Photo by HEATHER AINSWORTH LaSalle employees Ngoeur Dar, left, rests on the bus ride to work, while Kunna Khom takes in the Mohawk Valley landscape en route to their jobs at LaSalle Labs in Little Falls. Dar and Khom are from Cambodia.

Newcomers struggling to climb economic ladder

As thousands of residents left the Mohawk Valley along with the crumbling manufacturing economy, 5,000 Bosnians were arriving in the 1990s. They found a ready welcome from companies seeking to fill niches in the service and manufacturing sectors. Less-educated Bosnians continue in those jobs, while others with more education are starting businesses or taking on highly technical jobs at places such as Rome Lab.

By MELISSA CHADWICK
Observer-Dispatch

Photo by HEATHER AINSWORTH Elvira Karovic, 25, from Bosnia, clears a table at the Emerald restaurant at Turning Stone Casino Resort. Karovic said she meets a lot of people there and is often offended by the little they know about Bosnia. "People ask if in Bosnia we have television," she said. "Can you believe it? People don't even know where Bosnia is."

Utica offers opportunity for Bosnians Even before the 1990s were complete, European journalists were making their way to the Mohawk Valley to chronicle the success stories of Bosnian refugees. Those success stories weren’t — and aren’t — necessarily reflective of the experiences of most Bosnian refugees. But they are common enough that numerous articles and broadcasts have displayed Utica in a positive light. “It’s completely different in (Utica),” Erik Bruyland, a columnist for the Belgium-based business magazine Trends, said during a 1999 visit in which he contrasted Utica’s acceptance of refugees with Central Europe’s rejection of them. “There are opportunities for immigrants.” Among the success stories: Radio show Sabina Bajic and Negra Hadzic have produced a 9 a.m. Sunday morning Bosnian radio program, Millennium, for nearly five years on WXUR-FM 92.7. Its presence highlights the Bosnian community’s influence on Mohawk Valley businesses and everyday life. Outside grants Just two years ago, five Bosnian businesses were awarded grants by a New York City-based foundation, the Trickle Up Foundation. The grants were to be used for site improvements, equipment purchases, advertising and basic training. East Utica changes As Bosnians grew in numbers, Bosnian stores and restaurants popped up throughout the east side of the city. Not all survived, but some that did include Disco Club Una on Eagle Street and Juso Miljkovic’s barber shop on Mohawk Street. And American-owned enterprises across the city including Tops supermarket on Mohawk Street employ and cater to Bosnians. Major employers benefit The refugee center has worked with numerous local companies including Utica Converters, Fleet Bank and Baker Greenhouses to place Bosnians — 763 in one year alone five years ago. In some companies, Bosnians are moving up the ranks to middle-management or more technical jobs.

It’s 83 degrees outside, but on the bus it easily feels 10 degrees hotter. Fazila Budnjo doesn’t seem bothered by the sticky heat. Nor do the other 14 passengers on board the yellow school bus headed to Little Falls. For most who boarded the bus in downtown Utica, it’s a 45-minute ride to LaSalle Labs, where they work the second shift packing boxes for the cosmetics manufacturer.

Some pass the time on this late Tuesday afternoon napping in the tall brown seats that smell of leather and sweat. A few chat quietly in Bosnian, Russian and other languages. And others gaze out of the windows at the passing farmland along Rte. 5S.

Most are refugees and immigrants from places like Burma, Bosnia, Vietnam and Russia. And for many, it’s their first job in America.

For Budnjo, 48, who lived in a small village in Bosnia, the job is her first ever. In Bosnia, she raised her three children while her husband worked. He died in the war in 1992, leaving her to support their children.

“I don’t have a car. With this job, I’m 10 hours from home,” Budnjo said through a translator, referring to her eight-hour shift and two-hour commute to and from LaSalle.

The ride is long and the pay is low, yet it’s a journey that embodies the struggle of those faced with entering a work force with limited or no English skills.

Many newcomers, particularly Bosnians, have made strides in the work force over the last decade. They’ve assumed higher paying positions and started their own small businesses. But many more are held back by language, cultural differences and education levels.

“They have a difficulty integrating in the workplace,” said Judith Owens-Manley, associate director for community research at the Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center at Hamilton College. “They also face an urban/rural split and American discrimination. There are different cultural cues and different languages to learn.”

Many Bosnians arrived here from rural towns in Bosnia. Their limited education and English skills leave them at more of a disadvantage than their counterparts from urban centers like Sarajevo and Mostar.

“Those Bosnians who grew up in rural Bosnian are transferring their low-level skills to low-level skilled jobs in America,” Owens-Manley said. “Those going from being a lawyer to a factory worker, or from factory worker to factory worker are two different journeys.”

Learning the language

Learning English remains the largest barrier for Bosnians who want to move up in the work force.

And for many, even beginning the workday with a “Hello” to co-workers can be daunting for those with limited English skills.

Yet understanding English does more for a newcomer than allow them to communicate in the workplace, it makes them more marketable, according to a 2000 study by Owens-Manley and Empire State College professor Reed Coughlan.

