- [Announcer] Live from your Public Media Studios, WVIA presents, "Keystone Edition Reports".

A public affairs program that goes beyond the headlines to address issues in Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania.

This is "Keystone Edition Reports.

And now, moderator Larry Vojtko.

- Hello.

I'm Larry Vojtko.

People from all over the world have chosen to call Northeastern Pennsylvania home for centuries.

Many communities had neighborhoods where people of one culture, country or ethnicity would gather.

And many times they even had their own churches.

People are still making new lives in Northeastern Pennsylvania, but where they're coming from is changing.

We'll take a look at why people are choosing our area for a fresh start.

If you have any questions or wanna tell your story of moving to the United States or to our area, call 1-800-326-9842.

Send an email to keystone@wvia.org or tag us on social with the #Keystonereports.

WVIA's Paul Lazar, takes a closer look at the changing face of NEPA.

- [Paul] For centuries, Northeastern and Central Pennsylvania has been a place where immigrants settle to start a new life.

Traditionally, most communities have had Irish, Italian and Eastern European neighborhoods.

Today, there are new groups of immigrants that now call our region home.

They're coming from Central, South and Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.

The Hispanic community, particularly in Luzerne County has seen huge growth over the last decade.

What makes Pennsylvania so attractive and why do today's immigrants choose to settle in our region?

Many say it's because of the opportunities it offers educationally, financially and culturally.

For "Keystone Edition Reports, I'm Paul Lazar.

(bright upbeat music) - Well, now we need to hear from you.

We're ready to take your calls at 1-800-326-9842.

You can also email keystone@wvia.org or messages through our social channels using the #Keystonereports.

Well, let's welcome our guests who are here to share their stories.

Bharat Tamang is originally from Bhutan, but now lives in the Scranton area.

Fermin Diaz is a native of the Dominican Republic, but has been living and working in the Hazleton area for more than a decade.

And Dr. Sam Quainoo... Dr. Sam Quainoo is the Chair of the Economics and Political Science Departments at East Stroudsburg University.

Well, welcome to you all.

Welcome.

It's great to have you in the studios.

And I'm gonna start with you Fermin because you were born in the Dominican Republic.

You effectually call it DR. - DR. - But you grew up in a portion of the United States that often well, is sometimes overlooked.

Not really accepted or realized to be part of the United States.

- Yeah, it's interesting.

Puerto Rico belong to the US since 1898 when United States entered by the South of the island.

And what you mentioned is really interesting because I think Puerto Rico have more cities than of the United States.

The 13 state of the United States.

And it's like a particular case because it's US but they have the Hispanic tradition very embedment, because before US arrive was part of the colony of the Empire of Spain.

- So yes.

So Puerto Rico was a part of...

Became part of the United States because of the Spanish American war- - [Fermin] Yes.

- At the end of the 19th century.

And you grew up there, but then you went back to Dominican Republic?

- Yeah, I go back to the university.

I want to connect back with my roots in DR.

In Dominican Republic.

I want to be more close then I back when I complete my master agreements to this.

Then my mother moved from Puerto Rico to here to Luzerne County and then I followed her to this area.

- So it was family that connected you into coming to Luzerne County.

That drew you here.

So what prompted you... What made you stay here and make a life here?

- People.

We humans are social animals that need to feel that we belong to something bigger than us.

And working here in the area I got the opportunity to many times to serve in different boards as a volunteer.

And I feel that the skillset that I have, helped me to help other immigrants to be part of the community.

To learn things different.

And all those connections in the city with people, place... Every time I put more root, more root and that made me stick.

I really love being the city, know people.

When a car passes in front of you, they touch their horn.

Hey, Fermin (Larry chuckles) That kind of stuff make you believe that you are from the place that where you came from.

And that human connection, I think is most powerful things to make Hazleton area my house.

- So, tell us a little bit about what you're doing in the Hazleton area.

- Well, I will split in different section- - Right, because you- - For Penn State University I am Entrepreneurship Instructor.

I work in the... What they call LaunchBox.

Is a coworking space where we help people to start business.

For Downtown Alliance for Progress, that these are nonprofit that work with downtown area, with the main street program.

I am the Main Street Coordinator.

I do activity.

I teach a leadership program.

So when immigrants came here, I make our translation about (indistinct) so they know what they will find here and they can serve in different organization.

For the Chamber of Commerce I am volunteer.

