city’s Somali Advisory Group. Assistant City Administrator Phil Nadeau said the members of the group, made up of nine Lewiston Somalis, received copies of the letter Wednesday and had begun to hand them out.

“I’ve been sitting on the sidelines, watching this issue develop,” Raymond said Thursday. “I’ve been hoping that the Somalis already here would see that we are getting maxed-out financially, and that they would help spread the word on their own.”

An estimated 1,051 Somalis have moved to Lewiston in the past 18 months, according to city information. In response, the city has increased budgets for local aid, known as general assistance, and for English as a Second Language programs in local schools. More than 200 Somali students have enrolled since the spring of 2001, and most have required ESL instruction. The city budgeted $528,000 for general assistance this year, and expects to spend about $246,000 of it on immigrants.

The number of new Somali applications for general assistance was down for September, Nadeau said. City staff worked with seven new Somali families, a total of 11 individuals, last month. In comparison, the city averaged 14 new families each month this past summer, Nadeau said.

“I started writing this letter when I heard about the September numbers,” Raymond said Thursday. “I’m not sure why they are down, but hopefully there is a realization that we are pretty much maxed. If not – if it’s just a random occurrence – I’m asking for their help. I’d encourage them to discourage more people moving to Lewiston.”

Reaction from the Somali community was cautious. Said Tani, co-owner of the Lewiston Variety Store, said he thought Somali elders and leaders should meet to discuss the letter. Once they did, however, Tani said he wants to meet directly with Raymond.

“Our leaders need to sit with the mayor and find out just what he means,” Tani said. “What he is trying to say, it needs to be expressed better. I’d encourage him to meet with us, so we can really determine what the problem is here.”

Tani said he feels most Somalis in Lewiston do work and are paying taxes – just like everyone else.

“I’d like to see his budget and have him explain his point of view,” Tani said. “Then, I’d like to see our leaders explain our point of view.”

Tuesday, October 8, 2002

Somalis denounce Lewiston's mayor

By KELLEY BOUCHARD, Portland Press Herald Writer
Also on this page:Adam Mostafa, speaking at a news conference Monday in Lewiston, reads a community response to an open letter last week from Mayor Laurier Raymond. Somali leaders were angered by Raymond's request that they stem the flow of Somalis into the city.

MORE INFORMATION
Mayor Raymond's letter to the Somali community

Text of letter from Somali elders

RECENT COVERAGE

COLUMN: Why is Lewiston waving off Somalis?: American citizens, after all, are free to move to any state in the country.

EDITORIAL: Mayor wrong to send a letter that tells Somalis to stay away: A meeting would have been a better way to discuss shortages.

Closing the door: Mayor's request disconcerts Somalis: Lewiston's Somalis are deciding how to respond to an entreaty that they stop the flow of resettlement.

AMERICAN JOURNEY
American Journey is an ongoing series that explores the lives of immigrants moving to Maine. Here are stories examining the new Somali community in Lewiston:

A thousand miles: The people of suburban Clarkston, Ga, reveal why hundreds of Somali immigrants living there are looking north, toward Lewiston, Maine.

An open-door refugee policy has its critics: A reform group in Maine says well-meaning efforts to help may lead to serious social problems.

Lewiston's Somali surge: With jobs scarce and its resources strained, a city built by immigrants braces for the arrival of 1,000 more.

LEWISTON — Leaders of the city's fledgling Somali community called Mayor Laurier Raymond a racist and a bigot Monday for asking Somalis to stop moving to Lewiston from other parts of the United States.

During a news conference, Somali leaders called on Raymond to apologize and to retract a letter he wrote last week asking the estimated 1,060 Somalis who have moved to Lewiston since February 2001 to give the city some "breathing room."

In an open letter of their own, Somali leaders described Raymond as an "ill-informed leader who is bent toward bigotry." They criticized him for failing to meet with them before writing his letter.

They said Raymond would be to blame if some residents in this mostly French-Catholic city saw his letter as license to attack Somalis. They asked police and state officials to guarantee their continued safety as residents of the city.

Standing in a drizzling rain outside a Somali community office on Lisbon Street, a few doors from the city's first Islamic mosque, Somali leaders invited Raymond to meet with them soon to learn more about the people he wants to turn away.

