Bhutanese refugees Narad Adhikari and Suraj Budathoki stand outside of Budathoki's apartment in Manchester. (G …
MANCHESTER, N.H.--With Mitt Romney's strength in the polls in New Hampshire, the mayor of the state's biggest city hopes that a resolution to what he calls "the refugee resettlement question" will soon be at hand. While the Republican presidential candidates have been slugging it out in televised debates over issues like taxes and wars, one of the biggest local battles on the ground in New Hampshire has been over the place of 1,800 refugees from the tiny country of Bhutan. The debate is a parochial manifestation of what's sure to be a divisive issue in the 2012 presidential campaign: How will America treat its immigrants during a weak economic recovery?
"I can tell you if he is elected it will be high on his radar screen," Ted Gatsas, the mayor of Manchester, told Yahoo News in an interview in his window-lined office last week. Gatsas endorsed Romney in December. (He says he received no promises from Romney and that he plans to constantly lobby him about the issue.) Romney's campaign didn't respond to a request for comment.
Hundreds of Bhutanese refugees began arriving in Manchester, long a gateway city for immigrants and refugees, in 2008, when the Bush administration agreed to gradually take in 60,000 Bhutanese people who had been languishing for 20 years in refugee camps just over the border in Nepal. Bhutan expelled its ethnically Nepalese population in the 1990s, leaving tens of thousands of people stateless.
Officials with the International Institute of New England, a non-profit government subcontractor that resettles refugees, say that Manchester is a great place for refugees because of its public transportation system and low unemployment rate. Most of the refugees are employed in Manchester and their participation in welfare is lower than that of local low-income people who are not refugees, according to the agency. From 2007 to 2010, the children of refugees had a 90 percent high school graduation rate, which is higher than the local population's.
Gatsas says he doesn't believe those employment numbers, and he says he can see from his office window and from what his constituents tell him that refuges are suffering and living in poor housing. In 2009, one building where refugees lived was infested with bedbugs. He says at one local high school, 80 languages are spoken, which has contributed to the school district's low standardized test scores. He says local leaders should be able to decide whether their cities can absorb new refugees or not.
"There's no question that this country is better than where they are [from]," Gatsas told Yahoo News. "But if we don't give the people that are here the opportunity to catch up, I don't know how we accept other ones."
Gatsas, who is the grandson of immigrants from Greece and Lebanon, added, "I'm not saying forever. Give us one year or two years so we can at least get these people into the system."
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