Migrants thrive at Buffalo’s West Side Bazaar
Buffalo refugees find community and thrive
Nadeen Yousef left her home country of Iraq for a better life in the United States and knows firsthand the challenges refugees face here.
The ban on travel the Trump administration imposed on visitors from certain predominantly Muslim countries led to her being delayed when flying home to Buffalo from Jordan via Toronto. That’s when an official at the Toronto airport warned her she would get in trouble traveling to a Middle Eastern country without being a full U.S. citizen.
The hassles of traveling internationally aside, the 45 year old has found living in the U.S. for the past four years promising. She owns Macrame by Nadeen, a craft boutique in Buffalo’s multi-ethnic West Side Bazaar.
The Bazaar itself is a melting pot of people from all over the world. Because of its diverse makeup, and its location just about a mile from Canada and its very different migration policies, the Bazaar makes an ideal location to talk to people about their experience as new Americans.
Yousef said the Bazaar community feels like a family with most shops being owned by fellow women, refugees or both who like her saw the opportunity as the basis for their new American lives.
“It is very interesting when you meet people who don’t speak your language, not even English,” said Yousef, who added that she still finds a way to communicate. “My work means a lot to me. … It makes me feel proud and independent.”
Yousef opened her shop with only a couple hundred dollars used to create her initial, colorful woven designs. She’s proud of her success and her new life in America.
“I started job and business and I own house in four years, so what I need more?” Yousef said. “What could I need more?”
Building a community within a community
Raine Naing migrated from Burma with her husband and two children in 2013. Naing works three jobs including as a birthing coach and as the owner of a clothing boutique/kiosk at West Side Bazaar.
While Naing passed on living in Canada where she could have benefits such as free healthcare, she credits her close proximity to the neighboring country with her ability to find success as a shop owner.
“From a business point of view, Canadians come across the border because they find that it’s cheaper to shop in Buffalo because they pay higher taxes,” Naing said.
According to a 2010 report comparing taxes in 35 countries by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the average American paid $11,365 annually while a Canadian paid $14,693 in taxes, per capita.
With higher taxes and a commute that could be a short as 10 minutes, some Canadians make the drive to Buffalo to shop at places such as the West Side Bazaar or simply to fill up for gas.
Now a U.S. citizen, Naing said it’s important for her to give back to Buffalo’s refugee community. Drawing from her life as a nurse in Burma, Naing helps refugee women needed help during pregnancies and childbirth, plus volunteers at resettlement centers where she teaches English.
Naing’s husband Jerry also volunteers at Journey’s End Refugee Services center where he translates the Burmese language and helps teach spoken English to refugees.
“We have different populations and a close community in Buffalo,” Jerry Naing said.
The couple now considers Buffalo home and don’t envision themselves, the parents of two teenagers, returning to Burma.
“My kids are here,” Jerry Naing said. “I know I’m not going anywhere no matter how much I miss home.”
is a 2019 magazine, newspaper and online journalism graduate and digital journalist for The NewsHouse. Also, he’s contributed to Rooted, The Stand and Chronicle of Social Change focusing on youth social justice in Upstate New York.