And from different other organization like Penn State Extension, I am volunteer.

I try to volunteer because I think is the way that I can learn and serve as a bridge to other people that are arriving to the area.

- I'm going to wanna hear a little bit more about some of the challenges you faced and our other guests as well.

But, we'd also like to invite you to make a comment or a question.

If you have a question for one of the guests, please call in.

Or you can send it via email or through social media.

In just a little bit we have a little story that we went out and talked with a few other folks throughout the Scranton area.

And we'll hear from Loreen in just a bit who has a compelling story.

But we'd like to hear your story as well.

So again, call in or email, or perhaps use the social media #Keystonereports.

So let's... We met with Loreen Gwion and learnt more about why she came to the United States from Liberia and what she loves about Northeast Pennsylvania.

- So I'm originally from Liberia, West Africa.

I came to America as a refugee of war.

Grew up on the refugee camp.

Couldn't go to school because I was girl.

Had to cut my hair, just to go to school dressed like a boy.

I relocated to Pennsylvania to achieve a higher education.

So I went to Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine, where I got my master's degree.

And hopefully I can be up a physician one day.

What drew me to Northeastern Pennsylvania was there's a lot of opportunities here.

It's the opportunity to learn.

The opportunity to grow and people willing to help.

So I... That's what I really like about this environment is the opportunity.

There's so much opportunity for you to grow as a person.

There are jobs opening.

It's like the diversity.

The community is trying to learn and see how we can help and how we can grow as a people, because kindness is the key.

And that's what I've noticed here.

Everybody's willing to help.

(smooth music) - That was Loreen and I'm gonna turn it over to Bharat.

Now you've listened to her story.

Can you relate on any level to that story?

Or are there some differences you could tell us?

Tell us more about your story, Bharat.

You come from Bhutan and tell us that.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I'm from Bhutan.

I was born in Bhutan and at the age of six, I moved to Nepal with my family along with a hundred thousand other Bhutanese and resided in the Eastern part of Nepal as a refugee for almost 18 years.

But there was political problems that went back in 1990s that we did not like the idea of the Government of Bhutan trying to prove us, non-citizen.

Non-genuine citizen of Bhutan.

And then they try to prove that we are not a legal citizen of Bhutan.

So we did not like that idea.

So we fight... We fought against the Government of Bhutan.

Yeah, that was the reason why we were forcibly evicted from the country.

- Okay.

So there was political turmoil.

- [Bharat] Yeah.

- That was the real reason for the migration.

- [Bharat] Right.

- First to Nepal and then... You were just six years old.

So I'm assuming you're coming with your parents or some family members?

- [Bharat] Yeah.

- So tell us about that.

- So yeah, in the beginning we had a very pathetic life in the camp.

I mean, I would say the tent, it was just built by a tarp and the bamboos and then the jute thread which wouldn't last long.

We had to worry about the storm even the rain, sun.

So yeah, we had a very horrible life.

That was in 1992, the beginning of our life as refugee.

And from 1995, our lifestyle got improved.

We had a different a organizations that helped us.

And then the people got organized.

And education...

Yes, he was talking about the education.

Education was the best services provided in the refugee camp.

It was even better than the education system that the local people around us they were getting.

It was a lot better than theirs.

- So tell me, what brought you to the Scranton area?

- Oh, so yeah, we had no any way out from the refugee camp.

So, I mean, we tried a lot of times to go back to our country.

We tried for the repatriation, but it wasn't possible.

So what are we gonna do?

We did not have any choice.

We couldn't live in the refugee camp and then the Government of Nepal wouldn't accept us.

They would not count us in their population.

And the Government of Bhutan wouldn't take us back to the country.

I mean, they would take us back to the country, but they wouldn't treat us like before.

- Right.

I'm just kind of curious because there are probably a lot of Americans who don't even know where Bhutan is.

So (chuckles).

- Yeah.

- I'm wondering how somebody from Bhutan knows about Scranton, Pennsylvania.

- So, I wanna be honest.

So, I did not know about Scranton at all.

I might have watched some Hollywood movies, but yeah, I had zero knowledge about this Scranton.

A friend of mine through the UNHCR... That is the organization that helped a lot during our life in the refugee camp.

And then the IOM, International Organization of Migrations, they brought us here.

A friend of mine she came an year before than me and I just followed her.

That was what happened.

And now I think I made the right decision.

