{"id":13535,"date":"2016-08-05T14:06:26","date_gmt":"2016-08-05T20:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lastbestnews.com\/site\/?p=13535"},"modified":"2016-08-05T14:06:26","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T20:06:26","slug":"missoula-refugee-efforts-draw-international-interest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/2016\/08\/missoula-refugee-efforts-draw-international-interest\/","title":{"rendered":"Missoula refugee efforts draw international interest"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Poole\"<\/a>

Martin Kidston<\/p>

Mary Poole, left, of Soft Landing Missoula marched with refugee supporters through downtown Missoula in a spring rally. Poole appeared with several other local figures in a British Broadcasting Corp. report on the refugee debate in Western Montana.<\/p><\/div>\n

When Matthew Danzico heard an interview on Public Radio International regarding the debate over refugees in Western Montana, he opted to take a closer look on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corp.<\/p>\n

Weeks later, he landed in Missoula and set out to interview several Montanans central to the debate, including Mary Poole of Soft Landing Missoula, Missoula Mayor John Engen and Ravalli County Commissioner Jeff Burrows.<\/p>\n

His report posted to the BBC\u2019s \u201cU.S. and Canada\u201d section on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that the refugees hadn\u2019t arrived yet seemed like a very visual story, and one I thought our international audience would find interesting,\u201d Danzico said on Thursday, speaking over the phone hours after his report emerged as one of the BBC\u2019s most viewed stories.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur audience in the United Kingdom, and elsewhere in Europe and around the globe, has been following various stories on refugees and their migration,\u201d he added. \u201cWe have not heard about what middle America thought or is doing about the refugee crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, middle America\u2014at least in Missoula\u2014is doing quite a bit.<\/p>\n

After several months of local debate, the International Rescue Committee has agreed to resettle roughly 100 refugees a year in Missoula. The organization announced last month that the refugees would probably\u00a0originate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, though that hasn\u2019t been finalized.<\/p>\n

In the BBC report, Mary Poole recounted the reasons she helped launch Soft Landing Missoula last year. The local effort was sparked by images of Alan Kurdi, the 3-year-old Syrian child who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea while fleeing to Europe with his family. Members of Soft Landing did not want to\u00a0sit idly by and let others solve an international crisis.<\/p>\n

Missoula may be isolated, they\u2019ve said before, but it\u2019s still part of the global community.<\/p>\n

\"CapreAir_Variable\"<\/a><\/div><\/div>\u201cI hope Missoula can send a message that refugees aren\u2019t forgotten,\u201d Poole said Thursday after viewing the BBC report. \u201cThere are a lot of people that really want to help. The outpouring of support we\u2019ve gotten has been amazing\u2014overwhelming at times in how many people want to help refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

That message wasn\u2019t unanimous in Danzico\u2019s report. While Poole remains strong in her desire to resettle refugees in Missoula, far away from war and famine, Ravalli County Commissioner Jeff Burrows relayed a different message to the BBC\u2019s international audience.<\/p>\n

Burrows told Danzico that Montana is isolated from the rest of the world, and if supporters want to bring refugees to the state, they should \u201cgive us a guarantee they won\u2019t pose a threat to our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Missoula receives 100 refugees doesn\u2019t mean Missoula is going to receive those impacts,\u201d Burrows stated in the report. \u201cWe\u2019re 95 percent Caucasian, and I think it\u2019s a culture shock when you see something outside that norm, and I just don\u2019t know that it\u2019s a safe place to bring in refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danzico, who\u2019s now back in Los Angeles, said he grew up in a Pennsylvania coal-mining town where the politics aren\u2019t unlike those in Ravalli County. He understands both sides of the debate and views Montana\u2019s politics as a complicated mix of red and blue.<\/p>\n

\"Danzico\"<\/a>

Matthew Danzico<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI think what the audience gets the sense of, and what I got a sense of is that Missoula, like other liberal hubs around America, is a blue dot sitting in a sea of red,\u201d Danzico said. \u201cIt\u2019s a hyper-liberal city sitting in a somewhat conservative state. The politics are just different.<\/p>\n

Danzico said the report he submitted was longer than what posted and included a back-and-forth dialogue between Burrows and Missoula Mayor John Engen. That part of the story was cut by Danzico\u2019s editors in London.<\/p>\n

But in the report, Engen does summarize what Danzico observed during his time in the state, saying there\u2019s an opportunity for Missoula to be inclusive and helpful in solving an international crisis, despite the resistance of some.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo assume that this organization (Soft Landing) has an obligation to visit a neighboring county to have a conversation about what it may or may not be doing, I think that\u2019s a big ask,\u201d Engen said in the report. \u201cI think the debate here is largely a product of the divide between rural Montana and urban Montana. I think it reflects a concern that things are changing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danzico said he\u2019s seen similar politics in Colorado, particularly as they relate to Boulder and the rest of the state. He understands Engen\u2019s point of view, as well as that of Burrows. How he feels about the two communities from a political standpoint he wouldn\u2019t say.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite working for the BBC and living in London for a while, I\u2019m from coal-mining country and Hamilton isn\u2019t that far away culturally from the town I grew up in,\u201d Danzico said. \u201cI know conservative areas of America fairly well. It wasn\u2019t surprising. I think both sides had valid concerns and valid points.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the debate continues in Western Montana, Poole said Soft Landing continues to gain supporters looking to help incoming refugees acclimatize to their new home. The city has a seldom-mentioned international community and a long list of seasoned travelers looking to help, she noted.<\/p>\n

Soft Landing will provide the IRC will its list of volunteers and continue its community outreach and education, hoping to bridge the gap between those opposed to resettlement and the refugees themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think part of it is living in a somewhat isolated place,\u201d Poole said. \u201cWe don\u2019t have these same outlets that people in larger cities might have interacting with people from all over the world. I would almost say there\u2019s a hunger here to have these multicultural experiences, and to feel like they\u2019re making a difference in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Danzico, too, hopes to follow up with a story once the refugees settle in.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve already been talking about that possibility,\u201d he said. \u201cI would be interested in how they are adopted into the community. In both Missoula proper and the surrounding communities, I think they\u2019ll be welcomed with open arms. I think it will be a wonderful cultural exchange that will open people\u2019s eyes and minds on both sides of the fence.\u201d<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Missoula Current<\/a>, of which\u00a0Martin Kidston is the founding editor.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Matthew Danzico heard an interview on Public Radio International regarding the debate over refugees in Western Montana, he opted to take a closer look on behalf of the British Broadcasting Corp. Weeks later, he landed in Missoula and set out to interview several Montanans central to the debate, including Mary Poole of Soft Landing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":13536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,14],"tags":[2813,4792,1886,4790,4791,4788,3917,4789],"class_list":["post-13535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-montana","category-news","tag-bbc","tag-jeff-burrows","tag-john-engen","tag-mary-poole","tag-matthew-danzico","tag-public-radio-international","tag-refugees","tag-soft-landing","prominence-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13535"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13535\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montana-mint.com\/lastbestnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}