Month: March 2018

When people think of immigration into the US, Maine is not a destination that really ever comes to mind. That is because since the days of European settlement, Maine has been one of the whitest states in the country. The very rural nature of the state has not attracted a lot of diverse newcomers in the past. From 2000-2011, however, the there was a 19.6% increase of foreign-born residents, and a huge part of that influx was into the Lewiston/Auburn area. As of last year there had been over 7,500 immigrants to Lewiston since 2001, a large portion of them from Somalia.

In the 1990s Somalia was thrown into a civil war and many Somali people fled to the US. A few refugees that were trying to settle in Portland found much more affordable housing in Lewiston which was going through a tough economic time . There had been major cutbacks and closures in the different mills and businesses in the town and the population was decreasing leading up to this. As refuges settled there, they shared the opportunity in Lewiston with friends and family creating a sort of ripple affect in the town. It even reinvigorated the economy as the new residents began opening businesses in the previously vacant stores.

When the first wave of immigrants came in there was a lot of fear and confusion throughout the other residents. Rumors were spreading about the newcomers receiving an unfair proportion of the government aid to be had. The man who was Mayor in 2002 wrote an open letter to the Somali community that said he believed that it would be best if they discouraged even more family members and friends from settling in Lewiston because after taking in all the initial immigrants the city was basically overworked. There were two responses to this letter. The first was a white-supremacy group tried to plan a rally, and had about 300 attendees. The second response was more than 4,000 people strong; it was a rally led by Many and One. The refugees and Lewiston citizens alike came together to show that they did support the Somalis’ right to be there too.

Another moving story to come out of this is that of the Lewiston High School soccer team. The soccer coach Mike McGraw decided to use the change and uncertainty as a way to improve the soccer team at his school. He brought the team together and in 2012 and 2013 they made it to the regional title game, they won it in 2014, and in 2015 and 2017 the team won the Class A state championship. Represented on that winning team was players from six different countries. The way the coach and players overcame their differences and ran after a goal really made the town proud and brought it together more than it had been in the past. Some local filmmakers even begun the process of creating a documentary, called One Team, about the 2015 season and the unity and camaraderie that came out of it.

As I learn more about this community and the different struggles and successes, I cannot wait to add the stories of individuals to what is already out there. To hear what a person went through in the midst of all of this is entirely fascinating to me and I am looking forward to my interviews even more now.

Jalali, Reza. “400 Years of New Mainers”. Maine Memory Network.  www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/2623/page/4227/display?use_mmn=1

Kastanis, Angeliki. “Maine Community Has Refugees and Resentment.” U.S. News & World Report, 19 Apr. 2017, www.usnews.com/news/us/articles/2017-04-19/how-a-maine-community-changed-by-refugees-came-to-embrace-donald-trump.

Raymond, Laurier. “A Letter to the Somali Community.” 1 Oct. 2002, www.martavmartinez.com/resources/A-Letter-to-the-Somali-Community.pdf

Stump, Scott, and Josh Weiner. “How This High School Soccer Coach Brought a Divided Town Together.” TODAY.com, 27 Feb. 2018, www.today.com/news/how-high-school-soccer-coach-brought-immigrant-town-maine-town-t123948.

The other week at my university there was a very timely event. As I was getting ready to contact organizations that work with immigrants in Maine, I got an email about a panel that UMF’s International and Global Studies Program was hosting. There was four women that came to talk about immigration in Maine in the context of current political changes. Each of the women work with immigrants in different capacities. Unfortunately, I was late due to a class and did not hear everything they said when introducing themselves, but I was able to gather some of the information.

The first woman, Julia, works with the Immigrant Legal Advocacy Project. They are a  group in Maine that work to provide free or low-cost immigration information and legal assistance to low-income Maine residents.

Next was Mufalo, who is the executive director of Maine Immigrant’s Rights Coalition. This group is a collection of leaders that work to enhance the lives of immigrants and in the same stroke Maine communities. They do that through advocacy and direct service programs across the state.

Fowsia works with Maine Community Integration, which is a non-profit organization that strives to increase the opportunities for integration and collaboration for immigrants in Maine. They do that through education and advocacy as well as creating meaningful cultural celebrations for the new Mainers.

Lastly, Fatuma of the Immigrant Resource Center of Maine spoke. This is a group that started to help immigrant women and children in cases of domestic violence, but has expanded to provide more holistic help to women and children.

I heard the most from Fatuma and she was a very lively and captivating speaker. She spoke about the trainings that her group does to educate police officers and other state workers who work with or around immigrants. She truly wanted them to be more educated and to come away with a deeper understanding of how they can more effectively reach immigrant communities in a positive way. I can tell from the stories she told, Fatuma does not let people continue walking around with their false assumptions about the people she works with. I was even able to introduce myself after the discussion ended. Like I said the timing was perfect because she was a person I had been intending to contact to help us with this project. I believe she will be a very useful contact to have and interesting person to know.

Cali and I have written out (with the information we have so far) our project contract and the other documents we need to start our project. Below is the document: