The refugees and immigrants recently started making their imprint on the urban landscape of Greeley. The have opened ethnic food restaurants and markets and many of them congregate at the Global Refugee Center. The refugee and immigrant population lives, shops and works in the parts of Greeley bordering the main areas that are
historically and currently mostly Hispanic.
Urban landscapes bear imprints of ethnic groups via material and non-material symbols, social relations and interactions. Many ethnic enclaves don’t build new buildings in terms of ethnic architecture (Hayden 1995a:34) but rather they impact the cultural landscape of a region with new language, food, custom, dress, settlement and labor patterns, and social organization (Berry and Henderson 2002:7-8; Hayden 1995a:34). Furthermore, it is important to acknowledge the refugees’ and immigrants’
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power and agency to transform and imprint their identities on Greeley’s urban landscape thus contesting the historical segregated context of the city.
It is important to understand that the history of a landscape includes the process of transformation and legitimization of ethnicity that reinforces a group’s identity (Berry and Henderson 2002:7-8). Visible landscape markers increase the refugees’ abilities to maintain cultural attributes such as food preferences from their countries of origin. And as these cultural attributes change the new landscape in which they now live, the
meanings and values of such material and non-material culture change as well. "Identity has been reflected in the dynamic cultural landscape. Over time, elements of material and nonmaterial culture assume new meanings as they enter the local landscape" (Berry and Henderson 2002:8). Hence, places that the refugees can eat food, speak in a language, wear clothing, and participate in cultural rituals that resembles the cuisine and culture of their homeland, reaffirms their ethnic identity, and by being situated in the context of Greeley, alters it as well.
Ethnic economies clearly conform to and at the same time contest the segregated urban landscape of Greeley. Immigrants are well known for being very entrepreneurial (Kaplan and Li 2006:3) and this is true of the refugees in Greeley. The ethnic
proprietorship economy, which is the extent to which members of an ethnic group are self-employed (Kaplan and Li 2006), conforms and yet contests the sociospatially- segregated landscape (Low 2000) of Greeley. These small businesses owned and
operated by some of the refugees and immigrants conforms to the sociospatial realities of current day Greeley because these business are located in the lower-economic portions of Greeley that border the historical and current Hispanic ethnic enclave. However, these
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small businesses are a way of contesting the space (Low 2000:129) by using material and non-material cultural symbols, such as language and food (Hayden 1995a). Michel de Certeau’s concept of resistance as “ways of operating” is helpful in elaborating the use of business as contesting the current landscape. People resist by “ways of operating”
because they reappropriate space and use it in their own socio-cultural ways expressed in everyday life and practices (Low 2000:129).
The refugee owned ethnic markets and business (Kaplan and Li 2006) of Greeley include the Global Refugee Center and a few East African and Asian restaurants and markets. Besides Asad Abid founding the East African Community Center (EACC) (now the GRC), other refugees and immigrants have also started businesses. Abdi Warsame Abdirahman, a Somali refugee, who first arrived in Minnesota in 2006, opened the The Najah African Restaurant and the East African Halal Market in 2012 (Sperry 2015). He worked for JBS for a time to save money, but recognized Greeley lacked grocery stores and restaurants targeting the refugee population. He opened his restaurant so that there would be a place for East African and Middle Eastern cuisine. He estimates the refugees, most of who work for JBS, make up around 60-70% of his customers. Farah Rashid, Abdirahman’s son, runs the restaurant, cooking, cleaning, and serving. He said, "I love working here. I get to eat here seven says a week" (Sperry 2015). I ate at the Najah restaurant during my cross sectional drive. (for further discussion see subsection 1.4 Refugee and Immigrant Owned Businesses in the Findings: Employment, Housing, Home, Safety and Language Chapter).
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Photo 1: The Najah African Restaurant (Sperry 2015).
Abdi Kadir owns the East African Restaurant, located in a converted burrito restaurant, and he established the business to also meet the tastes of the Somali community (Olszewski 2010).
Photo 2: The East African Restaurant (Olszewski 2010).
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Market (“Asian Border Market”) and the Golden Star Asian Grocery (“Golden Star Asian Grocery”), both of which I visited during my cross sectional drive. All of these
businesses were started by refugees or immigrants who came to Greeley to work for JBS who then saw the various needs of the refugees that they could answer by opening their own businesses.
These businesses as “ways of operating” (Low 2000:129) through language, food, and by transforming the interior and exterior of the buildings (Hayden 1995a:34) contest and resist (Low 2000:129; Hayden 1995a:34) the segregated sociospatial context of Greeley. At the same time, they establish ethnic identities thus transforming the urban landscape (Kaplan and Li 2006). As shown by the Map 4, these businesses are spatially concentrated to the residences and other businesses of the refugees and immigrants making a strong case for a refugee and immigrant enclave economy and a transformation of Greeley’s urban landscape (Kaplan and Li 2006:4).
Map 7 shows my cross sectional drive and the places I stopped along the way to experience the refugee and immigrant owned restaurants and stores. I came into Greeley via US 85 heading north and merged onto 8th
avenue. My first stop was at the GRC where I observed the center in its daily activities. I then walked to Zoe’s to observe the space where the Christ Community Internal Church, Karen Baptist Church, and Spanish- speaking congregation meet on Sundays. I then walked back to the Najah African
Restauant where I had lunch (discussed further in subsection 1.4 Refugee and Immigrant Owned Businesses in Chapter Findings: Findings: Employment, Housing, Home, Safety and Language). I then got in my car and continued my cross sectional drive, first stopping at the Samafale Halaal Store where I looked around, observed the products offered and
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spoke briefly with the woman working at the store. I then drove on to the Golden Star Asian Grocery, and then the Asian Border Market. I went into each store to observe and casually converse with the people running the stores. Then I drove past the Pines
Apartments which are located right behind the Asian Border Market. As I was leaving this part of town and continued going further west past 23rd
avenue I noticed a significant decrease in immigrant and refugee owned businesses.
Map 7: Route of Cross Sectional Drive
Note: Stars are locations I stopped during drive for observation
7.3 Finding a new home for the GRC, Contracting the Refugee and