Durham seeks ‘a bridge’ for refugees, celebrates immigrants in lively event

Over the pounding drums of a samba reggae band, Durham celebrated its immigrant community Saturday with colorful clothes, savory food and a hand for whoever needs it.

Durham Refugee Day drew roughly 100 people to its Central Park on a blazing hot afternoon, where dozens of booths offered help finding churches, counseling, emergency aid and — important at 96 degrees — hibiscus iced tea.

“You see every layer of how the community is built,” said Kokou Nayo, immigrant and refugee affairs coordinator for Durham city and county. “You see immigrants, you see those who were born here, you see those who aspire to be here. This creates a bridge. We want it to be a bridge.”

Durham includes about 46,000 foreign-born people, he said, a higher-than-typical population slice than typically found statewide. Of them, the city has between 400 and 500 refugees.

One sign of Durham’s commitment to helping those people is the city-county position that he holds — a rarity in North Carolina.

“That says a lot about the relationship you want to have,” he said. “They are here to bring something to the fabric of the Durham community.”

Glasses of hibiscus tea helped to support the Triangle Immigrant Solidarity Fund, which has provided crisis funding for undocumented immigrants at more than $1 million since 2020, said Daniela Archibold with Church World Service in Durham.

The greatest need comes through housing, she said, due to an increasing number of evictions and lack of affordable options.

“There are not programs to support them,” she said.

But overall, Durham handles its influx of refugees well, said Elodie Deneassembaye, whose family came from Chad and Cameroon in 2010.

Helping to manage her mother’s business, Berthe’s African Fashion, she said many arrive without the ability to navigate the language, and signs tend to be in English or Spanish, not Lakka, her family’s native tongue.

“It is very welcoming if the person that’s coming is very outgoing,” she said. “For a shy person, it’s much harder.”