Awhile back I got an email from one of my readers who asked if I would write about the Somali Refugees of Lewiston Maine. In the late nineties the Somalis came to our state in search of services. Before that most of them had been relegated to Big cities such as New York and Boston. A larger concentration lived in Atlanta. They were unhappy with raising their families in neighborhoods with high crime rates and where hip hop culture turned other African Americans to immorality.
In Somali culture, they would send scouts to find fertile land to raise cattle and sheep. Instead in the US, the scouts went searching for small safe cities where they could raise their families in peace. That and with the help of the Internet, the Somalis chose the city of Lewiston Maine. Lewiston, though a former mill town attracted the Somalis with its many myriad of social programs and with its small safe community attracted the Somalis. Word reached as far as Kenya about Lewiston's good schools, cheap housing, its programs, its low crime and thousands of them immigrated.
At first the Somalis were welcomed into the community. The addition of them made The town almost similar to Lagos, Nairobi or Mecca. But problems began to unfold. Lewiston's social network was unable to handle the massive influx of refugees. The people began to complain that they would take away jobs and housing. Many people complained of being evicted from public housing to make way for the refugees. Also it had a negative impact on taxes. Maine is one of the most tax burdened states in the nation, just behind New York and New Jersey. Lewiston soon had one of the highest property taxes in the state. Many residents including the mayor began to protest and urged the Somalis to move on. Of course leftist moonbats in Maine also protested citing that those who opposed them were all racists. To make matters worse, Matt Hale's World Church of the creator, which had chapters in Presque Isle and Portland came to roost along with members of the Aryan Nations which had it's eastern headquarters in Hampton Beach New Hampshire, causing concerned citizens to shy away. The September 11th attacks also didn't help. Since most were Muslim, suspicion grew on the community and in 2006 a frozen pigs head was thrown into their mosque.
One thing that didn't come true, the Somalis did not take any jobs away. Because of Maine's socialist economy, there were not enough and almost all of them had no education whatsoever. Nearly all of them were unemployed. Most of them receive money from the federal and state government anyway. With this the Somalis with the help of other social workers encouraged and aided them to move to other communities in Maine as well as New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Several refugees moved to Portland Maine which had a small Arab Islamic community there. Others went to Portsmouth, Manchester, Boston and Salem. In 2006 it was reported that more than half the Somalis were still unemployed. Complements of Governor Chrome dome and Maine's socialist government.
Crime has also not been a problem either, unlike Most Muslim Brothers, the Somalis take to heart Mohammed's warnings about how thieves, murderers, adulterers and rapists would burn in the fires of Allah. Very few Somalis have been involved in crime in Lewiston.
Today the Somalis have still struggled to assimilate into their new homes and become productive members of their communities. The fact that Maine has the 3rd worst economy in the nation and is the second poorest state in the country does not help matters either. If Somalis were encouraged to do more to learn basic skills, and move to communities out west where jobs were plentiful there could be hope for them. Local non profit and Christian missions are also helpful for the Somalis as well and have done a better job than government programs.
Topic: Somalis in Lewiston Maine (Read 4389 times)