The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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Facts, fears and ongoing issues surfaced Wednesday morning at a meeting among local government officials, authorities on refugee resettlement, and a small group of area residents.

Verna Ann Adkins and Burna Dunn, consultants with the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, and Lewis Kinsey, who administers refugee programs for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, have met this week with a variety of local groups, including business, law enforcement, education, government and other entities.

The meetings were intended to provide information and support for the community in dealing with the influx of Somali refugees who in recent months have come to work at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant.

“There is a difference between a refugee and an immigrant,” Kinsey told the group. Refugees are fleeing their homelands because of a “well-founded fear of persecution. ... They could be put to death. They don’t have a choice in this situation.”

The consultants showed 10 minutes of a documentary video about the refugees to help explain the barriers the Somalis and Somali-Bantus face when they come to the United States. Their five-day classroom indoctrination into the ways of America covered the most basic changes. They were shown learning how to turn on lights, open door knobs and levers, turning water on and off, using a toilet, and lighting a gas range. The teacher introduced her students to foods, like corn flakes and pasta, and helped as they tried to determine what foods needed to be refrigerated and what did not.

Patty Gilligan, chairperson of the Emporia Human Relations Commission, led the meeting and told those gathered that Emporians tell her they are angry about the way the refugees have been resettled to Emporia.

“They feel like this is something that is being foisted off on them in the community,” Gilligan said. “There’s also a great deal of fear in the community.”

People who normally would not talk to her in politically incorrect terms are doing so now, she said.

She mentioned several issues and fears that are being discussed around the city in conjunction with the refugees. Language is a major barrier, she said, and because of ongoing terrorism around the world, people are fearful of the Muslim refugees. Business owners have told her they hear that people are avoiding shopping in Emporia because of the new population and that will affect their livelihoods. Somali men tend to gather in sizable groups for socialization; in Emporia, any group “hanging out” would be suspect, she said.

Somalis, too, are fearful.

“We knew the Somalis would be somewhat fearful of us, but they’re extremely fearful of the law enforcement kind of thing,” Gilligan said. When a Somali is taken away by police, “their friends have come in and said, ‘Will we ever see them again?’ Because in their background, if the police came and got you, it was the end.”

Kinsey clarified some entitlement issues that have arisen surrounding the Somalis’ refugee status.

They do not receive tax waivers, but pay taxes as American citizens do. Tyson does not receive a per-person fee for hiring refugees. Unlike immigrants, the refugees have a right to work as soon as they come to the U.S.; they need no visa or work authorization. The refugees have access to cash and medical assistance from SRS, though if they are single or a childless couple, they are limited to eight months’ of assistance.

They also are entitled to training in English language and job-skills development that immigrants are not afforded.

Pru Schmidt told the group that she had talked with Tyson’s management and was told that a female interpreter at the plant was trying to educate the Somalis on cultural norms of Emporia “so that they didn’t do things that were causing other people to be afraid of them...

“And one of them was that they’re licensed (to drive), they’re insured, and they drive like a bat out of hell,” Schmidt said. “There are things that we see as everyday things that we wouldn’t do because we ‘know better.’”

Kinsey said that in the past, money has been available to pay for driver’s education classes for some refugee populations. One of the challenges in Emporia is finding an entity capable of providing services to the refugee community.