Utah study calls aid for refugees inadequate

Every year hundreds of new refugees land at the Salt Lake airport, bleary-eyed and bewildered but hopeful. Before long, though, things often begin to sour, according to a new study.

The study, based on interviews with 50 refugee families in the Salt Lake Valley, found that they often can't afford rent or diapers, are stuck in minimum-wage jobs, often have to choose between working and attending English classes, sometimes don't know where to get health care, and can't afford to pay back the fare for the airplanes that brought them here.

"There is no reason that recent refugees should not be expected to bear their share of the load," the study concludes, "but only their share."

The authors of the study, a Brigham Young University professor and a professor emeritus from the University of Utah, are both diplomatic men, so they are quick to point out that life in Utah is still usually better than in the dangerous countries and subsequent refugee camps left behind. Still, say Macleans Geo-JaJa and Garth Mangum, Utah could be doing a better job of integrating refugees and helping them become self-sustaining.

Current efforts are often disjointed, the professors say, so Utah needs a new state agency to oversee all refugee issues. At the same time, individual Utahns also need to do more as volunteers and mentors.

"In Utah — as individuals and organizations — we have not stepped up to do what we do best," says Geo-JaJa. "We're supposed to be loving, caring and accepting."

Geo-JaJa, born in Nigeria and a refugee himself as a child in 1970, is now a professor in the David O. McKay School of Education at BYU. Mangum is professor emeritus of economics and management at the U. and co-director of the Storehouse of Specialists in the Inner City Project of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Geo-JaJa studied under Mangum at the U.

Their study, "Struggling at the Golden Door: International Refugees in Utah," was published by the U.'s Center for Public Policy and Administration. The "golden door" in the title is a reference to the famous Emma Lazarus poem inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.

More than 16,000 refugees — from Southeast Asia, Bosnia, the Middle East and Africa — have been resettled in Utah (nearly all in Salt Lake County) since 1983. Two resettlement agencies, Catholic Community Services and the International Rescue Committee, help relocate refugees when they first arrive, but their case managers are overloaded, Mangum says.

Norman Nakamura, state coordinator for Refugee Resettlement for the Utah Department of Workforce Services, "is doing a good job, but he doesn't represent the health department, the school districts and so on. Nobody has overall oversight," Mangum adds.