Ethiopians and Welfare

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By Heidi Vanderheiden, Boston University

Many Americans blame immigrants for our country's fiscal woes, as evidenced by Tuesday's Senate refusal to guarantee benefits such as emergency medical services and relief and treatment of communicable diseases for legal immigrants. But perhaps we should take a kinder look at immigrants, especially Ethiopian immigrants.
U.S. citizens are the overwhelming majority of welfare recipients. Dick Powers of the Department of Transitional Assistance says 49 percent of AFDC recipients are white non-hispanics. Only 18 percent are black non-hispanics. And of these, the hard-working 12,000 Boston area Ethiopians constitute only a small percentage.
Despite severe adjustment problems, Ethiopians comprise only five percent of the welfare rolls, one of the lowest percentages of immigrants, according to members of the Ethiopian Community Mutual Assistance Association (ECMAA) , which helps Ethiopians adapt to American culture.
Out of a sample group of 300 Ethiopians who have arrived in Boston within the past five years, only 20 to 30 may be on welfare, says the ECMAA. Ethiopians are very proud and consider it "beggary" to accept government money.
They are a hard-working folk. Often, Ethiopians end up working two or three part-time jobs rather than go on welfare, despite a severe language difficulty. "Most [Ethiopian refugees] are illiterate even in their own languages [which makes the] English language barrier exceptionally high," according to the Ethiopian Gazette.
Nevertheless, these Africans end up in jobs they are overqualified for. Ethiopian Youth Group chairman Suraffel Assefa agrees, "the majority are working at lower level jobs than what they're educated for." For instance, ECMAA executive director Binyam Tamene says, "a senior accountant [from Ethiopia], here may get a job as a bookkeeper." According to the Ethiopian Gazette, 95 percent of the community are in a low income bracket.
Racism is also a novel experience for Ethiopian immigrants. Ethiopia was never colonized by the Europeans, so Ethiopians have little experience the problems of racism" and experience culture shock when they encounter it. Ethiopians arrive expecting Americans welcome all immigrants, since America is purported to be a "melting pot."
Because early Ethiopian immigrants intended to return home, they did not begin to organize a community here until 1986. Until 1974, only well-to-do Ethiopian students came, expecting to leave after receiving a degree. But many remained here when the communists overthrew Ethiopian Emperer Haile Selassie. During the war leading to the socialist regime's loss of power in 1991, temporary visitors again decided to remain. Currently, more refugees are coming, due to civil wars in the country, but this time intending to stay. But, says Ethiopian Soccer Club president Tesfaye Gebremichael, "It is a community in search of its identity, trying to emerge, with the aspiration of making itself visible and ready to contribute to the society we live in."
Ethiopians also face problems common to all immigrants, such as jobs, housing, day care, and preserving their language and culture. Asfaw says sadly that the language is also dying out here in America--kids are forgetting it.
Ethiopians also have troubles affording space for cultural institutions. The Christian Ethiopian Orthodox Church is one of the most important influences on Ethiopian society, helping to pass the culture on, and has been entrenched in Ethiopia since the fourth century. The Church has been here since about 1989, but the congregation still has difficulty affording space here in the Boston area. So far, the St. Michael Tewahedo Ethiopian Church in Cambridge has had to move three times.
Finally, the American public is unaware of Ethiopians. When an Ethiopian student, Sinedu Tadesse was alleged to have committed murder/suicide at Harvard University, the community was upset by the media's interpretation of Tadesse's quietness as a symptom of depression, because Ethiopians are not generally outspoken. For instance, they do not interrupt. Asfaw adds that Tadesse was also not lonely as the papers said. "She visited with her family every weekend," says Asfaw.
Despite such problems, Ethiopians are assimilating themselves well into American culture. Says Gebremichael approvingly, "most try very hard to mix with mainstream America." Ethiopian immigrants face many obstacles to this ideal. Luckily, Ethiopians are a very patient people. Says Gebremichael, "In time, problems will all be solved."