Building Bridges
Jon Goering
Originally published 03:50 p.m., May 19, 2007
Updated 03:50 p.m., November 27, 2007
Ahmed Issak was 8 years old when he left his native Somalia for a refugee camp in Kenya. He was 22 when he left the camp and came to the United States.
Now, 25, Issak moved to Emporia in April 2006. Issak works at the Tyson plant and studies at the Flint Hills Technical College to get a commercial driver's license.
Before moving to Emporia, Issak arrived with his family in Kansas City, Kan., in 2005. Although his immediate family has resettled in America, Issak still has duties to help support his family, and sometimes his friends, back home.
In Somali cultures, you have an obligation to help those who are in need if you can. Most workers, therefore, are working to support not only themselves but also family, immediate and extended.
After a few hours of truck-driving lessons each day, Issak heads to work his late-shift job on the cutting floor at Tyson.
"It's a hard life," he says "but I have plans to buy a house and find a wife."
Issak wants to live in America, the place he calls his second country. He is grateful for the opportunities he and his family have been given and is upbeat about having worked his way up to in his short time in America. He said he enjoys Emporia and his job at Tyson.
It is the willingness to work hard to build a better life that Council sees as one of the most important factors that will lead to the Somali population's acceptance into the Emporia community.
"Most [people] of this community are not coming here to take advantage of the welfare system or the government, they are here to work," she says. "So when we have a community where 98 percent are coming here to work that are taxpayers paying taxes to this state and the federal government, I think that's positive. If they were coming here to stay in the government system, I would worry."
Most of the Somali immigrants are Muslim, and according to Issak "100 percent of them are." In response to this, Tyson has set up a prayer room and scheduled breaks to accommodate the daily scheduled prayers. There is also an Islamic Center in Emporia that holds daily prayer sessions and works to promote understanding of Islam within the community.
One of the frequent points of misunderstanding is about women's roles in Somali culture.
"In general," Council says "if you look at the culture, women and men are not equal, and that is basically the religion that says that, but some people take it literally and think when you say women and men are not equal this means that women are mistreated, which is false. Women are not being mistreated."
"In the home the women are the leaders," she goes on to say. "They are the ones who are raising the kids and who dictate what happens in that household. Traditionally men were the ones allowed to work in those cultures, and they were obviously the ones out bringing food to the family, so the women were always in control of the home. Nowadays, the women also go out of the home to work so they have both powers now. Some of them take it to the extreme."
When Ahmed Hashi moved to Emporia in 2006 to open a café, he was delighted by the support shown by the community. Despite this early success, however, support of the Ayan Café by the Emporia community has been dwindling. Hashi has enjoyed his time in Emporia, however, and is excited to work to promote understanding within the city.
Hashi has many roles in addition to being the co-owner of the café. Since he has been in America longer than most, he serves as an unofficial social worker for the community by translating and helping the newly arrived refugees get settled into the community.
"Things back home are different," says Hashi.
There are a number of common difficulties the people face.
"America is big," says Hashi "but in a way to them America is small."
Wide-open roads without speed restrictions and tightly packed city roads characterize driving back home. This is very different from the driving here, and it takes time to adjust.
The Tyson plant is taking strides to ease the transition for newly arrived refugees. According to Council, a number of measures have been taken to accommodate the needs of the Muslim population. They are working to implement a driver's training program for their workers through the Flint Hills Technical College. They are teaching small things such as proper line etiquette.
"There are some things that might be appropriate in Somalia that are not appropriate in America, or there are some things that are not appropriate in Somalia that may be appropriate in America. Those are the things we face."
She is confident, however, that things will work out in time within the community.