EVERETT – It was the winter weather that drove the Hamadi family away from central New York.
Bitter cold snapped through their clothes. Snow seeped through the seams of their cheap boots.
Venturing out of their apartment became unbearable in a city where temperatures are known to hover well below zero for days.
“The children were coughing,” Hamadi Hamadi said. “They couldn’t go to school. They just stayed home to keep warm.”
Last month, even though the frigid temperatures in Utica, N.Y., were finally thawing into springtime, the refugee family packed up and left. Hamadi, a Somali Bantu, wanted a moderate climate and a chance for a better education.
Like many before him, he found both in Everett.
From 1975 to 2004, Washington carried the title of the state with the highest level of secondary migration. That means refugees who initially settled elsewhere in the country choose to move to Washington than any other state.
Last year, Washington was among the top five states for secondary migration, along with California, Florida, Minnesota and Ohio, according to federal statistics.
Within the past three years, more than 2,300 refugees moved to Washington from elsewhere in the country, said Jeff Kibler, Washington state refugee coordinator.
Snohomish County’s secondary migration growth was strongest among refugees from Iraq and former Soviet Union nations.
In Everett, the fledgling Somali Bantu community has doubled.
In 2004, four Bantu families were settled in Everett by federal and state officials. They came directly from refugee camps in Kenya, where many lived for years after escaping a civil war that had seeped into Somalia’s remote Juba River valley.
Rural villages there were home to the majority of the country’s Bantu, who are mostly farmers and considered second-class citizens.
Many Bantu escaped Somalia with their lives, and not much else. Their dignity was stripped during rapes, beating and other torture.
Between 2003 and 2005, about 13,000 Bantu were resettled in clusters around the United States. Arrival in the United States was jarring for many Bantu.
Paved roads, electricity, school – everything was new to people who spent their lives fleeing on foot through African deserts to escape death, and then waiting in camps where they had to hide their meager rations so they wouldn’t be stolen.
Everett schools responded quickly to the unique needs of the city’s Bantu children, and the Everett Housing Authority placed the families in secure apartments, said Van Dinh Kuno, director of the Snohomish County Refugee and Immigrant Forum.
Word began to spread throughout the country that Everett is a friendly place for refugees, she said.
Many refugees move to be near family or friends. Others hear rumors that a certain city or region offers a mild climate or plentiful jobs.
“Maybe a friend lives here, maybe it’s too cold somewhere else – there are many reasons,” Kibler said. “When I talk to Somalis, sometimes they don’t know themselves.”
Mohamed Mehale lived in Omaha, Neb. for just a month, then came to Everett. He said his caseworker in Nebraska wasn’t friendly toward Bantu.
“Somebody who lives here called and said, ‘Washington is better. Everyone likes it here, and there’s no snow,’” Mehale said.
Those who move without knowing anyone at their destination are at risk of homelessness, Kibler said.
Hundreds of Bantu families moved to Columbus, Ohio last year when a rumor of high-paying jobs circulated around the country. Homeless shelters there were swamped for months.
So far, all four of Everett’s new Bantu families have found housing, Kuno said.
Hamadi and his family lived about a year in Utica, NY, where there are several hundred Bantu. Even though the Bantu community was much larger there, Hamadi didn’t want his family to suffer through the cold winters.
A family he knew in a Kenyan refugee camp was settled in Everett. He was easily persuaded to move here. Now, he urges others to come.
Kuno said she’s heard that as many as five more Bantu families may move to Everett this summer alone.
The farther away he is from Somalia, the more his worries seem to diminish, he said. He went from fleeing death to hoarding food to battling snowstorms.
Now, the family lives in a second-floor apartment in north Everett. It’s quiet and secure, but Hamadi would like to live closer to other Bantu families.
He smiles now.
With every change, his family is just a little closer to the life that, while in Africa, even the wildest dream couldn’t concoct.
He tightened the hood of a rain jacket and walked out the door.
To the grocery store, he said. For milk.
For his family, at home.
Finally.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Kevin Nortz / The Herald
Seven-year-old Hasan Hasan and his sister Rahema Hasan, 3, spend their Sunday afternoon indoors at their family’s apartment in Everett.
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