Dispatches from Staten Island’s Liberian Refugee Community

In 1994, Arkoi observed the arrival of hundreds of young refugees, many of whom had witnessed or suffered violence, and some of whom had been fighters themselves. Over the next 15 years, he devoted his life to integrating them into American society, as an educator in the neighborhood's schools, as the manager of a prominent soccer club, and as a community leader who liaised with city and state institutions.

Open Society Fellow Jonny Steinberg and pioneering community activist Rufus Arkoi came together for a recent discussion of the Liberian civil war and the Staten Island refugee community that formed in its wake. Arkoi shared his insights into the young African refugees’ adjustment to America, the justice system’s handling of immigrants, the relationship between Africans and African Americans in New York’s projects, and the power and the limitations of sport.

Listen above.