Thread: The Buffalo News is finally realizing there are a lot of Refugees in Buffalo

Pretty good article... features an interview with my interpreter (Law Eh Soe) and the slideshow has several pictures of my refugee class.

http://www.buffalonews.com/home/story/744722.html

Burmese refugees find home in Buffalo
Oppressed at home, refugees chase the American dream on city’s West Side
By Gene Warner
NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: July 26, 2009, 10:44 AM / 2 comments
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Law Eh Soe was one of only two photojournalists to chronicle the monks’ pro-democracy uprising two years ago in his native Burma.

He fled after government soldiers shot and killed a Japanese journalist.

Smiler Greely, another Burma native, spent 23 years in a refugee camp, a virtual city of 40,000 people crammed into a few square kilometers, living in bamboo houses with thatched roofs and no electricity.

He fled to give his three kids an education –and a country they could call home.

Myo Thant, a pro-democracy youth leader in Burma, spent 17 months under house arrest as a key aide to Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient.

He fled because he wouldn’t compromise his beliefs and knew he’d spend much of his life under house arrest, in prison –or worse.

All three refugees –bright, educated men forced from their homeland –now live on Buffalo’s West Side.

And they’re not alone. Buffalo is home to approximately 2,000 Burmese refugees – approaching 1 percent of the city’s population.

The figure is climbing quickly, and Buffalo has become the unofficial state capital for resettling refugees from Burma and elsewhere. This year, more than 30 percent of the refugees coming to New York State have settled in Western New York.

“If it weren’t for refugees, Buffalo would be shrinking even faster,” said Molly Short, executive director of Journey’s End Refugee Services. “This is the incoming population.”

The Burmese make up more than half the roughly 1,000 refugees who resettle in the Buffalo area each year.

Most of the Burmese have fled from refugee camps along the Thailand-Burma border, where some lived for years in primitive conditions, after 3,000 of their villages were destroyed.

They’ve settled mostly on the West Side, west of Richmond Avenue and south of Lafayette Avenue. Many spend their time in all-day English classes, fishing along the Niagara River and walking through their neighborhoods.

Many passers-by think they’re either Chinese or Vietnamese. And they’re adamant that their native land is Burma, not Myanmar, the recent name favored by the military government.

They’re new Buffalonians, chasing their own version of the American dream. But not just for themselves.

“This is only the first generation,” Law said, gesturing toward an English class of Burmese adults. “The second generation will be different. They will speak fluent English and be more educated.”

But Law sounded a warning for that younger generation:

“They shouldn’t forget their roots, and why we had to come to America. Thousands of our people stayed in Burma and suffered, and they shouldn’t forget that.”


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