Immigrants lost in translation

Sau San Mya works two housekeeping jobs and an interpreter job and only sleeps from 5 p.m. to 11 p.m. — but he's employed.

When six people lived in his two-bedroom space at Carolina Apartments last month it was crowded but he and his wife could still barely afford rent and food.

He is one of more than 450 in the area from Myanmar formerly Burma who in recent years have escaped constant fear of their homeland's military government.

Their numbers in Chapel Hill and Carrboro have jumped exponentially in the past two years.

The sharp increase in Karen Burmese and Chin refugees has led to a shortage of both services and financial assistance from nonprofits and churches.

With less help the newcomers rely on established refugees to translate conversations with landlords or doctors or for money from already-stretched paychecks.

And as refugees work night and day jobs to make ends meet there's little opportunity for assimilation.

Less than a visitor

At Harris Teeter" a cashier will ask for a PIN number and a refugee will not understand.

So worker Josiah Ko translates for the customer into Karen.

""What"" Korean?"" his co-workers ask.

No"" Karen — pronounced ""Kur-IN"" — and Ko has to again explain about the refugees from Myanmar" burned out of their villages new to PIN numbers food stamps English letters and sometimes grocery shopping in general.

The Burmese refugee population boomed after 2006 when the Department of Homeland Security relaxed restrictions for the group.

Lutheran Family Services a resettlement agency brought six families to the area in 2005 and more than 80 in 2006. It's stayed high" services coordinator Lori Londo said.

Ko worries about what happens when he's not there to translate.

""Trouble" he said. Sometimes they would even say ‘We don't understand what they're saying" and they look mean.'""

So the refugees avoid the public sphere. They're alienated by language and culture and don't have the time or the money to go to restaurants or parks or do anything but work.

Not everyone can afford a car" but those who can let six or seven people pile in for regular trips to the Asian market in Cary because cooking familiar food is easier.

Mya lets people stay at his house when they can't afford rent even if it's uncomfortably packed. He drives other refugees to the doctor and helps them apply for Medicaid.

Ye Tun one of the first settlers from Myanmar" has been in the area for 11 years and is finally at a point where he only has to work one job.

But he still feels like a visitor.

""No — less than visitor"" he decided. Visitor can still go places. I can communicate with anybody on the street but I don't go out. My life has been like a robot.""

Rocky transitions

Locally" Carolina Apartments Kingswood Apartments and Estes Park are main refugee destinations.

In early 2008 Kingswood hosted five families. But now they host more than 25" assistant manager Emilda Carbajal said.

""They don't bother other people"" Carbajal said. They usually gather with their own.""

Saturday" more than 50 met in a lobby at Carolina Apartments in hopes of applying for a Habitat for Humanity home.

Flicka Bateman who's volunteered with the community for nearly a decade" assisted the meeting. She remembers getting a call from an apartment complex at the start of the population boom.

""The manager said"" ‘Will you please get the word out that tenants are not allowed to keep live chickens in their apartments?'"" she said. ""There are some things they just don't know.""

Lah Pa"23 had never lived anywhere with electricity before Ridgewood Apartments in Carrboro she said through an interpreter.

At the refugee camp her only financial worry was annually paying for new leaves for the roof of her family's hut. There was no getting a job or paying utility bills. There was no locking doors and no bus system.

She and her siblings had hid in the woods for seven years cooking at night with low fire so men with guns wouldn't see the smoke she said.

In 2006 she had a baby girl. And the best she could do was apply to go to the U.S. away from her siblings but with her baby and her husband.

Everything is new here.

Pa is trying to learn English from books" but she doesn't have time while waitressing at the Carolina Inn and taking care of her 2-and-a-half-year-old daughter.

Resources spread thin

The number of refugees greatly outweighs the number of people able to support them.

""We've been asked to sponsor more" but we've said no" said Carolyn Cole of Binkley Baptist Church, which sponsors two families. Once you say no"" they don't ask again.""

Mya doesn't have much in the bank once he and his wife spend paychecks on rent and food. But what they can spare" they give.

Their 2-bedroom apartment already housed four people before a friend moved in with her daughter four months ago" trying to find a job.

""People used to be able to come here and get a stable job in housekeeping" but it just isn't there now" Bateman said.

But sometimes sharing the burden works.

The Myas' hospitality helped their friend and her husband pool money to finally move out. They are the second family the Myas have hosted.

And when they can afford it, the Myas give $20 to friends who are unemployed single mothers.

They don't think about to borrow the money"" Mya's wife, Juliena Mya, said. They cannot pay it back.""



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