Home Now: How 6000 Refugees Transformed an American Town

by Cynthia Anderson

Overview

A moving chronicle of who belongs in America.

Like so many American factory towns, Lewiston, Maine, thrived until its mill jobs disappeared and the young began leaving. But then the story unexpectedly veered: over the course of fifteen years, the city became home to thousands of African immigrants and, along the way, turned into one of the most Muslim towns in the US. Now about 6,000 of Lewiston's 36,000 inhabitants are refugees and asylum seekers, many of them Somali. Cynthia Anderson tells the story of this fractious yet resilient city near where she grew up, offering the unfolding drama of a community's reinvention--and humanizing some of the defining political issues in America today.

In Lewiston, progress is real but precarious. Anderson takes the reader deep into the lives of both immigrants and lifelong Mainers: a single Muslim mom, an anti-Islamist activist, a Congolese asylum seeker, a Somali community leader. Their lives unfold in these pages as anti-immigrant sentiment rises across the US and national realities collide with those in Lewiston. Home Now gives a poignant account of America's evolving relationship with religion and race, and makes a sensitive yet powerful case for embracing change.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541767881
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	10/29/2019
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Cynthia Anderson grew up in western Maine. Her collection of stories, River Talk, was a Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2014 and received the 2014 New England Book Festival award for Short Stories. Other work has appeared in the Christian ScienceMonitor, Boston Magazine, the Miami Herald, the Iowa Review, Redbook, Huffington Post, and others. Anderson lives with her family in Maine and Massachusetts. She teaches writing at Boston University.

Table of Contents

People Who Appear in This Book vii

Glossary of Somali, Arabic, and Other Terms ix

Introduction 1

1 Early Spring 2016 11

2 May-June 2016 25

3 Beginnings 43

4 Summer 2016 61

5 Opposition 85

6 Late Summer-Fall 2016 101

7 Beginnings II 127

8 Late Fall 2016-Winter 2017 141

9 Early Spring 2017 161

10 Badbaadiye (Survivors): Spring 2017 183

11 Madadaalo (Celebrations): Late Spring-Early Summer 2017 199

12 Summer2017 217

13 Bulshada Aayar Ar (Making Community): Summer 2017 235

14 Fall 2017 255

15 December 2017-March 2018 275

16 Summer 2018-January 2019 299

Afterword 313

Author's Note 315

Acknowledgments 316

Editorial Reviews

10/28/2019

Short story author Anderson (River Talk) profiles residents of Lewiston, Maine, in this detailed, sensitive portrait of the city’s revitalization by African immigrants. According to Anderson, the once-prosperous mill town was in sharp decline when the first refugees from Somalia’s civil war, drawn by the low cost of living, safe neighborhoods, and access to public services, arrived in 2001. Today, Anderson writes, Lewiston has the fifth highest per capita Muslim population in the U.S., and roughly 6,000 of the city’s 36,000 residents are African refugees and asylum seekers. Anderson’s subjects include Nasafari Nahumure, a 17-year-old Congolese refugee applying to college, and Fatuma Hussein, a Somali community leader and mother of eight. Anderson recounts the immigrants’ journeys to America and documents their daily lives from spring 2016 to January 2019, including their reactions to President Trump’s election and immigration policies (one of her subjects considers running for office; others report increased incidents of harassment). She also interviews leaders of a local chapter of the anti-Islamist group ACT for America, and expertly captures the multilayered dynamics between Lewiston natives and African immigrants; in one scene, a food pantry volunteer shakes her head in disapproval when two refugees remove sugary cereal from their prepared boxes of food. The result is a vivid and finely tuned portrait of immigration in America. Agent: Jennifer Carlson, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner Literary Agency. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"In this detailed, sensitive portrait of the city's revitalization by African immigrants... [Anderson] expertly captures the multilayered dynamics between Lewiston natives and African immigrants...The result is a vivid and finely tuned portrait of immigration in America."—Publishers Weekly

"This compelling account relates how 6,000 African refugees came to settle in Lewiston, Maine... Anderson relies on several voices and story threads to convey the complexities of assimilation: long-time residents, concerned about strained resources; bewildered, often traumatized newcomers; passionate, steadfast activists; parents determined to provide better lives for their children; and government officials grappling with ingrained cultural traditions...Readers will find lots to think about."
—Booklist

"It's a book that feels both current and necessary, a microcosm of the immigration stories we see playing out daily on the national stage."—Portland Press Herald

"[Anderson] chronicles the transformation of a formerly white town by an influx of Somali refugees, drawing on the perspectives of old and new residents...The result is a varied political picture."—The New Yorker

"The arrival of thousands of African refugees in a fading Maine city is a situation ripe for a writer as gifted as Cynthia Anderson. Home Now is immediately relevant and universally resonant, as it illuminates the explosive politics of immigration and explores complex issues around our relationships to places and each other. The richly told stories of Fatuma, Jamilo, Nasafari, Abdikadir, Carrys, and the other remarkable people in these pages will deepen and expand the ways that readers see the world."—Mitchell Zuckoff, New York Times-bestselling author of Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11

"In this journalist's beautifully written, balanced, personal account, we learn how a former Maine mill town losing business 'like a mouth losing teeth' begins in 2001 to absorb 6,000 Somali, Congolese, and Sudanese refugees. . . . In discouraging times, such an honest and heartening read."—Arlie Hochschild, bestselling author of Strangers In Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right

"Home Now is a thrilling narration of the lives of the new Mainers settled in one of America's whitest towns—Lewiston, Maine. Cynthia Anderson humanizes the stories of the recent immigrants—many of them Somalis—who helped reawaken a sleepy town. As a recent Somali immigrant myself, I saw in this book a true, intimate, and timely account of what I live every day. This book should be read by everyone to learn about the stories, geography, tradition, strength, and resilience of their new neighbors."—Abdi Nor Iftin, author of Call Me American

