How refugee families are adapting life in Lexington

Holidays have passed and seasons changed since a group of migrants, mostly from Haiti and Venezuela, arrived in Lexington. The families are now figuring out how to become functioning members of Lexington’s community. 

The group has been housed in a temporary shelter run by the MA National Guard that once spanned two hotels but has since been compressed into one. Here, the work of the Lexington Refugee Assistance Program (LexRAP) and other community organizations can be seen first hand. LexRAP president Bruce Neumann explains that what first started out as mostly emergency donations of clothing and other basics has now turned into a sustained effort to help the families acclimate to their new life here in the U.S.

“We’ve set up ELL classes and they happen twice a week,” Neumann says. Seeing how important that was, the group added English conversation circles, which happen three times a week. “The next thing on our agenda [is] how do we help these folks find jobs.” LexRAP is one part of a coalition of organizations supporting these migrants.

After fleeing Haiti for Brazil in 2021, Victor (not his real name) traveled through ten different Latin American countries, accompanied by his wife and three year old daughter. Now that they’ve arrived, he says he’s ready to work.

“To look for a job, I go walking everyday. Since I have my permission, I try to go every day. I take the bus or train if I have to. I’ve gone everywhere looking for a job and I still haven’t found one,” Victor says. 

Haitian immigrants are entitled to a special legal status called TPS (Temporary Protected Status), which allows them to live and work in the U.S. due to conditions in their home country. Most of the others are filing for asylum, a process that is slowed by the backlog of cases due to the large wave of migrants that have arrived in the state in recent years. 

“Most of them at this point have their work authorization and are very eager to work. But they’re limited a little by their understanding of how things work, and by limited English. So we’re simultaneously working hard to teach English and beginning to help them create resumes and look at the job market,” Neumann says.

In addition to help from LexRAP and other community organizations, the families receive a number of services from the state and town. Lexington Public Schools have registered 17 kids from migrant families, ranging from elementary to high school. Most families receive Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), a cash benefit Massachusetts provides for low-income individuals. Almost all residents of the hotel are eligible for and have MASSHealth. Volunteers have dedicated time to helping individual residents find primary care physicians and make appointments since the system can be complex for non-English speakers.

Victor survived a three-year journey, traveling by bus and boat, then walking from Nicaragua to Texas with his daughter on his shoulders and wife in hand. “If God was not in my life, I don’t know what I would’ve done in those moments,” he says. 

Despite the trauma experienced by many families on their journey to the U.S., mental health care is not one of the services provided to most asylum seekers. LexRAP has given resources to help adapt to a functioning life in Lexington, but unfortunately the group is “not equipped to deal with that, and the state is not equipped to deal with it,” Neumann says. 

Victor’s priorities lie in providing for his family he has with him, and one day reuniting with his two sons who had to stay behind on the gang-infiltrated streets of Port-au-Prince. “What is most important for me, I tell you right now, is my family that I have in Haiti. It makes me sad because I want to but I cannot write to them every day, I have to write like every month,” he says. “Haiti is still in disarray. The government is waging war among itself, and to survive I have to make money to take care of my children — I have to find work,” Victor says. 

In addition to LexRAP’s work, The First Parish Church has set up accounts for donations for the refugees that raised $50,000 in just a week. Victor says he’s grateful for this and his ability to have settled in comfortably, and says that sharing his story has re-ignited hope for his future.

“I’m happy because it is the first time that I found a person to talk to about what happened,” Victor told LexObserver. “I feel happy about that and tomorrow is my daughter’s birthday. Now she’ll be six and we get to celebrate here.”