Bhutanese, Iraqi refugees share quest for a new life in America

Date: 4/14/2009

"Give me your tired, your poor,/

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,/

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore./

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,/

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"



-- An excerpt from "The New Colossus" by Emma Lazarus, as engraved on Lady Liberty



By Katelyn Gendron

Reminder Assistant Editor



WEST SPRINGFIELD -- The United States continues to serve as a gateway welcoming those fleeing persecution, disease, famine or war in their native countries. Local organizations such as Lutheran Social Services (LSS) serve as resettlement sites for refugees who've waited years to call America their chosen home.



Landing in America

There's a bustle of activity on any given day inside LSS on Main Street. Refugees stop in the entryway to read the latest employment and education opportunities written in English, Russian and Arabic, tacked over the paint peeling from the off-white walls.

The clatter of keyboards can be heard as case managers from various countries feverishly document this month's 30 refugees entering the site. Russian, Arabic and Nepali are just some of the languages heard by newcomers from Iraq, the Kingdom of Bhutan, Somalia and former Soviet bloc countries.

Helen Czerniejewski, site manager at LSS, explained that her organization works with the State Department and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to resettle refugees in Western Massachusetts.

She noted that LSS personnel welcome newcomers at the airport upon arrival in the United States. Refugees are then provided a furnished apartment rent-free for 30 days, food, medical appointments, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, job placement, Social Security applications, Medicaid and case management.

Czerniejewski added that job placement has become increasingly difficult due to the economic downturn.

"[Historically we've] been able to get them entry-level jobs [but] employers are not hiring [now]," she said.

Czerniejewski added that new refugees are signed up for food stamps and Refugee Cash Assistance to assist them beyond the initial 90-day resettlement period.

Shemariah Blum-Evitts, Agricultural Program coordinator at LSS, explained that refugees also have the opportunity to participate in business classes, communal farming and marketing. She added that those enrolled rent farmland and learn how to grow crops native to their homelands.

Rebecca Schiffrin, an ESL teacher at LSS, noted that refugees are able to learn "survival English" or basic and advanced-level English on site in West Springfield.

She explained that teaching methods rely on "practical application" of the language to everyday tasks.

Schiffrin added that the goal of ESL courses are to help refugees gain the communication skills necessary to obtain employment.

Czerniejewski said successful resettlement is measured by a refugee's "self-sufficiency."



Fleeing Bhutan

Ram Kumar Rai is a 29-year-old refugee from the Kingdom of Bhutan. He and his family have spent the past 18 years in a refugee camp in Beldangi, Jhapa, Nepal, with 30,000 other Bhutanese fleeing persecutions by the country's monarchial government.

He explained that he and his family fled their homeland when he was a young boy because of human rights violations committed against those innocent and guilty of protesting the absolute monarchy. Rai said his family is one of thousands innocent of opposition but forced to flee for fear of persecution.

"The most difficult years of my life [were spent in the refugee camp]," he said. "I got no future as a refugee [in Nepal]."

Rai said life in the camp was extremely difficult. He explained refugees were forced to wait in four-hour queues for water; they were given only rice, some oil and potatoes every 15 days; and were given new blankets or clothes every other year.

Rai and his 25-year-old sister and 23-year-old brother have been in the United States for approximately six weeks. Their parents and additional family members are still living in the refugee camp in Nepal.

Rai noted that his parents are undergoing the 11-month process to gain refugee status and join him here.

"I miss them very much," he said, adding that he saw no other option but to leave Nepal to build a better life in America. "I know how to live as a human being [here]."

Rai noted that he's enrolled in ESL classes to improve the English he's learned over the past six years reading magazines in the refugee camp.

He said he's working diligently to gain employment and further his education. Rai explained that he wants to go to college to be a reporter. He added that this profession will allow him "to tell people how life is in [a] refugee camp."

Rai said his dream is to meet Oprah Winfrey and tell her his story in the hopes that she may be able to help his people.

"[I want] to tell her about my life and my people [who] are facing problems ... [in the refugee camps] being bombed or physically attacked," he said.

Rai explained that life has not been easy here in the United States either, however. He said the language barrier creates a problem with daily life and obtaining employment; he can't drive a car yet or have a bank account; he also lacks computer skills needed in the workforce.

Rai said he's committed to creating a better life for him and his family in Massachusetts.

"Every Sunday I pray [in church] for the well-being of all people," he said. "I'm happy for sure. I don't regret [coming to the United States] because of how [difficult] life would be [in Nepal].

"I hate to be called a refugee," he added. "I should [and now do] have a country [to call my own]."



Escaping Iraq

Ammar Obaid Mahmood, a 29-year-old surgeon from Baghdad, Iraq, walks into his interview with Reminder Publications at LSS with perfect posture, looking dapper in his professional attire.

He comes from a family of professionals; his father is a statistics professor; and his eight brothers and two sisters are in school or working as doctors, farmers or engineers.

Mahmood has known since childhood that he's wanted to become a doctor and neither war nor senseless killings of his family members have stopped him from achieving his goal.

He completed medical school and over two years as an intern amidst the invasion of U.S. troops in 2003.

In 2004, one of his brothers, a farmer with no political affiliations, was kidnapped and killed for reasons unknown; a second brother was killed in a drive-by shooting at a gas station two years later.

He explained that his father did not want to lose another child to the violence in Iraq, and on Nov. 1, 2006, he met his father, who'd obtained a professorship, in Syria. Mahmood added that his visa did not allow him to work or volunteer, however, infringing on his life's mission to become a surgeon.

He then spent one year at Jordan University Hospital in Jordan before obtaining refugee status and moving to the United States in July 2008.

Mahmood is employed as a case manager at LSS during the day and spends his evenings studying for medical exams that will allow him to work as a surgeon. He constantly glances at his watch, ensuring that he remains on task and on schedule.

"Work here [at LSS] is enjoyable ... the work atmosphere is good," Mahmood said, adding that it's not as fulfilling as his work in the medical field, however.

When asked how he feels about the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Mahmood said he doesn't like to speak about politics. He added that family members still in Iraq say that "conditions are improving" but that they are unsure of their political leadership or credibility of security forces.

He noted that he plans to return to Iraq someday, adding that he misses his family, especially his father, his best friend.