- Oh, good.

Well, let's get back to that in just a bit.

I wanna know why you made the right decision.

We're seeing...

I think we're seeing kind of a line here.

Commonalities.

We see family bringing, we see friends bringing.

The connections of why people are coming here.

And I want to ask Dr. Sam Quainoo is here from ESU.

And we heard from Loreen.

We heard from Bharat about political turmoil.

And I wanna know if you can give us an idea of what are the main causes of migration?

Immigration.

What is really pushing that?

It's gotta be awfully scary for all... For people to leave.

So there has to be compelling reason for people to pick up from their homeland and move someplace else.

Can you give us some information on that, doctor?

- Thank you, Larry.

You just mentioned migration and immigration.

They're two separate terms even though they are close together.

Now migration is moving within from one part of the United States to another part.

And NEPA, Northeastern Pennsylvania has seen that kind of a migration.

You would see people or Americans moving from neighboring states.

New Jersey, New York, West Virginia.

These are contiguous states to Pennsylvania.

Moving here because of job or economic opportunities.

You also have people in the Northeastern Pennsylvanian area moving out sometimes retirement into the Southern states because of climate or because of retirement friendly policies in those states.

So that is migration.

People moving from our area to neighboring states or to... Or people moving from other states to our area.

Now immigration, we talking about foreign born nationals moving into this part of the country.

In the Northeastern Pennsylvania.

There are many reasons.

For instance, our proximity to major airports, JFK, New York, Philadelphia.

Our proximity to New York city, to New Jersey.

Our lower cost of living.

Our lower cost of living especially housing.

I mean, houses are much, much cheaper if you're comparing houses in let's say New Jersey to the Northeastern Pennsylvania area.

Now of course you have job opportunities as well.

But it also depends on where are the origins of these immigrants.

So when we look at people from South Central Latin America, this area is attractive because we already have established Latina communities.

If you look at Lehigh Valley, for instance, there are quite a significant number of Latinos well established there.

So you wanna move to an area where culturally you can find people who you can identify with.

So that's one of the reasons.

For those coming from Asia and Africa, Africa... We just heard from the lady from Liberia.

War ton Liberia, so... And Liberia had a special connection with the United States.

In fact the capital city of Liberia is called Monrovia name after President Monroe.

So they have special assets to the United States.

The Middle East, we've seen Syria.

The war crisis in Syria.

India... India's in fact, if you look at our NEPA area, the highest percentage of people moving now are from India.

India has about 10% of all the immigrants moving to NEPA.

To the Northeastern Pennsylvania area.

Education, skilled jobs are some of the reasons why we find people moving from this kind of area.

So there are a lot of reasons why people are moving into Northeastern Pennsylvania area.

- Well, thank you.

Thank you, doctor.

And in just a bit, we're going to hear from another person who has found a home here in Northeastern Pennsylvania who came as a refugee.

But before we hear that story I just wanna invite you to comment and to ask a question.

Either you can call us here at WVIA or send us an email Keystonewvia.org.

Or through our social media site using the #Keystonereports.

So now we're going to meet Ushu Mukelo who came to the United States as a refugee.

And here is his story.

- I'm from the Democratic Republic of Congo and I came to the US as a refugee.

It was poverty, misery and helplessness.

And that's what I would say about the refugee camp.

If I was in Uganda...

I'm 26 years old right now, I would not have a job.

The best job I would find is teaching a primary school and I would only make about a hundred dollars a month.

Scranton specifically is a very small city and that allows refugees to transition easily.

We do have at least 45 families as of now that are living here in the city of Scranton.

And they're all moving to Scranton because they're friends or some family members told them, hey, this is a cool place to be.

You can actually move here and live here.

It's a peaceful place and it's good for you.

So, people have reached out to help our families because the transition process is not easy.

Every family has it's own issues to deal with.

Even the Americans for Pennsylvanians themselves they were very open.

We've had people that came to our homes to help.

If I sit here and start thanking people, it's a list that is endless.

(smooth piano music) - Well, Fermin it's something that you said, transitioning into a smaller city makes that transition easier.

Do you agree with that?

Can you see the point he's making there?

- I disagree because it's not about the size of the city its about the kilter, the language where could make things harder.

Maybe if it's a small city and like the doctor say you got a lot of population related to you kilterly that could happen.

But think about you are the only American in a tiny city in Bhutan with 20 people.

