Refugees have been arriving in New Hampshire for almost 20 years, but only recently to central towns like Laconia, Franklin and Concord. In response the Franklin Pierce Law Center is scheduled to host a legal rights and responsibilities seminar for immigrants and refugees. It hopes to contact a hard to reach, but growing community. New Hampshire Public Radio's Dan Gorenstein reports.
Seifu Ragassa is a 24-year-old Ethiopian. He used to be a journalist. but his government didn?t appreciate his reports on hungry people in Ethiopia. Ragassa arrived less than ten months ago, and his some of his stories reflect common struggles for refugees. Like not knowing how to react to the police.
I stopped my car, and the police come to ask me if there is anything we can help you with. I was thinking why did he come to me, I am in my car?
According to Ragassa, police harassment is a mainstay in Ethiopia. The norm is to approach an officer with humility and reverence. If a driver was stopped, he was expected to quickly run to the squad car. A little different than in New Hampshire.
?but when he comes to me and ask me, can I help you, I say nothing, he say are you ok, and I say I am ok, so he go back in his car and he went. And I said ?Oh, even if I am in need of problem that means police are to help me, I can?t tell you how happy I was, I was so pleased.
Breaking oneself of cultural habits and digesting subtle United States customs is not always so easy. It is customary, in some countries, for example, to store goods in your pocket when shopping. Not exactly standard practice at Macy?s.
Merrimack County Deputy Sheriff Peter Shepard has traveled the world, from korea to the middle east. he knows cultural difference.
Track 2 :15 if you are driving a car in Russia, and pulled over [by police in Russia,] the policeman will approach your car and tell you you were traveling over the speed limit. At that time you will pay 100 rubles [and pay the policeman.] The Russian policeman gets back in his car and goes on his way. [That?s expected and that?s the norm.] That?s how the policeman feeds his family. If you were in US and get stopped, and automatically put some money out the window, you are going to be arrested for trying to bribe a policeman.
As a deputy in a county with almost 400 refugees, Shepard has heard some tales. Like the time a group of Eastern European refugees began slaughtering a cow. A quite normal activity in their former Yugoslavia, but the neighbors in small-town Merrimack County called the cops. Shepard understands part of law enforcement?s challenge is to educate new populations on common cultural practices.
1:14 I feel much more comfortable holding somebody accountable for their actions if they knew beforehand what was expected of them. I think prevention goes a long way and it makes me feel more comfortable enforcing the law if they knew beforehand what the law was
Since 1998, about 600 refugees have arrived in New Hampshire. But half of those people are relocating to towns that even five years ago were pretty homogenous.
greg Orr, assistant state refugee coordinator, says the onus is on local social service agencies to make sure everyone in the community has the same access to public services.
17:00 Initially a lot of what happened is the resettlement agencies were seen as bringing in the refugees?when something would happen around a refugee, the immediate tendancy was to call back the resettlement agency and say they are your refugee. Can you please attend to?what it seems to us is that was a failure on the part of the community to recognize what a refugee is in Laconia or Concord, they are residents of that city just as any other resident would be. Not separating them b/c they are refugees.
During national consumers protection week last February, the new hampshire Consumer Protection Bureau tried to reach out to some of the state?s spanish speaking population by setting up office hours in Nashua. Armed with interpreters and warnings of dodgy credit cards, and lemons disguised as used cars, the bureau made its first attempt at outreach. But it snowed. And nobody came.
Not to be deterred, the consumer protection bureau plans to attend the Franklin Pierce event. While their message will be the same as it is for senior citizens, rotary clubs, and high school students, the bureau?s attorney David Reinzo knows this group will, in part, need to start at square one.
1:10 One of the problems you run into, and one of the things we are going to be talking about has to do with what protections exist in NH and what protections don?t exist. We are going to have to deal with folks you aren?t possibly used to the idea of credit, which is such an enormous issue.
A newly arrived refugee has a very straight forward ?to do? list: get a job, find a place to live, set up a way to get from point A to point B and establish a credit history. but with language and cultural barriers for both refugees and their new neighbors, shared knowledge will come only with collective outreach. For NHPR News, I?m Dan Gorenstein.
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