September 3rd our guest speakers at Rotary provided a clearer picture of the challenges faced by new immigrants and asylum seekers arriving in the State of Maine. We also gained a great deal of respect for the efforts of those individuals working to support them.
Ruben Torres is a Maine Immigrants Rights Coalition (MIRC) Manager, one of two positions established in the State, he is the Communication and Policy Advocate for MIRC. Part of the function of the position is to support the connection between Maine employers needing workers and new immigrants skills and training.
Mulenga Mutapa is the Multicultural Outreach Worker for the York Community Action Corp (YCCAC), helping new immigrants navigate available services and state and federal regulations and requirements. Among these are the over 400 asylum seekers from Angola, Haiti, as well as Congolese who arrived last year. Her priorities are first, finding housing and arranging food support, then healthcare for both children and adults. next in line is arranging needed education for children and adults, and finally, when eligible, helping with job applications. Mulenga's case load would not be possible without the support of a large number of volunteers, who come forward to help with language, to serve as mentors, or arrange transportation. Local healthcare agencies and schools have helped with setting up needed special services.
Both Ruben and Mulenga mentioned how existing and sometimes conflicting state and federal regulations make it difficult or a lengthy process to integrate new arrivals into the work force despite current needs for of Maine employers. A process requiring a minimum of 5 months before issuing a work permit is now taking in reality several years. Once eligible to work, individuals must apply to 7-9 jobs a week to maintain benefits, and when they get a job they automatically lose benefits even though it may be weeks before they get a paycheck.
Part of the MIRC function is to be able to step in when organizations like YCCAC are told by someone they can't do something and help them understand what can be done Both groups are working to help assimilated new asylum seekers and their families into Maine at a time when Maine employers are very much looking for workers, but decades old regulations and current political environment have created a number of hurdles to be overcome.
Ruben and Mulenga signed a book to be donated in their names to the school library