Thread: NH: Immigrant population on the rise in the state

Sunday, September 2, 2007
Immigrant population on the rise in the state (NH)

By VICTORIA GUAY
Staff Writer
vguay@citizen.com
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... -1/CITIZEN

Facts:
The following are population estimates for minorities in select counties:

Belknap

Black: 55 in 1980; 368 in 2005

Asian: 125 in 1980; 615 in 2005

Hispanic: 189 in 1980; 528 in 2005

Carroll

Black: 11 in 1980; 204 in 2005

Asian: 22 in 1980; 279 in 2005

Hispanic: 107 in 1980; 394 in 2005

Grafton

Black: 412 in 1980; 788 in 2005

Asian: 279 in 1980; 2,008 in 2005

Hispanic: 364 in 1980; 1,154 in 2005

Merrimack

Black: 214 in 1980; 1,389 in 2005

Asian: 205 in 1980; 2,191 in 2005

Hispanic: 459 in 1980; 1,940 in 2005

Rockingham

Black: 1,469 in 1980; 3,038 in 2005

Asian: 772 in 1980; 5,168 in 2005

Hispanic: 1,226 in 1980; 5,377 in 2005

Strafford

Black: 241 in 1980; 1,494 in 2005

Asian: 320 in 1980; 2,540 in 2005

Hispanic: 530 in 1980; 1,630 in 2005

Source: U.S. Census Bureau.


LACONIA — When Chubchek Muradova learned the police would be stopping by for a visit, she worried. Where she and her family come from, she said, police regularly harass and threaten citizens.

Muradova and her husband, Server Muradov — the 'a' on the end of the last name indicates the feminine gender — along with their three children, Gulzhan, 17, Ruslan 13, and Emil, 5, came to United States in 2005, having been part of an ethnic group that was discriminated against in the Krasnador region of Russia. The family, which now calls Laconia home, is part of an ethnic group known as Meskhetian Turks, a predominantly Muslim group of people from Turkey that settled in centuries ago in Meskhetia, a part of Eastern Europe.

The Muradova family's story is one that is being repeated in greater numbers in New Hampshire, which is seeing new waves of refugees from many countries and secondary migration from other parts of the U.S.

U.S. Census statistics show New Hampshire's Asian population swelled by 2005 to more than 27,000, up from 1980 numbers of about 3,000.

Hispanics also have moved to the state in greater numbers, according to the Census Bureau. There were 30,000 Hispanics living in New Hampshire in 2005, compared to about 5,000 in 1980.

Immigration and planning officials say the trend has been fueled by a wave of secondary migration — immigrant families moving to New Hampshire from other states. There also has been an increase in the number of children born to immigrant families.

The number of children born in America to New Hampshire's Asian immigrants grew by about 30 percent from 2000 to 2005, or from 4,192 to 5,437, according to the 2007 Kids Count Data Book, compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The children born to New Hampshire's Hispanic immigrants grew by about 26 percent over the same period, from 7,834 in 2000 to 9,908 in 2005.

Thomas Duffy, a senior planner at the New Hampshire Office of Energy and Planning, which tracks the size of the state's immigrant population, said he believes immigrants want to raise their families locally because of New Hampshire's quality of life.

The state has seen immigrant families from a wide range of countries, he said, including Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand, as well as Hispanics from several countries who moved to the Manchester-Nashua area.

The Lakes Region also has seen immigrants from those countries and Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Kosovo. Those families have settled in communities like Franklin and Laconia within the last 10 years.

Arnie Alpert, a spokesman with the New Hampshire Immigration Rights Task Force in Concord, said immigrant families struggle with finding affordable housing and jobs that pay a living wage.

Alpert has encountered many immigrants who are highly educated and were trained as nurses, teachers and other professionals. But because they weren't licensed or certified in the U.S., Alpert said, they can't do those jobs until they get new training and education.

Alpert said the increases in Asian and Hispanic immigrants coming to New Hampshire may be just the beginning of even bigger immigrant waves. Millions of people from nations such as Mexico, Congo and Colombia also have been displaced by economic or political upheaval, and some likely will come to the U.S., Alpert said.

The Muradova family has also had to overcome its share of obstacles on the way to a better life in America. The family, which had always lived Krasnador, was only allowed to work in the fields as agricultural laborers. They made a living by selling produce and flower in open air markets, like many other Meskhetians.

"It was hard to live there," Gulzhan Muradova said.

Gulzhan was translating for her parents. As is common in many immigrant and refugee families, it is often the children who learn English more quickly because of their school teachings. While Chubchek Muradova and Server Muradov both speak a little English and take classes when their work schedules allow, it has taken them longer.

Server Muradova works as a machine operator for Freudenberg in Laconia and Chubchek works two jobs — as a waitress at the Soda Shoppe and in the deli of Vista Foods, a restaurant and grocery store both located in Laconia.

In her former home country, Gulzhan said police would commonly ask for bribes. The police, knowing the Meskhetians did not have citizen documentation, would stop them and tell them they either needed documentation to be allowed to continue or they had to pay a bribe. Gulzhan, translating for Server, said the amount of the bribes would vary from between 50 to 100 Rubles.

Chubchek, through her daughter, said she was scared about her first encounter with American police, but was soon put at ease.

"I was all my life scared of police," Chubchek. "But now, no more."

The Muradovs said while many things are different in the U.S., the family has found it easy to keep their cultural traditions alive, including being gracious to visitors and offering up their best homemade dishes along with conversation and tea.

The children have embraced American traditions such as the Internet and video games, and Emil, the youngest at age 5, speaks with the most Americanized accent of them all, and talks enthusiastically of his new bicycle, going swimming, and Spiderman.

Gulzhan showed a website she created that includes many photos of herself and some of her favorite things, such as tigers.

They are coming in daily across the border or by visas. They are also leaving states that are cracking down on illegal immigrants. As more states crack down you will see them leaving and going into other states that do not have the crack down. Soon they will have no place to run but home because state after state are cracking down. When they flood those state and bankrupt them, state afficials will take action.