Mechanicsburg in Central Pennsylvania is another site of “secondary migration” – refugees moving away from their primary resettlement area, looking for better opportunities or wanting to join family or friends. Catholic Charities Immigration and Refugee Services in nearby Harrisburg also resettles refugees directly to the area. The area’s factory jobs are a good fit for those with limited English. The Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania works to help refugees become independent. An article in The Patriot-News explains:
To most, learning to write down a telephone or Social Security number wasn’t a big deal.
But to 67-year-old Abdiyo Osman, who doesn’t know English, the task is a milestone.
Displaced from Somalia three years ago because of a tribal war that’s been brewing there for 20 years, Osman has been in Mechanicsburg ever since.
Some might wonder why the refugee came to the midstate, a place the polar opposite of her native land. She came here for the Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania.
Established in 2008 in Hampden Twp., word of mouth spread spread quickly that Somalis had gathered there to start new lives in the United States. Once they arrive, the association helps them adjust to life much different than back home…
…Osman spent a short time in Kenya before coming to the states, but she never got an education — until she came here.
Three times a week, Osman meets with several other refugees and takes classes in a tiny room in a small building in the West Shore office park off the Carlisle Pike. It is there Osman has learns how to write and adapt to American Culture.
One week it’s a lesson about the U.S. medical system and health care. The next week it’s budgeting money and opening a bank account. “It’s important to be able to do those basic things,” Osman said.
The Somali Association of Central Pennsylvania also works with various hiring agencies to help find refugees work in factories. Since most can’t speak English yet, it’s work that’s easiest to find.
With a job and basic life skills, refugees take steps toward the association’s idea of success — independent living.
It’s a life defined by opportunity as much as challenge… Read more here
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
A local friend of the Bhutanese refugees in Harrisburg contacted us to report that the attacks on the refugees have continued since police reported earlier this month that they suspected a small group of local teens. 