The average wages of males increased directly with English skill level, according to the study. Bosnians labeled as “beginners” were making $8.07, “intermediates” were making $8.66 and advanced English speakers were earning $9.95.

Reuf Musaefendic knows he could earn more if his English were better.

Though his employer, LaSalle Labs, offered him two better paying jobs — one as a group leader and the other as a maintenance worker — he declined both offers because he wasn’t confident of his English skills.

“I’m trying hard, but when you’re older, it just doesn’t get in your head,” said Musaefendic, who moved to Utica over a year ago. “I learn step-by-step on the job, but it’s difficult. What I know, I speak to Americans. If I don’t know, I speak to Bosnians.”

Musaefendic, 50, who was a plumber in Bosnia, clears $160 each week at LaSalle. His wife, Dzehva Musaefendic, 44, makes even less at her job at Mele Manufacturing.

They work hard, they said through a translator, and for Dzehva the work is tiring and the factory too hot for the little she earns. She tried to get a job as a housekeeper at two Utica hotels but was told her English skills were insufficient, she said.

Despite their meager earnings, the couple manages to raise a family and fix up their Catherine Street home. But it’s tough, they said.

“You have to work too hard for minimum wage,” Reuf said.

The Musaefendic’s desire to earn more than minimum wage soon after arriving in a new country is not uncommon for newcomers.

“When refugees arrive for training at the refugee center the most common question is ‘How do I make $10 an hour?’” said Hau Truong, an employment specialist at the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees.

English is often the answer, he said.

But those over 18 and don’t have a child who is a minor are required by federal law to take whatever job is offered to them, regardless of experience, said Peter Vogelaar, executive director of the refugee center. In most cases, those are minimum-wage jobs.

Though they’d prefer to earn more, many Bosnians and other refugees don’t want to leave the familiarity of the jobs they’re in.

“Employers have said Bosnians don’t want to move up. They’re comfortable where they are,” Owens-Manley said. “So often, if you work with refugees, you’re not forced to speak English.”

Each time ConMed employee Liliana Vidovic changed jobs she was scared, she said.

“I was holding on to every job I had here at ConMed because the change is something that has followed me for quite some time,” Vidovic said. “Every time I left a position, I cried.”

At first, Vidovic said she didn’t want to advance within ConMed because “I was too lost to think about moving up. I didn’t speak English or have any other skills.”

In addition to the language, many ambitious Bosnians find it difficult to move up because degrees they earned in Bosnia aren’t easily recognized here.

Vidovic was in college studying to become a high school teacher before she left Sarajevo for Germany in 1992. She worked as a housekeeper there. When she moved to Utica in 1996, she took the first job offered to her: assembling endoscopy equipment at ConMed.

“It’s a strange feeling to be on the bottom twice in your lifetime,” Vidovic said. “Economically, emotionally and socially, I didn’t know if I could do it.”

She recently earned a bachelor’s degree in international marketing from Empire State College and was promoted from assembly worker to group leader, then to the marketing department where she now works.

She expects to complete her master’s in information design and technology from SUNY-IT in May 2004.

“What’s great about this country is if you really want to work hard, you can really get it,” Vidovic said. “It’s not a movie line. It’s really true. Because I’ve been that. I do that.”

On the job

Employers say refugees are contributing to the work force significantly.

“They’ve had a positive impact on the manufacturing division,” said Don LoGuidice, president of the Central Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, which employs 119 refugees. “In fact, they’ve made a positive impact on our whole economy.”

There has been tremendous change in the way the refugees are perceived in the work force, he said.

“At first, the concern was that refugees would take jobs away from others,” he said. “Now, the employers are perhaps their biggest advocate. They’ve had a major impact in revitalizing parts of the city.”

Refugees who work for LoGuidice bring a wide-range of skills, education, training and work experiences, he said.

“Moving into the occupation they have is sometimes difficult in the short term because of insufficient language skills,” he said. “But, in the long term, employees and employers are pretty supportive.”

He notes that they have five legally blind Bosnians who are working for them now — some on machinery, others as industrial sewers and some in packing.

In order to keep refugees moving up and contributing to the community, he said that refugees’ peers in the workplace and employers need to treat them like any other worker.

“Refugees need to feel a sense of belonging where they work,” LoGuidice said. “To be fully integrated within the community, they need to feel like they’re regular employees.”

And they need to know there are opportunities to advance.

LaSalle Labs worker Sofiya Aluna Aluna, a 41-year-old former nurse, who moved from the Ukraine last March, hopes to work as a nurse again.

In the meantime, she continues to take the long bus ride to LaSalle.

“My salary is very small,” Aluna said. “It’s expensive to drive to Little Falls, so I take the bus and leave the car with my parents.”

It’s not the most ideal situation, she said, but she knows she must push onto make the type of life she had in Ukraine.

So, like many of her counterparts on the bus, Aluna works to support her family, and keeps the dream alive that one day she will step off the bus for the last time.