Mary Kay Sigda has been teaching English and cultural orientation to refugees resettling in Vermont for several years. She works for SIT/World Learning as a senior program officer for the New Vermonter Education Program, but she writes in a personal capacity.
BRATTLEBORO-I recently attended the Every Campus a Refuge conference in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with people from around the country involved in refugee resettlement. I expected to learn best practices, and I did.
But I came home realizing something I hadn't fully appreciated before: We are doing something pretty remarkable here in Brattleboro that other towns around the country aren't.
I went to Tulsa to reconnect with many of the 84 immigrant students who came unexpectedly to our community last year. We had little time to respond to their needs, but Brattleboro did what it does remarkably well: step up to the challenge.
The School for International Training (SIT) provided pre-college prep; businesses hired students and provided bicycles. Community members became sponsors who then became close friends. Volunteers helped with transportation and appointments.
Our brave little town has been stepping up to help new neighbors for several years.
When refugee resettlement began here in 2022, the Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) took on the most demanding responsibilities: welcoming families arriving at all hours, finding and furnishing apartments, arranging medical appointments, and helping newcomers navigate unfamiliar systems.
ECDC coordinated community resources, and much of this work happened quietly, out of public view.
World Learning and SIT brought decades of intercultural experience along with a campus where new arrivals could temporarily live. The Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation (BDCC) provided employment training until ECDC assumed those responsibilities this January. Vermont Adult Learning provided English-language and adult education services. Volunteers, particularly those from St. Michael's Episcopal Church, helped in far too many ways to count.
Even our transportation system became part of the effort. The MOOver provides free public transportation, and its leadership was engaged. The public transit nonprofit's director came to meetings, heard where new residents found obstacles with routes and schedules, and helped adjust them to better meet people's needs.
Before retiring, former Sen. Patrick Leahy secured funding for ECDC, BDCC, and SIT, as well as the University of Vermont, to study refugee resettlement in southern Vermont. The research found strong community connections and success with initial employment, while identifying continuing challenges with transportation, housing and education.
* * *
Vermont's labor force shrank by about 10,000 people over the year ending this past May. Meanwhile, 92% of refugees who resettle in Vermont find employment within eight months, most do so sooner.
Helping refugees, in turn, helps our community in concrete ways. People who settle here support and start businesses, rent apartments, shop in our stores, send their children to our schools, and pay taxes.
In fact, immigrants contributed an estimated $500 million in Vermont state taxes in 2023.
In short, helping these new Vermonters succeed is an investment in our state's future. With an aging population, a shrinking workforce, and young people leaving the state, refugee families bring something we desperately need: working-age people who are building lives here.
* * *
Another measure of our success that we don't talk about enough: People who come here tend to stay. In fact, some refugees who left southern Vermont for other states decided to return. For a state struggling to keep people, that's a big deal.
I moved to Vermont 20 years ago, and I've been privileged to teach English and cultural orientation to our newest neighbors. I've witnessed firsthand how refugees arrive knowing little about our town but then work hard to build lives here by learning English, finding work, attending school, and navigating healthcare and daily life.
The immigrant community brings vitality and variety to a region that values both. (Have you tried the Middle Eastern food at Saffron in West Brattleboro? There's a reason it's always packed.)
* * *
Not all paths are the same for these new Vermonters.
Some arrive after years of formal education and move quickly into employment, training, or higher education. Others have had schooling disrupted by war, displacement, or years in refugee camps. Some are learning to read and write while simultaneously learning English and need more time and more intensive instruction.
That's important because state funding for our New Vermonter Education Program ends this December. However, their need for English instruction and cultural orientation will remain. ECDC will also continue to bear the enormous responsibility for helping families establish themselves and become independent.
* * *
I went to Tulsa to learn how other communities make refugee resettlement work. I came back realizing how much we've learned right here.
We have built something worth protecting - not simply because it helps newcomers build lives in Vermont, but because they are helping build Vermont's future.
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at voices@commonsnews.org.