After Taking In Refugees for Years, a New Hampshire City Asks for a Pause
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MANCHESTER, N.H. -- This city has long been a resettlement site for refugees, sent here by the State Department for a chance at a better life. More than 60 languages are spoken in the school system, with Somalis, Sudanese, Iraqis and other recent arrivals mixing with children whose ancestors came from Quebec to work in the mighty textile mills along the Merrimack River.
But this year, after decades of taking in refugees, Manchester said, "Enough."
In a highly unusual move, Mayor Ted Gatsas and the city's Board of Aldermen asked the State Department in July to halt resettlements here for now. A tide of more than 2,100 refugees over the last decade -- most recently, Bhutanese families coming from camps in Nepal -- has been more than the city of 109,500 can assure jobs and decent housing for, Mr. Gatsas said.
"We're just saying, 'Let us catch our breath,'Â " he said last week in an interview at City Hall. "This is about giving people the opportunity for a better life, and until I can get that person working and gainfully employed and getting to learn the language, I can't do that."
The mayor, a Republican who just won a second term, says he has nothing against refugees. His problem is with the International Institute of New England, a nonprofit agency based in Boston that brings them to Manchester and helps them adjust for several months, providing cash and other assistance.
Mr. Gatsas, a former businessman whose grandfather immigrated here from Greece a century ago, said the institute had consistently refused to seek the city's advice, most recently on its plan to bring 300 more refugees to Manchester in the current fiscal year.
His effort to stanch the flow of newcomers from other countries is different, of course, from the battles raging against illegal immigration in other corners of the nation. Refugees come here legally, through a carefully planned process that brings them from hard-luck camps in some of the world's most troubled regions to some 200 cities and towns where local nonprofit groups help them settle in.
Two other cities have restrictions in place, according to the State Department: Detroit, where refugees can be resettled only if they have friends or family there already, and Fort Wayne, Ind., where only refugees with close relatives there can go. But while others have raised concerns about resettlement during the economic downturn, none have asked to stop it altogether, said Larry Bartlett, director of the State Department's Office of Refugee Admissions.
First Published November 26, 2011 12:00 am