"A compassionate and insightful account of the human stories behind one of the most divisive issues in American politics."—Farah Stockman, New York Times reporter and Pulitzer Prize winner

"Home Now is a breathtaking work of journalism and heart. Following several 'new Mainers' who arrive from war-ravaged African countries, Anderson brings her own deep Maine roots to bear as she illuminates their culture, assimilation, trauma, and homecoming. Her writing is graceful and clear-eyed and brimming with compassion both for the intrepid newcomers and the often-ambivalent citizens who receive them. I found it instructive, poignant, and riveting. We need this book right now."—Monica Wood, author of The One-in-a-Million Boy and When We Were the Kennedys

"An essential book to remind us that racism and prejudice will never be more powerful than what binds us together in the great American mosaic—community, family, faith, and ultimately, hope. Cynthia Anderson provides an honest portrayal of being a Muslim immigrant in Trump's America."—Ali S. Khan, dean of the School of Public Health, University of Nebraska

"Home Now folds us into a non-polemical but clear refutation of the villainization of immigrants. Families we come to know and respect have survived appalling hardship in Africa and settled in a Maine mill town that's been demoralized after factories closed or moved on. Nasafari Nahumure, Jamilo Maalim, and the many others on these pages—they stand in for about 6,000 new immigrants in all—help revitalize Lewiston's spirit and commerce. Cynthia Anderson's expert reporting welcomes us, in highly readable style, to the complex and constructive fate of the real America. Her careful rendering, and her insights, deepen our understanding of what's happening here and now."—Mark Kramer, founding director of the Nieman Program on Narrative Journalism at Harvard University

"With great clarity and honesty, Cynthia Anderson blends intensely personal narratives with first-rate reporting to produce an indisputably necessary book for our times. Both an homage to those fearless immigrants who, through their industry and dedication, remake our country, and a wake-up call, Home Now gives us an America as it is now, today, not some bogus vision of what it never was. There's hope in this book, and struggle, and endurance-all beautifully and intimately captured. And you want to know what it is like at the Walmart at 9PM in late August in Lewiston? Anderson can tell you; she's been there."—Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others and Am I Alone Here?

"With the depth and detail of a skilled reporter and the narrative grace of a master storyteller, Cynthia Anderson brings to life one of America's unlikeliest immigrant communities: the six thousand people from Sub-Saharan Africa who have made a home for themselves in one of the coldest states in the nation. In Home Now, she carefully strips away the politics surrounding Muslim refugees in the United States to reveal human beings whose relationships with each other are anything but foreign. These individuals are recognizable as mothers, daughters, fathers, and sons and recognizably American in their dreams of a better future."—Paul Doiron, author of The Poacher's Son

From the Publisher

This is a listen about a small city in Maine and new residents who are trying to make their way into what is—to them—a very strange place. Narrating with empathy, Jeanette Illidge affects an accent when speaking for the Somali refugees who find themselves living in Lewiston, Maine. This story offers an inside look at the challenges of moving halfway around the world in hopes of a better life. Illidge keeps listeners engaged with this true story, and her use of subtle—and not so subtle—accents when delivering quotes from the refugees adds an element of realism. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile

This is a listen about a small city in Maine and new residents who are trying to make their way into what is—to them—a very strange place. Narrating with empathy, Jeanette Illidge affects an accent when speaking for the Somali refugees who find themselves living in Lewiston, Maine. This story offers an inside look at the challenges of moving halfway around the world in hopes of a better life. Illidge keeps listeners engaged with this true story, and her use of subtle—and not so subtle—accents when delivering quotes from the refugees adds an element of realism. J.P.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

MARCH 2020 - AudioFile

2019-09-01
How an influx of refugees from Somalia and other African countries challenged an old mill town in Maine to redefine itself.

As a New Yorker article noted more than a decade ago, an improbable migration has turned Lewiston into "a large-scale social experiment." That statement was "a blunt but not inaccurate assessment" of the once-thriving and overwhelmingly white town, writes Anderson (Writing/Boston Univ.; River Talk, 2014), who grew up nearby. The town was facing economic ruin after its industries vanished and its population declined. Then more than 6,000 refugees from Somalia and other African countries began to stream into town. Despite resistance from the mayor and private citizens, the newcomers reenergized the community by opening shops, forming cultural groups, and leading the high school to its first-ever state soccer championship. In this sympathetic account of their efforts, Anderson follows a group of Somali, Congolese, and other refugees from 2016 to early 2019, offering intimate glimpses of their homes and workplaces and their birthday, wedding, and other celebrations. In an especially memorable scene, the founder of a Somali women's rights group testifies, at a legislative hearing, against a bill that would have criminalized female genital mutilation in Maine—and might have discouraged women harmed by the practice from seeking medical help—even as she describes herself as "a survivor of this horrendous procedure." Elsewhere, a refugee who works at L.L. Bean praises his employer for giving Muslim workers a dedicated space for five-times-a-day prayer. Worthy as such stories are, Anderson's self-conscious recounting of them often reveals more about her than her subjects. The author also skimps on or belatedly introduces vital context. Not until Chapter 7, for example, does she adequately supply the background on the civil war in Somalia that explains why so many people fled the country. A more helpful overview of Lewiston's turnaround appears in Amy Bass' One Goal. Anderson provides a more up-to-date yet imperfect portrait of the enduring challenges faced by Lewiston.

Close-ups of refugees who transformed a town but it's short on geopolitical context.

Kirkus Reviews