The fruits of success: Many refugees reap rewards of work ethic

Sixth in a six-part series

» Photo galleries: Refugees reborn

California wasn't the place for Osman Ahmed.

Eighteen months after fleeing Somalia via Kenya without his wife, he was looking for another place to pursue a career and some day start a family. He bought a one-way airline ticket to Salt Lake City where he had a friend. He arrived at noon on Sunday, May 14, 1995 — he remembers all the significant dates in his life — with $300 in his pocket.

"Where are the people of this city?" he recalled, asking his friend as they drove to a mostly empty Sizzler on 400 South for lunch.

"It was like dead at noontime," Ahmed said, wryly making his way to the denouement.

"I was hoping a dead city."

Though never described as lively, Salt Lake City isn't exactly dead, as 2002 Olympic revelers would attest. But it would be a lot deader without the subtle influences of a growing refugee population.

"To me, they fill a void that exists in our community," said John Andersen, principal at Horizonte Instruction and Training Center, where many refugees study English.

He likes to refer to them as "new Americans."

Utah has a reputation for being a welcoming, family-friendly final stop for the unjustly scattered people of the world, those chased from their homelands because of politics, religion or ethnicity. It is a place where refugees can succeed.

People like Ahmed and his wife, Mariam Addo, add meaningful strands to the embroidery of life in Salt Lake Valley.