INTEGRATION

Portland delegation reaches out to refugees

By Noah Bruce

In an effort to reach out to Portland’s refugee communities, Representative Michael Quint (D-Portland), along with other Portland legislators, has created a series of forums where non-English speakers can meet with community leaders.

“The Portland delegation wanted to get through to people in Portland,” says Quint. “We wanted to build relationships and be proactive, and not have [meetings] centered around conflict resulting from lack of communication.”

The first forum, held for native French speakers, was held November 1 in the Portland Public Library’s Rines Auditorium. In attendance were Quint, Superintendent of Schools Mary Jo O’Connor, Portland’s multi-cultural coordinator Grace Venezuela, ex-state rep and likely state senate candidate Michael Brennan, and Catholic Charities of Maine Program Director for Refugee and Immigration Services Matthew Ward.

Unfortunately, the number of city leaders dwarfed the three French-speaking refugees present, one of whom, N’kul Kanakan, was acting as the interpreter for the forum. Kanakan is originally from Congo, but spent much of his life in Burundi. The two other refugees, Constance and his son Michael, were also from Congo.

The primary issue discussed was the difficulty highly educated refugees face in finding jobs similar to those they enjoyed in their home countries. Constance, who holds a university degree in chemistry from a school in the Congo, first found a job in Maine manufacturing electric blankets. Today, he works at the post office. Kanakan, who presently works for Key Bank, talked about the trouble he had trying to become certified as a French teacher in Maine, a position for which he is obviously qualified.

Another issue Kanakan talked about is the negative interactions some refugees have had with Portland Police. “Many people that come here are afraid of the police,” he said. “Where they come from, the police have not been working for the people. They work for the government to arrest people.”

To respond to the situation, Kanakan said the police need better education on this common refugee mindset, yet he has found Portland Police Chief Micheal Chitwood unresponsive. “When we meet with Chief Chitwood, he will never say his officers are wrong. We are losing faith in him . . . It must be difficult for him to say ‘I have a bad guy in my department,’ but he can say it . . . Police are just like other people. We need a more honest dialogue with the police chief. You should let him know we are not happy with how we are being treated.”

On a more positive note, Michael spoke highly of his experience in Maine. “I don’t know if it is just in Portland,” he said, “but people are nice. They come up and talk to you. That’s maybe why I learned English so fast.”

Michael did have a gripe with the lack of exposure to non-American cultures afforded by his education in Maine. “I’ve taken history in the eighth, and ninth, and tenth grades and they haven’t told us anything about other countries. Nothing about Europe, Africa, or Asia. One kid said to me, ‘Burundi, what is that, in Europe?’ ”

Ward from Christian Services said that even our elected leaders don’t know the locations of many foreign nations. “They don’t know where the Congo is, or where Sudan, the largest country in Africa is, or even where Egypt is.”

Superintendent O’Connor, in a surprising condemnation of both elected officials and the education system, added “They couldn’t find Michigan.”

In an interview with the Phoenix, Ward explained how the forums could benefit refugees. “It makes them feel empowered. It teaches them how our system works. It motivates them to take the citizenship exam. Does it end up benefiting refugees? We’d like to think so but, Mike [Quint] is just starting this . . . The question is: Will refugees attend? Most refugees work at least one or two jobs.”

Future forums will include other Portland representatives and will seek to work with native speakers of Spanish, Khmer, American Sign Language, Arabic, Somali, Serbo-Croatian, Russian, and Vietnamese.