Burmese refugees build community in Fort Wayne

Listen to the personal histories of refugees and asylum seekers from Burma who have settled in Fort Wayne, and you will hear a litany of travails unimaginable to most Americans: Teenagers thrown in jail for expressing admiration for democratic principles; ethnic and religious minorities whose hometowns were obliterated by their own country’s army; adults who have spent most of their lives in refugee camps and, as a result, retain few first-hand memories of their native land or culture.

Among them is Ven Kuthala, who arrived in the United States in 2002 on a religious visa and later attained asylum status. He now serves as senior monk at the Burmese Buddhist Temple on Tillman Road in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

As a college student in Burma’s main city of Yangon, Ven Kuthala was arrested in 1988 for participating in demonstrations aimed at transforming the country’s brutal dictatorship into a democracy. While an estimated 3,000 activists were gunned down in the streets by the army, Ven Kuthala described himself as “very lucky” to serve only 18 days in jail. Upon his release he rejoined the protests, but with the government crackdown intensifying, he was soon forced to flee to neighboring Thailand, where he became a Buddhist monk.

“I was not a legal migrant in Thailand, so I had to move from temple to temple every three or four months,” he said. “I didn’t want to spend my life like that, so I got a religious visa to settle in the United States and later applied for asylum.”

Ven Kuthala became a resident at the Burmese Buddhist Temple, taking over leadership in 2005 after the previous senior monk moved to California. In addition to his religious duties, much of his time is now dedicated to helping refugees from Burma adjust to life in Fort Wayne.

“Most refugees are displaced persons,” he said. “From 1988, the military junta launched military offensives along the border. Some villages completely disappeared, and the people moved into refugee camps in Thailand. Some lived in the camps for 10, 15, 20 years.”

He said that once refugees arrive in the United States, their main challenge is overcoming the language barrier. But they also need to find jobs quickly and deal with other aspects of daily life that most Americans take for granted. 

“I help people with everything they need: applying for social security cards, doing their taxes,” Ven Kuthala said. “Other things are social: family matters, enrolling kids in school. They need advice. Some people tell me about phone calls requesting money or saying they are from the IRS. I explain that these are called scammers.” 

Many refugees who live in Fort Wayne – from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the former Soviet Union – arrive under a resettlement program run by the Catholic Charities Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, funded by federal grants under a cooperative agreement with the State Department.

According to Catholic Charities, about 200,000 Burmese refugees have resettled in the United States since 1990, with Fort Wayne hosting some 6,000 of those. While many early refugees fled political persecution, more recent arrivals have included Muslims and Christians escaping persecution in the Buddhist-majority Burma.

The program’s resettlement director, Nyein Chan, is himself a political refugee from Burma who was involved in the 1988 uprising against the military dictatorship. He arrived in the U.S. in 1994 and began working with Catholic Charities in 2000.

“The first barrier we experience is the language barrier,” he said. “Some people can pick up some level of English from the refugee camps, especially younger refugees. But some refugees are illiterate even in their own language, so it takes lots of time to learn.”

Nyein Chan said that the second biggest challenge is cultural integration, a process that also takes time and does not always proceed smoothly.

Last October, Fort Wayne City Councilmen Glynn Hines (6^th District) hosted a community forum on Burmese resettlement. Several people aired complaints at the meeting about the behavior of some of their Burmese neighbors, including cooking outside, littering, neglecting their lawns, and painting their houses “circus colors.”

“Some people see this behavior among refugees and think, ‘Oh, it’s Burmese culture,’” Nyein Chan said. “But the reality is that refugee camp culture is divorced from the Burmese culture. Even though they’re called Burmese refugees, they don’t even know what Burma looks like. We don’t experience orange houses in Burma, believe me. This is a culture where they grow up in very crowded refugee camps – 45,000 people in a very small space. Sometimes it takes time to let go of that lifestyle.”

