In a booming real estate market, refugees in Maine seek affordable housing

As Maine's real estate market booms, refugees, asylum seekers and the groups that work with them are finding it more difficult to secure affordable housing. And this problem is echoed around the country where previously affordable cities are becoming desirable to remote workers. Reporter Ari Snider talked to several recent arrivals in Maine about the struggle to find housing, and to one group that has a creative solution.

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Refugees in Maine find it harder to afford housing as remote workers move in

Foreign-trained doctors struggle to get licensed to practice in the US

Immigrants with foreign medical degrees and certifications hoping to work in the US, can't get easily licensed. Even experienced medical professionals have to go back to school for years to be able to work as doctors and nurses again. With a critical shortage of healthcare workers, Maine Public Radio's Ari Snider reports that some states have tried to speed the process along, but most efforts have failed.

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Despite flurry of efforts to recruit immigrants with medical experience, many remain sidelined 

Taste testing African dishes in local schools

Maine's largest public school district wants more students to take part in its school lunch program. With Portland being home to students from several African countries, cafeteria workers are experimenting by offering them their native dishes. Ari Snider reports that, instead of serving up hotdogs and hamburgers, Portland's unique pilot program is taste testing chickpea and kale stews.

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Maine’s largest school district serves up African-inspired dishes to get more students excited about school lunch

Multilingual driving schools proliferate in Maine

New immigrants in many parts of the United States can have a hard time finding work if they don't have a driver's license. But it can also be difficult to pass a driving test in a new language. Ari Snider with Maine Public Radio reports on the growth of multilingual driving schools in the state of Maine.

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Lewiston's Somali community reacts to mass shooting

Lewiston, Maine, the site of the latest large mass shooting in the US, is a city that has been transformed by immigrants, particularly a large community of refugees from Somalia. Maine Public Radio's Ari Snider reports on how Somalis in Lewiston, who fled violence in their homeland, are reacting to the violence in their new home.

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Lewiston mass shooting rattles local Somalis who came to Maine looking for safety 

Somali Bantu community and Mi’kmaq Nation in Maine build ties with inaugural food exchange

Somali Bantu refugees began arriving in Maine about 20 years ago, fleeing civil war in their home country. Many have put down roots in central Maine, where several hundred people cultivate plots on a community farm. This year, Somali Bantu farmers offered two pallet loads of produce to members of the Mi’kmaq Nation, in a first of its kind food exchange. Maine Public Radio’s Ari Snider has the story.

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Ari Snider

Hussein Albraihi sweeps the floor at a former church in Hallowell, Maine

Refugees

Aimee Biba teaches a certified nursing assistant course at Portland Adult Education in Maine. Biba worked as a nurse anesthetist in Democratic Republic of Congo, but when she immigrated to the US, she had to redo nursing school in order to continue he

On Course

Sample portions of chicken and kale stew over rice

Food

Shukri Abasheikh, owner of Mogadishu Store, helps customer Gracia Mbula with a purchase in her store in Lewiston, Maine, on Monday, Oct. 30, 2023.

Violence

A couple embrace during a protest in Trafalgar Square, London, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2023. They are demanding the release of all hostages allegedly taken by the militant group Hamas.

Sacred Nation

'A link with my ancestors': Britons reconnect with Jewish roots for EU passports

The border between Belarus and Latvia is about 100 miles long and is partially separated by a fence monitored by border officers.

Migration

A migrant crisis at the Latvia-Belarus border

Activists from the Standing Together Movement play drums at a demonstration.

Israel-Hamas war

Standing Together leaders discuss attempts to open Jewish-Arab dialogue amid Gaza war

Pussy Riot feminist activist collective, from left to right, Alina Petrova, Diana Burkot, Masha Alyokhina, Olga Borisova.

Protest

A conversation with Russian protest group Pussy Riot

Trucks carrying humanitarian aid enter Gaza Strip from Egypt in Rafah as a temporary ceasefire went into effect, Nov. 24, 2023.

'We're bracing for what comes after' the truce, MSF Gaza director says

Environment

Confidence in UN climate talks at a low point ahead of COP28 in Dubai 

A few days after the deadly Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, Palestinians in the West Bank say they faced extreme harassment and threats. 

West Bank rocked by increased violence, displacement amid Israel-Hamas war

Former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger is interviewed by Neil Cavuto.

Obituary

Henry Kissinger leaves lasting — and controversial — foreign policy legacy

Åsa Koski started the Säg hej! campaign in Sweden to get people to interact more with each other to combat widespread loneliness.

Lifestyle

The ‘Say Hi’ campaign in Sweden is helping to combat loneliness

Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is pictured in his office in New York, Nov. 29, 2023.

Assassination plot in the US allegedly traces back to Indian govt

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