Despite setbacks, there is optimism for Somalis’ prospects in Lewiston
Somali migration to Lewiston continues to be marred by an ugly and persistent pattern of white backlash and bigotry. It’s enough to make you wonder whether it was worth Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and thousands of civil rights activists risking their lives in a protest march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama 50 years ago.
Yet there are still reasons for optimism about the prospects for Somalis entering the mainstream of this community – in business, employment, government, schools and athletics.
The Somali migration to Lewiston, which began in 2001, has continued for over a decade, with the official census in 2010 pegged at 3,174 and current unofficial estimates running as high as 6,000 — about 16 percent of the city’s total population. It’s been a dramatic change for a city that was 96 percent white and predominantly French-Canadian and Irish in ethnic origin when this all began.
The growth in Somali population has been paralleled by an upsurge in white anger and resentment, at times bordering on hysteria, and fueled by a witch’s brew of racism, xenophobia and religious animus. There is widespread belief that Somalis only come here for the welfare benefits, don’t attempt to learn English, don’t seek work, are intent on cheating the system and have fostered crime and juvenile delinquency. Here but a few of the on-line blog comments posted in response to various Sun Journal articles:
“Too many hard working americans are out there struggling to make ends meet and I see these people with literally, wads of cash in their hands, gold jewelery, brand new vehicles.” (9/4/2010)
“They should have to pay for their kids to learn english… Not the taxpayers… And as far as them opening their own businesses…. Where do you think the money came from for that???? They did not earn it that’s for sure….. It is time their free ride comes to an end…and if they can’t make it in the work force then go home!!!!!!” (10/19/2010)
“The Salami’s think they can come in here & AUTOMATICALLY get EVERYTHING Full Food stamps & $1600 a month SSI They are transients They stay here until there initial benis run out & then move.. but the main problem is they are breeding like rabbits!” (10/2/2012)
“It seems to me that most of them don’t care to even learn to speak our language.” (10/3/2012)
Such opinions range from exaggeration to downright fiction and rant. True, as an impoverished and largely non-English speaking group with large families, Somali refugees re-settling in Lewiston have stretched the resources of the school department and General Assistance fund. But they have neither monopolized the welfare system nor shown a desire to remain permanent charity cases.
As of 2011, according to Department of Health and Human Services, 11 percent of Lewiston recipients of benefits administered by the department – Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Refugee Cash Assistance or Food Stamps – were Somali speakers. In the same year, the percentage of municipal General Assistance payments going to refugees (primarily, but not exclusively, Somali) was 24 percent, a substantial decrease from 52 percent in 2002. Hillview, a Lewiston Housing Authority public housing project, has a high concentration of Somali residents (60 percent to 65 percent in 2011). Hillview aside, however, LHA estimates that Somalis utilize no more than 10 percent of its affordable housing programs, including Section 8 vouchers.
Nearly 1,000 Somali-speaking students are enrolled in the English Language Learners program in Lewiston’s public schools (about 20 percent of the system’s total enrollment). Staffing the ELL program has been a challenge for the school system, but it’s also a positive sign that Somalis have robustly engaged in both in-school and after-school programs to master English.
The Uniform Crime Reporting Statistics, though not broken by ethnic groups, reflect a decrease in Lewiston’s overall violent and property crime rates since 2001.
A University of Maine sociology researcher, who conducted extensive interviews and focus groups with Somalis living in Lewiston, reported that most interviewees attributed cheap housing, low crime rates and good schools, rather than welfare benefits, as their major reason for moving here and often cited a shortage of jobs as the biggest reason for relocating out of Lewiston.
Historically immigrant groups in the U.S. have shown a keen desire to climb the social and economic ladder, and in this Somalis appear to be no different than others. Many have demonstrated that they can be successful in all the ways Americans typically measure success. More and more are being employed by local businesses, opening their own businesses, and graduating from high school, community college and college. Two have served as members of the Lewiston School Committee.
Perhaps most visibly, they are showing their mettle in inter-scholastic sports.
In November 2014, when the Lewiston boys’ soccer team won the Eastern Class A regional championship, the Sun Journal ran a three-column photo of the team celebrating its victory. A cursory glance at the picture suggests that more than half the smiling blue-and-white clad soccer players depicted were Somali, and companion stories reported that the player who scored the Devils’ only two goals was Abdulkarim Abdulle.
It’s often young athletes who pave the way for broader acceptance in society of a marginalized group. In 1947, seven years before the Supreme Court ruled school segregation unconstitutional in Brown v. Board of Education, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in professional baseball, becoming the first African-American to play for a major league team. In 1995, South African President Nelson Mandela used the participation of his country’s Springbok team in the 1995 Rugby World Cup tournament to dramatize the importance of black-white unity in a nation struggling to overcome the deep racial divisions left by apartheid.
Team sports have two advantages that make them ideal opening wedges in the never-ending struggle against the artificial barriers which divide people from one another.
First, teamwork requires cooperation and mutual support, which, in turn, leads to camaraderie and life-long friendships. Second, when fans develop an attachment to an entire team, it’s harder for them to hate individual members, especially if they’re the ones who’ve kicked the winning goal, scored the winning touchdown or sunk the winning basket. This dynamic is dramatized in recent movies about Robinson (“The Jackie Robinson Story,”2013) and Springbok (“Invictus,” 2009).
No amount of empirical evidence is likely to change the mind of confirmed Somali haters. Indeed, the occasional crimes committed by local Somali residents – such as the 2014 conviction of a Somali couple for defrauding the federal government of over $46,000 in housing subsidies or the guilty plea of a Somali teenager in connection with a deliberately-set 2013 fire that destroyed four apartment buildings in downtown Lewiston — are all the evidence they need to confirm their beliefs. Never mind that whites were convicted of similar crimes during the same time period.
Perhaps full acceptance of the Somali newcomers by Lewiston’s white population will have to await the coming of age of a younger generation, one that has grown up with children of the original Somali settlers and gotten to know them first hand — as classmates, friends and teammates.
sunjournal.com