It's not unusual around Utica to see tables full of Bosnians sipping strong coffee in cafes, Muslim women in hijabs shopping at grocery stores and Somalis raised in equatorial heat heading to work in the blowing snow.Hijabs.............
An influx of thousands of refugees from around the world over the past few decades is credited with injecting new energy and optimism into this faded post-industrial city of 62,000. But now, Utica is beset with new anxiety in the age of Trump.
The president's order restricting refugees and travel from certain Muslim countries has immigrants in Utica feeling uncertain about their place here. Some also worry they will not be able to bring over family members fleeing war zones and refugee camps.
"There's one saying my mom used to tell me in camp in Iraq: A refugee will always be a refugee," said 18-year-old Manal Alawsaj, a Palestinian who just became a citizen. "It makes me terrified. I ran out of Iraq because of this. And now I'm here, and yet I'm feeling the same way. ... Maybe this is not home, maybe I should move, or this is not my country."
Thousands have settled in Utica, about 170 miles north of New York City, through the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees, which grew out of efforts to bring over Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s. It has since shepherded in 16,000 people from around the world, about 400 refugees a year, including Somalis, Bosnians, Syrians, Sudanese and people from Myanmar.
Saturday, February 04, 2017
In a haven for refugees, new anxiety in the age of Trump
The AP reports:
