Newly arrived refugees and immigrants face hardship, same as Americans

Nov 3, 2007
By Merry Mackinnon
The Gresham Outlook (Gresham, Oregon, USA)

When Sokpak Bhell first arrived in the United States from Cambodia in the early ’80s, like many refugees she was relieved to be in this country, but adjusting wasn’t as easy as she expected.

In Cambodia, where she moved from one refugee camp to another, older people who had visited the United States told her that it was a clean, peaceful place.

“They said, ‘You can’t even spit on the sidewalk there,’ ” Bhell said. “They tell you, ‘It’s the land of opportunity.’ And it is, in a way. But you have to work for it, and it takes a long time.”

After hard work, Bhell now is established, with a home in Gresham and a career as an anti-poverty coordinator for Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), where she has been employed for five years. Located at 10301 N.E. Glisan St., the organization’s main office provides employment, job training, interpretation, senior, family and domestic violence services, not only to the multi-cultural immigrant and refugee community, but as of last summer, to mainstream Multnomah County residents, as well.

Bhell’s work includes helping other refugees get settled, many of whom are shocked, as Bhell was, by the disconnect between their expectations of life in this country, and the reality they face.

“When they come here, it’s the opposite of what they think,” Bhell said.

Refugees coming to Portland largely from countries in Africa and from the Union of Myanmar (Burma), places where there is political turmoil, sometimes have problems getting established.

“A lot of the community currently coming from Somalia, for example, is having trouble adjusting,” Bhell said.

She said that unlike some groups, African immigrants don’t always have a tight-knit community in place where they can buy food and find others who may speak their language and practice similar customs.

However, Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization’s recently opened Africa House should alleviate some of that isolation, Bhell said.

A number of refugees arriving here find that they left behind very good careers, Bhell said. They were doctors and engineers or worked as skilled crafts people.

“But when they come here, they can’t use their skills,” Bhell said.

For one, language barriers can be daunting, especially when the skill is technical, as in medicine or engineering, and new education and certification may be required in order to practice their profession.

Like Bhell, Sokhom Tauch, the organization’s executive director, was a Cambodian refugee when he arrived here in 1975. One of the first Cambodians in Portland, Tauch, who had been in the Cambodian navy, said his initial employment in Portland consisted of low-wage service jobs.

“I did all kinds of jobs: dishwasher, janitor, busboy. When Oregon Employment Services sent me to a busboy job, I misunderstood what it meant. I thought it was about working in a bus and collecting people’s fare,” wrote Tauch in a short memoir posted on the organization’s Web site at www.irco.org.

In general, those who come to this country without any skills are the ones who face the most barriers to becoming self sufficient, Bhell said. It used to be that when immigrants or refugees settled here, many would find employment at the nearest factory. But now, according to Bhell, the economics have changed and manufacturing jobs have disappeared.

“A lot of people who face poverty, they don’t have a lot of skills,” Bhell said. “Manufacturing jobs and physical labor are the only things they can do.”

Bhell refers not only to the economic struggle of refugee clients she helps with rent and utility assistance and other services, but also to Outer East residents who may have been born here. A no-wrong-door policy assures that not just refugees and immigrants, but Multnomah County residents are eligible for the organization’s services.

“A lot of my clients were born and raised here,” Bhell said. “It’s first come, first served. We don’t discriminate.”