Seeking refuge

More Burmese seek fresh start in Utica
Oct 09, 2007 @ 10:35 PM
By CHINKI SINHA
Observer-Dispatch
UTICA – Virtually every new refugee arrival in Utica is from Myanmar, with hundreds more expected in the next year.

Residents of the country formerlly known as Burma have become the largest single source of refugees since Bosnians arrived in the 1990s.

After spending around seven years in refugee camps in Thailand, Oh Mar and her friends, refugees from Myanmar, are waiting for a fresh start. UTICA AND REFUGEES

They already have taken the first few steps — rented an apartment, joined ESL classes at Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees and have started to think big.

A job, a television set, a telephone, a sofa and a computer are next on the list.

They are grateful for a second chance in life and for freedom. In fact, Mar said “freedom” several times during the conversation. As Bengali Muslims, they had been victims of religious persecution. Mosques had been destroyed in her village, she recalled.

“We like the freedom,” she said. “It’s very comfortable and very beautiful.”
Mar and her three friends are four of the 321 refugees from Myanmar that arrived in the Mohawk Valley in August and September.

Altogether, 13,896 refugees from Myanmar came to the United States from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of this year, according to Rob McInturff of the U.S. State Department.

Every summer, there is a surge in refugee arrivals nationwide as the federal government seeks to meet the arrival targets set each year by the president. Utica is host to one of the largest Burmese communities, a target group, and the combination of these two factors drove up the numbers for the end of the federal fiscal year, said MVRCR Executive Director Peter Vogelaar.

“We anticipate in a 15-month period July 2007 through September 2008 welcoming upward of 800, 900 people. In the past 11 weeks alone, we welcomed nearly 300 new arrivals,” said Vogelaar in an e-mail.

About 469 refugees from Myanmar came to Utica since January, the largest group this year. Total refugee arrivals for 2007 till September stand at 497, according to refugee center estimates.

Not related to current junta
For many that have come to Utica in recent years, their displacement began with the 1988 student uprising, Vogelaar said.

“Those individuals arriving from Thailand today are not coming as a direct result of the current uprising. Most of those coming today have lived in refugee camps for upwards of 10 or more years,” he said.

Hundreds more are expected to arrive. Though these arrivals are not a direct outcome of the recent military crackdown in Myanmar, the current uprising will contribute to future resettlement as many fled to Thailand after the protests, officials said.

However, the recent protests and images from Myanmar will help demonstrate to the local community why so many flee their country, said Rev. Mark Caruana, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in downtown Utica. The church helps Karen refugees, who are Baptist, by providing them with clothes, rice cookers and food. Utica is the second-largest community for ethnic Karen in the United States for the American Baptist denomination, he said.

“It raises sensitivity towards the needs of the refugees,” he said.

The majority of refugees from Myanmar are Karen. However there are also Karenni, Burman, Arakanese, Shan, and Mon that either have arrived or will arrive in Utica, according to refugee center officials.

New home
The apartment is sparsely furnished. The living room has one bed. No couches, no tables. The walls are stripped bare. But for Oh Mar, San Win, Aung Thi Ha, and Cho Lay, it is just a matter of days before it all changes.

From bamboo huts and oppression in Myanmar and near-starvation in Thai refugee camps, it has been a long journey.

Mar, 27, wants to study science in a college. She would like to become a journalist, she said.

“I have plans,” she said.

Aung Thi Ha, 21, wants to get more money to buy snow coats. And yes, he would like to have more friends.

There is no more living in fear. Thi Ha goes to the mosque on Kemble Street at least three times a day to pray. It is the month of Ramadan. In the evening, all four break the fast with rice, chicken, fish, fruits and juice.

And for Eid-Ul-Fitr on Saturday, the women are excited about wearing new clothes, cooking traditional food and inviting friends over. In Myanmar, it hadn’t been so.

“This is freedom country,” Mar said.

Community pulls together to help refugees
Oct 09, 2007 @ 10:41 PM
By CHINKI SINHA
Observer-Dispatch
While there will always be needs and demands for refugees, local agencies are trying to make the transition smooth.

As the refugee center tries to step up the resettlement process, it is partnering with churches, schools and other service providers to help.

In response to the increase in Burmese arrivals, the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees has hired a number of Burmese/Karen speakers as case workers, employment specialists, and some Burmese/Karen speakers for interpretation and translation, particularly in hospitals, officials said.

Currently, the refugee center has 10 Burmese/Karen speakers working with the center in addition to numerous volunteers, according to officials.

An increase in funding made it possible for the refugee center to hire linguistically and culturally appropriate staff to work with the new arrivals. On average, a new arrival will have a Social Security card issued within 45 days after arrival, Resource Center Executive Director Peter Vogelaar said.

So far, medical checks for new arrivals have not posed any problems. Patrice Bogan of the Oneida County Health Department said with smaller numbers, health assessment is faster. However, with more refugees coming in, the staff is busier, but they expect to complete it within the stipulated 90-day period.

“I anticipate it won’t be a problem,” she said.

However, Cornelia Brown of Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters, said it is some times difficult to fill in demands for Burmese interpreters.

Currently, they have one Burmese interpreter.

“We need more. Because of a large number, there is more demand,” she said. “As soon as we reach a critical point, we will hire more.”

For Saw Chit, spokesperson of the Utica Karen Organization, there aren’t enough Karen people on refugee center staff considering the number of new arrivals seeking help. Often, it takes months for them to get jobs or even a driver’s license, he said.

“We need more people,” he said. “People have to wait a long time. They don’t know where to go, how to go. Karen people should have more help.”

“When they encounter problems with the bureaucracy, they become frustrated,” said Rev. Mark Caruana, pastor of the Tabernacle Baptist Church in downtown Utica. “They are not asking for too much.”

Learning English, job training, living in an apartment, maintaining it, transportation, and adapting to 2 feet of snow are a few of the initial challenges for these refugees, he said.

Iraqi Refugee update
In the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, only 1,608 Iraqi refugees have come to United States. The state department set the target at 2,000 for fiscal year 2007.
“We focused on 2,000 as a more realistic goal,” said Rob McInturff, a state department spokesperson.

In fiscal year 2008, the target has been set at admitting around 1,000 Iraqi refugees to United States every month, McInturff said. The refugees will most likely not be coming to Utica.

“We have not resettled any Iraqi refugees in recent years,” said MVRCR Executive Director Peter Vogelaar. “I do not anticipate any Iraqi arrivals to Utica while we are resettling so many Burmese.”




* Refugees have arrived from at least 23 different countries in 28 years.

* At least 10 percent of Uticans are considered refugees.

* The largest single group of refugees has been Bosnian.

* This decade, Utica has seen close to 600 refugees arrive either directly or indirectly from Myanmar, formerly Burma. Another 250 to 300 people are expected in coming months.

MYANMAR AND THE U.S.
* The Karen National Union fighting the government in Myanmar is considered a terrorist group, and under the Material Support Provision of the 2001 Patriot Act, anyone seen as helping such an organization is not supposed to be allowed in the country.

Condoleezza Rice waived that exclusion in 2006 for thousands of the more than 100,000 Karen refugees living in camps on Thailand’s border with Myanmar.

* Some have lived in the camps for more than 20 years, and the numbers have grown as thousands have fled from attacks by the Myanmar army over the last 10 years, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

* The State Department designated the refugees a “population of special humanitarian concern to the United States due to the privations they have experienced” and determined that resettlement was the only “durable solution” for many, according to information on the State Department's Web site.