In the face of these challenges, Catholic Charities does its best with 11 staff members to facilitate rapid integration, including arranging housing, helping with job placement, and offering an initial five-day cultural orientation program about the basics of life in the U.S., such as law enforcement and how devices like fire alarms and thermostats work. The program continues for 90 days, with a mid-term orientation within 45 days of their arrival.

“We ask how they feel after two months in the United States. They say they love very much living here, but refugees always compare it with how they recently lived,” Nyein Chan said. “One thing they’re not happy with is the food. Even if they get food from the Asian grocery store, they say it tastes different. And when people arrive in wintertime, the weather is very challenging. Other than that, they always say, ‘Thank you so much. We are very happy.’ After three months, they even look different: complexion glowing, they put on a little bit of weight.”

After orientation, Catholic Charities refers the new arrivals to its job development program, where they spend six weeks learning how to dress for an interview, the importance of eye contact, the American work ethic, and workplace behavior. Employment services are offered up to five years from their arrival date. The Fort Wayne program boasts a highly successful job placement rate, with more than 89 percent employed within four to six months of their arrival.   

Other services offered by Catholic Charities include medical transportation, language interpretation, and after-school programs for the children who need help with their homework.

The City of Fort Wayne also does its part to welcome refugees to the area. Palermo Galindo, the community liaison with the mayor’s office, works citywide to help immigrants understand processes like applying for building permits, starting businesses, or finding information about jobs. He also fosters good relationships with all immigrant communities.

“I always ask people who call with specific complaints [about immigrants], ‘Have you talked to your neighbor about what’s going on with the trash or with the lawn?’ And they say, ‘No, I haven’t,’” Mr. Galindo said. “I think that’s the first step. If they say, ‘I don’t know if they’ll understand’ – well, you’ve got to try it first. A very small percentage of people are maybe not following the rules or the city ordnance. Just like any group.”

He stressed that immigrant communities also play a key role in facilitating the acculturation process.

“We started good relationships with [immigrant communities]. Now a lot of people know me. That relationship has to continue to grow and provide opportunities to establish a dialogue within the community. I see that as a win-win for everyone,” he said. “If they become isolated as a community, there are so many things happening with the city that they might not know about, and that could affect them not growing with the same pace as the city.”

He added that from his own experience as an immigrant from Mexico, he has seen first-hand the benefits of living in a city that is open and welcoming to newcomers. “I do my very best to represent the city to the community, and pay that as a way to show how thankful I am that I have been provided with an opportunity,” he said.

Despite the challenges of language and acculturation, the dedication of people like Mr. Galindo, Nyein Chan, and Ven Kuthala has helped many refugees not only settle but also prosper in Fort Wayne.  

Javier Mondragon, pastor of Many Nations Church and head of the Bridge of Grace nonprofit organization, said he has had only good experiences working with the Burmese community, and has seen many success stories.

“I’ve seen Burmese families buying properties that were vacant or blighted in the community, and they fixed them. And so that’s good for the community,” he said, adding that while some grievances he has received about immigrants are related to city code enforcement, other complaints, like house color, are less consequential. “A color, being different, doesn’t mean that it’s bad. We try to tell them, ‘Have you talked to them?’ I think the first step is just going to them and talk as friends and neighbors.”

Ye Win Latt from the Burmese Muslim Education and Community Center said he has also seen increasing numbers of Burmese buying houses, which is “a positive contribution to the locals and the homeowners as well.”

“Most of the Burmese spend their time in refugee camps, and this is the first time they are living free and becoming homeowners. Of course that’s not an excuse to be not complying with all the codes and regulations in place, but at the same time we are part of the community, and if there is any issue, we like to be part of the solution too,” he said.

Nyein Chan said Catholic Charities and other organizations do as much as they can with limited resources, but successful integration into American society requires effort from everyone.   

“Sometimes you have a big heart for helping people, but without additional resources you can’t go very far,” he said. “When we’re talking about integration, it concerns people who live here and people who come in. If we are going to put aside the title of ‘refugee’ in an immigrant country like the United States, it concerns people who arrived a long time ago, those coming recently, and those who are still coming. We have to learn from each other.”