That don't make easy because kilter, language will be a barrier.

And I think most important thing when you want to do the transition or to make easy to transition is have things that related to you culturally in this city.

Let's say, if you move to an area like the doctors say, you got a huge Hispanic community, being Hispanic it's easier to transition because you will have champions that rode the path before and maybe are working in some organizations to make your life kind of easy.

- Yes, you know that makes me think about a lot of the experiences of longtime residents of this area whose parents, grandparents... Like my grandparents all came from Eastern Europe.

They all moved into communities that were Slavic in nature.

They shared a language.

They shared a culture.

They shared food.

They shared shared a religion and that made it easier for them.

Now Bharat, you had mentioned that you were sure you made the right choice coming to Scranton.

Tell us more about that.

- Yeah.

I mean, having the background of my life, Scranton is a very perfect place for me to start my new life.

It's... Yeah, as he mentioned that it's a tiny city.

In my life, I had never been to huge cities back in Nepal.

And then so, when I came to perfect, of course it was more... A lot of challenges during that time.

But to be in a small city that is one positive part of being in this Scranton.

In the beginning, there were a lot of challenges, like especially the language thing.

Where to find the house and how to get the job.

All these things.

Still, many of our people are struggling for that.

But for me, Scranton was very perfect place for me.

And is still.

Yeah, I mean as myself as a musician and a realtor, I have been to many part of the Scranton.

So I feel like it's the home for me now.

And then I have been to a few concerts with friends around here and all the people they have welcomed me and then embraced me.

So I feel like they are counting me as one of them.

So that's really important.

- Well, that's great.

That's a great story.

- Yeah.

- I'm glad that that's working out for you.

We're really running out of time (chuckles) very quickly.

And I want to ask you professor, some say that the pace of immigration in the United States or even in the Western countries is going to increase and accelerate in the coming decades.

In the next few decades due to climate change.

Due to economic pressure.

So, first feel free to comment on that.

Whether you see that.

Or you foresee that.

And how... What I wanna know is how Northeastern Pennsylvania can be better prepared for that possibility.

- Okay.

Thank you, Larry.

Yes, climate change.

But what is probably even more pressing is the demographic changes.

Western Europe or developed countries... West Europe and America.

In developed countries, the population has stabilized.

In fact, we have higher... People are living longer but we have declining birth rates.

And so now, today we see labor shortages is gonna be even worse because as we continue to grow older and as our birth rates decline, there has to be replacement of labor as people retire.

But if our birth rates are declining, where's that gonna come from?

Guess what?

The places where the population growth is actually increasing are the developing countries.

Are developing countries in Africa, for instance.

And so... And they have younger population.

So, we will have a situation where there are serious labor shortages in developed countries.

There are increasingly growing populations in developing countries.

There's gonna be a merge.

But the new immigrants are gonna be different from what we've been experiencing before.

So that's where the challenge is.

How are we gonna manage these cultural changes?

How we manage these new transitions, will either benefit us immensely or create problems for us if we don't do it well.

- And that is the question of how we're going to manage that.

We don't have enough time to answer that question, but we're running out of time quickly.

And I just have what I'd like to ask each of you, Fermin and Bharat.

And we... About 30 seconds each.

What advice would you give someone who is contemplating moving here?

- Well, I will say as soon as you move here, identify what you love.

What you do.

What skills set do you have?

Volunteer in an organization that give the opportunity to grow.

Understand your ecosystem.

And that opportunity will make your life easier to integrate.

Because when you go to volunteer, you won't have so many friction because you will be just a volunteer.

Then that will give you the opportunity understand your community, your neighborhood and everything.

- And Bharat, what advice do you have?

- Yeah I mean, it doesn't matter what part of the world you are coming into Scranton.

It's suitable for everybody.

It's very beautiful.

It's just this tiny country, very wonderful people.

I love to be in Scranton and I welcomed them.

(Larry laughs) - And what kind of musician are you?

- Yeah, I play sarangi.

It's a typical Nepali instrument, but I play other instruments too.

- Great.

Well, I wish we had more time.

I'd like to thank both of you... All of you, the panelists for participating and thank you for joining us.

For more information, please visit wvia.org/keystonereports.

And remember you can rewatch this episode on demand anytime online or on the WVIA app.

For "Keystone Edition Reports" I'm Larry Vojtko.

Thank you for watching.

(bright upbeat music)