Despite Wars, Refugees Are Getting Along

What happens when people whose ethnic groups have hated each other for generations encounter each other in cities like Boise and Spokane?

So far, not much. Though ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, Serbs from Bosnia, Croats, Christians, Muslims and others have had bloody conflicts in the Balkans, they’re living fairly peacefully together in the Inland Northwest.

Steve Rainey, who teaches English to refugees in Boise, has noticed the occasional harsh comment, the suspicious look. But what surprises Rainey the most isn’t the occasional tension - it’s the way diverse refugees in his English classes are learning to get along.

That’s because they have something in common - the need to learn a language that’s foreign to them all. “They have to rely on each other in class,” Rainey said.

The mixing of the various groups hasn’t been entirely trouble-free, particularly for members of the various ethnic minorities from Bosnia. Scuffles have broken out at adult soccer games in Boise. War songs and derogatory comments from one group to another sparked a fistfight at a Spokane workplace, costing one man his job.

But John McKinstry, an expert on global ethnic conflict from Cal-Poly San Luis Obispo, says those tensions will dissipate with time in America. That’s because they’re only kept going in the Balkans by opportunistic political leaders who rekindle the tensions by constantly reminding people of historical wrongs they’ve suffered.

“When it changes venue and the cheerleaders don’t come along, there’s no community support for violence,” he said. David Holter, director of the World Relief refugee resettlement program in Spokane, said his agency resettled 1,200 to 1,300 refugees in the past year and a half, and he can only think of five or 10 incidents of conflict. Far more rude comments and the like come from Americans.

But the ethnic cleansing that has marked the wars in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina makes it harder for many to trust.

“It creates a dividing wall so big that it’s insurmountable to get back across,” Holter said. “In some cases, you had neighbors that were friends for years and years and they participated in those atrocities. You can imagine the betrayal. You can never trust again. And that’s one of the major issues with refugees is being able to trust people.”

In the past month, Spokane got 90 new refugees - 37 from Kosovo, 33 from Bosnia, and 20 from the former Soviet Union.

“Their ethnic feelings may not go easily,” Holter said. “But generally it’s their children who learn those lessons, who play together and do things. It’s the children who learn the lessons of pluralism and respect.”

It’s the buzz

Flick. Flick.

That’s the sound of happy, thriving grasshoppers hopping across everything in sight in southern Idaho, devouring gardens and crops.

Idaho’s congressional delegation has been hopping too, trying to secure funding from the federal government to eradicate the grasshopper infestation on thousands of acres of federal lands and farms.

The infestation isn’t so heavy yet that the landscape appears to move, at least not in Boise. But walk outside when it’s quiet, and you’ll hear this: Flick. Flick.

Road work ahead

It sounds like the worst possible traffic and business nightmare: A four-year, $70 million-plus construction project that’s tearing apart a huge freeway interchange at the biggest retail center in Idaho.

Already, the “Wye” reconstruction project on Interstate 84 and the I-184 connector to downtown Boise has resulted in the shutdown of the main freeway on-ramp from the state’s biggest shopping mall to downtown - for a year.

But there’s been surprisingly little complaining. And businesses are actually praising the Transportation Department.

The reason? The department launched a big partnership with businesses in the area to spread information and coordinate the closures and disruptions so they don’t inconvenience motorists, businesses or their customers.

“We got a lot of our ideas from a campaign that worked in Wisconsin. It’s been very successful so far,” said Jeff Stratten, Transportation Department spokesman.

It’s a good thing, because there are more than three years of construction still to come.

Cut in the Spokane edition.