EDITORIAL: Joplin is a welcoming place for Afghan refugees
Jan. 28—Welcome to the newest residents of the Four-State Area: the refugee families that fled Afghanistan last year and are resettling in Joplin, Webb City and Carl Junction.
Eleven families of between five and eight people each were resettled in the Joplin metro area in November and December, and eight more families of a similar size will be arriving shortly, according to Mike Newman, executive director of Noel-based RAISE, or Refugee and Immigrant Services & Education.
Newman told the community recently during a public meeting that the refugees are adjusting well to their new circumstances — and they're telling their friends that are still sheltering on military bases across the U.S. that Joplin is a good place to relocate. He says that's not only because of the low cost of living here, but also the "total support" that this region has been offering.
A report last year from Heartland Forward, an Arkansas-based think tank, suggests this trend is not an accident. The states located between the Appalachians and the Rockies (a large swath that includes us) has seen its share of the foreign-born population rise from 23.5% in 2010 to 31.1% in 2019. Why? Lower costs, better economic growth and access to good schools, the report says.
But one of the biggest reasons refugees may be eager to resettle here is something long seen as a Midwestern trait: "The spirit of friendliness that has been cited by the vast majority of the people we interviewed," the report says. "For people who have migrated great distances, and sometimes at personal risk, the reception in the Heartland — sometimes described as a hotbed of nativist and xenophobic attitudes — often instead has been both warm and inspiring."
That the Afghan families who have already resettled here are telling their peers about our community speaks highly of who we are.
We should continue to strive to be a community that is friendly and warm, one that is tolerant of others, welcomes others with open arms and seeks to help them thrive here however we can — and it appears that we're doing a good job of that.
