Boise State University ScholarWorks Faculty Authored Books 2017 Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees Todd Shallat (editor) Boise State University, [email protected] Kathleen Rubinow Hodges (editor) Idaho State Historial Society Errol D. Jones (editor) Boise State University, [email protected] Laura Winslow (editor) Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books Part of the Public History Commons, and the Urban Studies Commons Recommended Citation Shallat, Todd (editor); Rubinow Hodges, Kathleen (editor); Jones, Errol D. (editor); and Winslow, Laura (editor), "Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees" (2017). Faculty Authored Books. 481. http://scholarworks.boisestate.edu/fac_books/481 Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees is volume 8 of the Investigate Boise Community Research Series Half the World Half Brief synopsis goes here. Refugees Transform the City of Trees of City the Refugees Transform Half the World “Quote goes here.” – COREY COOK, DEAN, BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC SERVICE Refugees Transform the City of Trees Investigate Boise Community Research Series Half the World Refugees Transform the City of Trees INVESTIGATE BOISE COMMUNITY RESEARCH SERIES BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY VOL. 8 2017 The Investigate Boise Community Research Series publishes fact-based essays of popular scholarship concerning the problems and values that shape metropolitan growth. VOL. 1: Making Livable Places: Transportation, Preservation, and the Limits of Growth (2010) VOL. 2: Growing Closer: Density and Sprawl in the Boise Valley (2011) VOL. 3: Down and Out in Ada County: Coping with the Great Recession, 2008-2012 (2012) VOL. 4: Local, Simple, Fresh: Sustainable Food in the Boise Valley (2013) VOL. 5: Becoming Basque: Ethnic Heritage on Boise’s Grove Street (2014) VOL. 6: River by Design: Essays on the Boise River, 1915-2015 (2015) VOL. 7: The Other Idahoans: Forgotten Stories of the Boise Valley (2016) VOL. 8: Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees (2017) DAVID GROSS DAVID 2 3 The Investigate Boise Community Research Series publishes fact-based essays of popular scholarship concerning the problems and values that shape metropolitan growth. VOL. 1: Making Livable Places: Transportation, Preservation, and the Limits of Growth (2010) VOL. 2: Growing Closer: Density and Sprawl in the Boise Valley (2011) VOL. 3: Down and Out in Ada County: Coping with the Great Recession, 2008-2012 (2012) VOL. 4: Local, Simple, Fresh: Sustainable Food in the Boise Valley (2013) VOL. 5: Becoming Basque: Ethnic Heritage on Boise’s Grove Street (2014) VOL. 6: River by Design: Essays on the Boise River, 1915-2015 (2015) VOL. 7: The Other Idahoans: Forgotten Stories of the Boise Valley (2016) VOL. 8: Half the World: Refugees Transform the City of Trees (2017) DAVID GROSS DAVID 2 3 Todd Shallat, editor Kathleen Rubinow Hodges, associate editor Errol D. Jones, academic editor Laura Winslow, assistant editor Toni Rome, graphic designer BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY School of Public Service Boise ID 83725 [email protected] 180 N. 8th St., Boise ID 83702 (208) 376-4229 To order, contact Rediscovered Books at www.rdbooks.org. Displaced people from nearly half the world are rebuilding their lives in Boise, Idaho, “The City of Trees.” Frontispiece: a Syrian girl in Turkish refugee camp waits for asylum. Opposite: Siyad from Kenya, one of Boise’s top high school distance runners. Next: Sumay from the Sudan, Twin Falls refugee resettlement center; Congolese refugees. Generous support was provided by the Patricia Herman Fund and Professor Emeritus Errol D. Jones. ISBN: 978-0-9988909-0-6 2017 KATHERINE JONES/IDAHO STATESMAN JONES/IDAHO KATHERINE 4 5 Todd Shallat, editor Kathleen Rubinow Hodges, associate editor Errol D. Jones, academic editor Laura Winslow, assistant editor Toni Rome, graphic designer BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY School of Public Service Boise ID 83725 [email protected] 180 N. 8th St., Boise ID 83702 (208) 376-4229 To order, contact Rediscovered Books at www.rdbooks.org. Displaced people from nearly half the world are rebuilding their lives in Boise, Idaho, “The City of Trees.” Frontispiece: a Syrian girl in Turkish refugee camp waits for asylum. Opposite: Siyad from Kenya, one of Boise’s top high school distance runners. Next: Sumay from the Sudan, Twin Falls refugee resettlement center; Congolese refugees. Generous support was provided by the Patricia Herman Fund and Professor Emeritus Errol D. Jones. ISBN: 978-0-9988909-0-6 2017 KATHERINE JONES/IDAHO STATESMAN JONES/IDAHO KATHERINE 4 5 Contents Foreword ..............................................................................8 1 Improbable