The number of refugees resettled in the Bangor area will reach 37 by the end of June, when a large family is expected to arrive from the Middle East and begin its new life in Maine.
Catholic Charities Maine has resettled 28 refugees from Africa, the Middle East and Latin America in Greater Bangor between October 2022 and May of this year, according to data provided by the agency last week. That count does not include four Cuban-Haitian entrants as well as 14 Ukrainian humanitarian parolees who have come to Bangor and surrounding towns.
Recent resettlement marks much-anticipated progress for the Bangor area and shows that Catholic Charities is on pace with its efforts, said Charles Mugabe, assistant director of refugee and immigration services for Catholic Charities Maine. It also means refugees are starting their journey in Maine beyond the southern part of the state. Some have wondered why it has taken so long to welcome refugees fleeing persecution, violence or war to Bangor, which has jobs and resources to offer them.
Of the 28 refugees who have arrived in the Bangor area, four have found employment, which is typically an entry-level job with opportunities for advancement, though Mugabe could not provide specifics about the workplaces.
“Usually within six months we see that they are already either working or actively looking for jobs,” he said. “We’ve seen such enthusiasm from the refugees and the immigrants — they want to work, to support themselves and to help their families back home.”
Catholic Charities has resettled refugees in the state since the 1970s, typically in Portland, Lewiston and Auburn, but it did not have approval from the federal government to welcome people to Bangor. The agency gained that approval in late 2021 and was permitted to resettle from 20 to 50 refugees during the 2023 fiscal year, Mugabe said.
Working with stakeholders and preparing a community to receive refugees makes resettlement more successful for everyone, said Tracy Moore, refugee and immigration services program director at Catholic Charities Maine.
“Once the office was fully approved, staffed and opened [in Brewer], we waited alongside the community for the resettlement pipeline to deliver our first refugee in February,” she said.
Those stakeholders included the city of Bangor, the Bangor School Department, Literacy Volunteers of Bangor, Bangor Adult and Community Education, the Maine Multicultural Center, the University of Maine, Eastern Maine Development Corp. and others, Mugabe said.
Gaining the federal government’s stamp of approval is traditionally a long process, Mugabe said, and constant global instability can further delay the process. He pointed to shifts in presidential administrations and the COVID-19 pandemic as examples.
Catholic Charities limits information about families to protect their privacy as they join relatively small communities in the Bangor area, but it expects nine refugees from the Middle East and possibly another three from Africa by the end of September, Moore said.
Across the state, three agencies — Catholic Charities, Jewish Community Alliance of Southern Maine and Maine Immigrants and Refugee Services — have assisted 86 Ukrainians fleeing the war with Russia that erupted last February. Mugabe is aware of 404 sponsors across the state who have offered to take in Ukrainians.
They arrive through Uniting for Ukraine, a federal program that allows them to live and work in America for two years, and stay with private sponsors. Catholic Charities only tracks Ukrainians it serves, so the count is likely higher, Mugabe said.
Cubans and Haitians typically arrive in America on their own through the southern border, where they appear before U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or Department of Homeland Security officials, Mugabe said. Cuban-Haitian entrants are one of the most challenging populations because they cannot work upon arrival, he said.
Catholic Charities also works with those granted asylum, mainly in Lewiston, though none have come through its Bangor office yet, he said.
An asylum seeker is anyone who has fled persecution in their home country and is seeking safety in a new country but has not been granted asylum, said Kathy Hayden, a Catholic Charities spokesperson. They arrive in the U.S. on their own, as opposed to refugees, who are admitted and brought to the country under the direction of the State Department.
The goal of working with refugees and other populations is to help them become self-sufficient as they build their new life in America, Mugabe said. He is from the Democratic Republic of Congo, fled as a child to Uganda and arrived in Maine in 2016.
“It has really been a blessing of ours to resettle families, especially vulnerable families who are coming to the country [for the first time],” he said. “It’s our role to help them with that adjustment.”
