🔒New Mainers: Tolerance or indifference?

When I first moved to Tokyo, a business acquaintance told me there are three types of people whose different behavior Japanese “tolerate”: foreigners, drunks and crying babies. And not necessarily in that order.

During my five years reporting from that country, I found cultural differences and language misunderstandings that were amusing, and some that were hurtful.

One example of the former was when I emerged from the bath tub, walked into the outer room to get clothed, and found a man standing in the entrance of the house wanting to sell me socks. Being a polite Japanese, he pretended he didn’t see me naked. I later found out the entrance, known in Japanese as the “genkan,” is considered a public space.

An example of the latter is being in a public restroom and hearing a Japanese mother tell her child not to go into the stall where the “gaijin” or foreigner was because it would be dirty.

Uninformed assumptions can alienate different groups and deprive each from broadening their life experiences.

While reporting my story in this issue on New Mainers, many of them told me of how accepting some Mainers are, while others just let them be on their own. The consensus was that Mainers are independent and like to be by themselves, and they drive a lot. Most of the people I interviewed were Asian or Middle Eastern, cultures with a group mentality. Many came from large cities where they walked their neighborhoods and got to know other people that way.

Bringing such disparate cultures together can cause distrust, but it could also open opportunities for new ways to do things and for businesses to accommodate cultural differences. One example is marketing: many New Mainers are accustomed to selling their goods by word of mouth rather than social media. Muslims cannot take a loan with interest. But there are ways around that, such as a monthly flat fee. Banks still haven’t embraced those potential customers, who number in the thousands. It’s a lost opportunity.

We’ve all heard the numbers about Maine having more deaths than births and younger Mainers leaving the state. Immigrants have been held up as the big hope for Maine: newcomers who tend to be younger than the general population, who have children who will grow up and possibly stay in Maine and who start businesses and contribute to the economy.

Having a need for talented workers and then having those potential workers move in-state would seem to form the basis of a symbiotic relationship. With the dwindling population in the state, it may well be that Mainers need these newcomers to keep the economy viable more than they need us.

While there are language and cultural barriers to overcome, there also are issues with certification. A doctor, nurse, lawyer or engineer, all of whom are in short supply in Maine, cannot simply enter the United States and transfer their credentials. In some cases, they can’t even prove they have a degree, as the university in their country of origin may have been bombed.

Sometimes, these professionals end up starting restaurants, driving cabs or cleaning hotel rooms. A doctor, for example, likely would have to take tests and go through a residency program again to get certified to practice in the United States. The same is true of engineers and other professions. While it’s important to make sure we have qualified professionals, it would make sense to streamline the process of recertification so a doctor can practice as a doctor rather than retrain and become a physician’s assistant.

As Mainers, we also could be more welcoming and accommodating to these New Mainers, most of whom left everything from their former life behind and are starting here with a clean slate. After all, it benefits all of us if they stay and contribute to the state’s economic vitality.

The question for Mainers is whether we want to tolerate and embrace people we see as different or remain largely indifferent.

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