There’s a lot of debate surrounding immigration, but there is one kind of immigration that receives bipartisan support– that of refugees. More than 2,000 refugees resettled in North Carolina last year. We often hear about what refugees have to leave behind – war and persecution – but what is waiting for refugees when they get here?
It can take years of paperwork to come to America as a refugee. Once that is sorted, Rebecca Zanniatnuhma works on those final details that stand between refugees and their new lives. She works at Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency, sorting out renting and furnishing refugees’ new apartments, meeting them at the airport – and filling the fridge.
Today, Zanniatnuhma is at a supermarket on the east side of Charlotte, shopping for a Burmese family set to arrive in town that evening. Zanniatnuhma is a Burmese refugee herself, and picks out traditional Burmese ingredients so the new arrivals feel at home – at least as much as they can. Her brother lifts a 50-pound bag of rice into the cart, Rebecca picks out vegetables for a Burmese style soup. “For a Chin,” she says, “we never finish without a soup.”