Somali refugees who flocked to jobs in U.S. slaughterhouses — including plants in Greeley and Fort Morgan — are moving beyond cutting floors to Main Street.
“We want to become Americans,” said Mohamed Egal, director of the Somali Aid self-help group in Greeley, where more than 700 Somalis live.
They’ve established shops offering imported items. An unmarked mosque in central Greeley offers a place for Muslim worship.
Informal “hawala” money-transfer services help reach relatives stranded in war-torn Somalia and refugee camps in neighboring Kenya. A former burrito restaurant now sells plates of rice, lamb and goat.
And community leaders say dozens more hopeful Somalis arrive each week in Greeley from larger cities such as Minneapolis and Seattle, where federal contractors initially resettle refugees.
The lure: steady $12-an-hour jobs at Brazilian-owned JBS Swift Beef Co. The plant employs more than 300 Somalis, taking advantage of the legally authorized status of refugees accepted from war zones.
This avoids problems associated with unauthorized migrants from Mexico and Central America.
Somalis also are sinking roots in Emporia and Dodge City in Kansas; Grand Island and Norfolk in Nebraska; and Sioux City, Iowa — all towns with slaughterhouses that depend on assembly-line labor.
Mothers “tell our children to follow the rules of Greeley as well as the rules of our religion,” said Salado Abdille, 60, who takes an English class in the computer-filled East Africa Community Center along with newcomers from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Rwanda and Sudan.
“We want them to graduate from high school, then university,” Abdille said. “We want them to work at nice jobs, not the meat plant. Like computer engineering. We want them to be successful.”
Somali men find “Greeley is a good place to fit in,” said Abdirizak Dahir, 21, a Wells Fargo banker who moved from San Diego. “You do have a lot of setbacks, but a lot of people here have a good heart.”
Bridging the gaps
Dahir said he was “going nowhere” in the Somali enclaves of east San Diego. His mother urged him to leave.
He found work at JBS in 2007. Adept in English, he began translating for other refugees.
One day in a Wells Fargo branch, Dahir joked that the bank should hire a Somali because more Somalis were arriving, needing to deposit paychecks.
To his surprise, manager Amanda Dunbar asked him to apply. He worked for a year as a teller, then was promoted.
Wells Fargo hires to match a broadening customer base, said Dunbar, who allows Muslim prayer breaks for Dahir and another Somali employee.
Rising from midday prayers last week at the mosque, Dahir said he deeply appreciated the ability to pray on the job.
“This is our foundation,” he said. “We feel empty without it.”
And Wells Fargo managers have gained insight into another cultural challenge: Religious beliefs prevent many Somalis from transactions involving interest. “They take debit cards,” Dunbar said.
Now, a few use credit cards after bankers explained that no interest would be involved if debts were paid each month.
The shrinking U.S. economy drives the trend of Somalis and other refugees seeking work in slaughterhouses.
“If you earn just $8 an hour, that’s sufficient to support yourself only. You can’t support your relatives in Africa. That’s selfish. You have to support yourself and your family,” explained Abdiqadir Jama, 28.
Jama, a former meat-plant trainer, recently opened the Doof Market and said he aspires to become a pharmacist. He and other members of a Somali soccer team are trying to enter a local league.
Yet Maryann Adow, 20, yearns to visit her biological mother, whom she hasn’t seen for 17 years. “It’s really, real ly hard to be alone,” Adow said.
When the bus dropped her off two years ago, she dreaded meat-cutting work. So she was glad to become a Wal-Mart cashier — and attend Greeley West High School.
After graduating in May, she plans to apply to a college in Denver, with the goal of being a teacher or family physician.
“I feel like an American. I have freedom,” she said. “You can choose your future.”
A few bumps along the way
Assimilation issues do exist. Greeley police have held meetings to try to smooth local mixing, although they report no major problems. Spanish- speaking JBS foremen use hand signals to try to bridge language gaps.
And a Somali entrepreneur’s takeover of the Burrito restaurant, a longtime favorite of University of Northern Colorado students, confused customers expecting burritos who found only rice, lamb and goat.
The overall business trend points upward, said Ahmed Abdi, 25, who recently doubled the size of his Eighth Avenue East Africa Halal Market, which he runs with two sisters.
They are especially eager to serve non-Somali customers.
When dental-office manager Stacy Heikes, 58, wheeled her mountain bike in last week to check out clothing, sandals and spices, Abdi handed her a free cup of tea.