A game of dominos at HopePrint's house on the Northside of Syracuse. Photo: Ryan Delaney, WRVO
North Country Public Radio
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Upstate New York's cities take in around 90% of all refugees coming to the state.
As they adapt to new homes, the newcomers re-shape neighborhoods.
Every Tuesday evening, a home at 129 Lilac Street on Syracuse's Northside turns into a community center. Turnout may be low
this night because of first snow, Nicole Watts tells those gathered in
her entryway. Even as she tries to explain this, there's a near steady
knock on the front door.
Watts runs a group called HopePrint. After living in the suburbs, she
and some others have basically embedded themselves on the Northside by
buying two houses on this block. That’s allowed them to follow the ups
and downs of the ethnically diverse neighborhood pretty closely.
"We can share in that
struggle or share in that opportunity versus them sharing it and us
attempting to understand it from a distance," she said.
An hour later, every corner of Watts’ home is full of refugees and
long-term residents of the neighborhood. The youngest scribble with
crayons and in the living room, the adults are practicing English. Other
volunteers work on preparing dinner in the kitchen.
Agnus Aombe lives in the house. Born in war-torn eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, she came to Syracuse three years ago with some
younger siblings and her son. The others all live in foster care, but
Aombe found a welcome home on Lilac Street.
"They're trying to view that relationship as a person, not just a
language," she said. "Because when you have a relationship with
somebody, even if you don’t speak the same language, they’re more
patient and willing to understand and help."
For Lorina Mpinga, who was a teenager when she arrived from D.R.C,
figuring out high school without knowing English proved to be a massive
challenge.
Mpinga was bullied her first year in high school. She had a hard time
standing up for herself at first without English language skills, but
eventually got the courage.
"I have to make sure I tell them and let them know who I am, not a
little scared girl and I don’t want to live a life of being scared of
going to school every day," she said.
Asked whether or not being bullied as a teenager put a damper on coming here, Mpinga quickly dismisses the idea.
"I know, from before, that you always have to stand up for yourself"
and being a teenager anywhere in the world is tough, she added.
A changing neighborhood
In the past decade, more than 7,200 refugees have found new homes in
Syracuse, according to the U.S. State Department. A majority of those
are from Burma, Bhutan and Somalia. But Sudanese, Congolese and Iraqis
have also found refuge on the city’s Northside.
Now, in a walk through the neighborhood, you’ll pass newly opened
Asian grocery stores and Italian bakeries, a sign of the old and new
immigrants who populated this part of the city decades ago.
City officials recognize the refugee community as a source of new
population and key to revitalizing the Northside, but for now it’s still
a working class neighborhood that has its fair share of crime and
vacancy.
Michael Collins oversees housing efforts for InterFaith Works’ Center
for New Americans, one of the two charities in Syracuse that resettle
refugees. Property values in the area are improving, he said.
"We’ve seen people choosing to invest in the housing on the
Northside," he said during a visit to InterFaith's offices. "What we’re
finding is we’ve got active investors that are buying up properties that
otherwise might go vacant."
So that’s the good news, but the factory jobs that used to be open to immigrants with little or no English are gone.
...the factory jobs that used to be open to immigrants with little or no English are gone.
"There are no places like G.E. anymore, there are no places where you
could move up doing a manual labor type job [and] all you need is
training basically," Susan Ohlsen from InterFaith Works said.
Job training programs run through various non-profits help new
Americans get jobs in health care or construction, but finding refugees
steady work en masse is a challenge, according to Ohslen.
Refugees are finding work, she said. Agriculture is a good source of
jobs and some high-tech manufacturers are seeking out refugees to fill
their ranks, once their language skills are good enough.
Stress and anxiety
Back at 129 Lilac Street, as teenager girls use yarn and metal
washers to make craft, Agnus Aombe is downstairs in the kitchen putting
away dishes.
This home is a place where Aombe can be herself and let her guard
down, but there have been times since arriving in Syracuse where that
wasn't the case.
"It’s hard; stressful," she said with a long sigh. "It can bring
anxiety and depression, everything. Because now I’ve made these steps,
so let me look forward to my life in five years, but instead of that you
start looking to your life back because you have to start learning what
you could have done."
She may never feel fully settled here, but Aombe said it's slowly getting better.