Sanctuary ........................................................10 The city of Boise defies red-state stereotypes. Todd Shallat 2 Across the Pacific ...............................................................26 Vietnamese, displaced by war, plant roots in the City of Trees. Kathleen Rubinow Hodges 3 Chosen to Survive...............................................................46 A Bosnian, cut down by shrapnel, sees his life as a miracle. Refik Sadikovic with Kathleen Rubinow Hodges Verse: Living Witness by Fidel Mwendambali Nshombo ..................68 4 Leave One to Remember ....................................................70 A child’s name bears witness to his mother’s Rwandan struggle. Laura Winslow 5 Food of the Pharaohs .........................................................80 Tiny teff, grown in Idaho, helps preserve Ethiopian heritage. Emily Fritchman Gallery: World Refugee Day ...............................................86 6 Nations United ...................................................................96 Kids from many countries build one strong team. Katherine Jones 7 Policing Softly ................................................................... 118 Boise police nurture community. Chelsee Boehm Verse: Blue by Ruby McCarter and Daniah Kadhim ........................ 128 8 Hidden, Silent, Confused ................................................. 130 A survivor negotiates Boise and adolescence. Belma Sadikovic with Todd Shallat 9 A Wider Perspective ........................................................ 138 Three lives – Eritrean, Bhutanese, and Afghan – help Boise see itself. Aileen Hale with Kathleen Rubinow Hodges Verse: Always Home by Zoey Hills and Paw Kee Lar .................... 152 10 A Matter of Trust .............................................................. 154 Teachers help refugees cope. Kathleen Mullen Epilogue ............................................................................ 172 Hysteria challenges a city’s commitment to human rights. Errol D. Jones ......................................................... 179 KEN BINGHAM Credits and Sources 6 7 Contents Foreword ..............................................................................8 1 Improbable Sanctuary ........................................................10 The city of Boise defies red-state stereotypes. Todd Shallat 2 Across the Pacific ...............................................................26 Vietnamese, displaced by war, plant roots in the City of Trees. Kathleen Rubinow Hodges 3 Chosen to Survive...............................................................46 A Bosnian, cut down by shrapnel, sees his life as a miracle. Refik Sadikovic with Kathleen Rubinow Hodges Verse: Living Witness by Fidel Mwendambali Nshombo ..................68 4 Leave One to Remember ....................................................70 A child’s name bears witness to his mother’s Rwandan struggle. Laura Winslow 5 Food of the Pharaohs .........................................................80 Tiny teff, grown in Idaho, helps preserve Ethiopian heritage. Emily Fritchman Gallery: World Refugee Day ...............................................86 6 Nations United ...................................................................96 Kids from many countries build one strong team. Katherine Jones 7 Policing Softly ................................................................... 118 Boise police nurture community. Chelsee Boehm Verse: Blue by Ruby McCarter and Daniah Kadhim ........................ 128 8 Hidden, Silent, Confused ................................................. 130 A survivor negotiates Boise and adolescence. Belma Sadikovic with Todd Shallat 9 A Wider Perspective ........................................................ 138 Three lives – Eritrean, Bhutanese, and Afghan – help Boise see itself. Aileen Hale with Kathleen Rubinow Hodges Verse: Always Home by Zoey Hills and Paw Kee Lar .................... 152 10 A Matter of Trust .............................................................. 154 Teachers help refugees cope. Kathleen Mullen Epilogue ............................................................................ 172 Hysteria challenges a city’s commitment to human rights. Errol D. Jones ......................................................... 179 KEN BINGHAM Credits and Sources 6 7 Foreword Today the number of world refugees is the highest ever recorded. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees counts 65.3 million uprooted people in flight from persecution and war. Few escape the squalor of border encampments, and fewer still – less than half of one percent – advance through the multiyear process for resettlement in the United States. But that fraction looms disproportionately large