yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

Refugees Welcomed in New York | Explorer


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[music playing]

HOST: Of approximately 61,000 residents in Utica, New York, nearly 11,000 are immigrants and refugees. And 450 or more arrive here each year. Utica was a manufacturing town in the 1970s and 1980s. Some of our factories began to leave, and our population began to decline. But then later in the 1980s, in came the refugees. They began to buy houses. You drive around East Utica, you'll see many businesses are run by some of the refugees from other countries. And would you say that they have revived the economy? I think it's been a godsend.

[music playing]

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Hi, how are you?

HOST: What's your name?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Chris.

HOST: Do you run this place?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Yeah, collectively.

HOST: Chris Sunderlin helps to run the Midtown Utica Community Center. And this place is a bit of a hangout. It just seems like a bag of fun. It is also a place for anyone to come and dance, and play, and learn. They provide food assistance programs and more.

HOST: Where are you from?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Kenya. We're Somali Bantu, but we left Somalia due to war.

HOST: That must have been a very hard decision for them, when they left Kenya to come to America.

WOMAN: Did what was-- what she thought was right for her and her family.

HOST: Yeah. With the afternoon vibe of this place in full swing, Chris and I took a moment to chat. Are there people in Utica who are uncomfortable with the levels of refugees that come here?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Yes, the wonderful older woman who owned the house, she asked me one day why there were so many Asians moving onto the street. I said, I don't know, but they're cleaning up the block.

HOST: And is that true?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Oh, yeah, absolutely. If I took-- I should have taken pictures six years ago.

HOST: And this street has quite a high concentration of refugees, right?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Yes, and it's all come full circle. There's a health clinic there. There's three different grocery stores.

HOST: So this area is getting better?

CHRIS SUNDERLIN: Yeah.

[music playing]

There's a lot more that the United States and the rest of the international community can do to more effectively address the global refugee crisis. We have to protect the rights of refugees to flee their country. And when they get to a neighboring country, refugees need to be able to access education. And they need to be able to work. If they can't do those things, they're not going to be able to stay there. They're not going to be able to support their families. They're going to be a constant risk of being returned back to face danger and harm. Most of us come from immigrant families. My grandmother and grandfather came from Italy in the 1890s. They were welcomed here. Who am I not to welcome refugees here?

More Articles

View All
The Seven Years' War part 1
When we’re talking about major wars in colonial North America, we tend to think about the American Revolution, not its earlier iteration, the Seven Years War. I think that’s a shame because the Seven Years War was incredibly influential, not only on the A…
Things You Think You Want (But You Don’t)
A clear financial point gives you the desire to put in the work. The problem is many of you think you want something, but you actually don’t really care about it that much. They are just words. Here are 15 things you think you want but you actually don’t…
2011 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting (Full Version)
Good morning. I’m Warren. He’s Shirley. I can see he can hear; that’s why we work together. We have trouble remembering each other’s names from time to time. We’re going to—uh—I’m going to introduce the directors. We’re going to give you some information…
Heritage | Vocabulary | Khan Academy
It’s time to explore our roots, wordsmiths, our backgrounds, where we came from, because the word I’m bringing you in this video is “heritage.” Mind you, we’re always exploring our roots when it comes to vocabulary, huh? All right, “heritage” is a noun. …
Chamath Palihapitiya: The #1 Secret to Becoming Rich
Slow and steady against hard problems. Start by turning off your social apps and giving your brain a break because then you will at least be a little bit more motivated to not be motivated by what everybody else [__] thinks about you. I saw some of the v…
i HATCHED The 1st Titanic Autumn Teddy Bear In the WORLD! (Pet Sim 99 Anniversary Update)
This is the story of how I got the very first Titanic Autumn teddy bear in the entire world. Oh my God, it’s growing! I can’t believe it! I actually did it! Oh my God, but what if I told you I wasn’t stopping there? You see, this video, we set out to not …