"He is a racist," said Mohamed Dirye, 52, a Somali who moved to Lewiston from Atlanta last December. "The way he is speaking, he thinks he's mayor for only white residents. He's not only their mayor. He's our mayor, too."

Somali leaders said they cannot tell Somalis to stop moving to Lewiston, especially when many of them are family members and friends looking for a better life, and most of them are legal residents or U.S. citizens free to live where they want. Many Somalis are former refugees who fled the clan warfare that has plagued their country for decades.

"We are proud to claim that we are fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers of citizens of this city of Lewiston," said Adam Mostafa, 35, who moved to Lewiston in July from Indianapolis with his wife and eight children. "It means this is home."

Raymond did not return telephone calls to his law office or his home on Monday. In an interview Friday, Raymond said his letter speaks for itself and represents the view of many Lewiston residents.

"This large number of new arrivals cannot continue without negative results for all. The Somali community must exercise some discipline and reduce the stress on our limited finances and our generosity," Raymond wrote. "We will continue to accommodate the present (Somali) residents as best we can. . . . Our city is maxed-out financially, physically and emotionally."

Police Chief William Welch said Monday that Somalis will be afforded the same police protection as all other Lewiston residents. He said there have been no reports of attacks or threats made against Somalis since the mayor issued his letter.

"We cannot guarantee them any more than anybody else," Welch said. "If they have issues, we're going to address them."

Welch said he didn't believe Raymond intended to "agitate and incite the local people," as the Somali letter suggests. "I think (Raymond) said what he thought," Welch said. "I'm sure it was agitating to some, and I'm sure there are some Lewiston residents who agree with the mayor. I also have a lot of faith in the people of this community to deal with his letter appropriately."

Some Lewiston residents at Monday's news conference said they welcomed Somalis to the community and denounced the mayor for increasing tensions between newcomers and longtime residents.

"Many of us say, 'Bring your friends. Build your community together,' " said Mark Schlotterbeck, city missionary at Calvary United Methodist Church. "We are all children of the same Creator. Let us share our resources."

Schlotterbeck invited the public to join church members in welcoming Somalis to Lewiston with a "friendship walk" on Sunday starting at 8:45 a.m. from the church on Sabattus Street to the mosque on Lisbon Street.

Somali leaders questioned why Raymond failed to acknowledge the contributions Somalis have made to the city and the federal funding Lewiston has received to help provide social services and educational programs for new immigrants.

While the city's general assistance budget has more than doubled to $528,000 during the past year, about half of the estimated 412 Somali adults living in Lewiston are working. Others are taking college courses or language classes. Three Somali-owned stores have opened in less than a year. Many Somalis live in downtown apartments that once were vacant.

"Our presence has turned Lewiston into a multi-ethnic, multiracial city, which has embraced diversity and change," Somali elders wrote in their letter. "A city of 36,000 people, in the middle of the whitest state in the country, has suddenly become an international city."

Abdiaziz Ali, a Somali who works as a caseworker for the city, said he understands that it is human nature to be uncomfortable with change, and that it will take some Lewiston residents a while to get used to their new neighbors.

But he noted that other immigrant groups are moving to Lewiston in search of lower housing costs, good schools and a small-city lifestyle. Recent newcomers include people from Togo, Sudan, Congo, Morocco and Brazil.

"Is the mayor going to write a similar letter to all these other people and tell them not to come, too?" Ali asked.

Somali leaders said they were most upset because Raymond failed to recognize that many of the Somalis who are moving to Lewiston are U.S. citizens, and 80 percent of their children were born here.

During the news conference, Hawa Kahin held up a photograph of a her 20-year-old son and spoke with a mixture of pride, shame and fear.

Kahin said she is proud that the eldest of her five children, Kader Khalif, is a Marine stationed in Japan, protecting U.S. interests abroad. She is proud to be a U.S. citizen - "I am an American person," she said - who came to this country in 1981. She is proud that her five children were born on U.S. soil.

But Kahin isn't so proud of being a Lewiston resident since she read Raymond's letter. And she's afraid for her children's safety.

"I'm really disappointed with the way the mayor talked," said Kahin, 40, who moved to Lewiston from Atlanta in June. "I'm so ashamed to say to my kids, 'Do not go outside. It's not safe.' "

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