TENNEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor World Refugee Day, a
day that is very special to the famous city of Utica, New York, in the
heart of the 22nd Congressional District, a place that I have
represented and lived my entire life. Utica was recognized recently as the home to refugees, and I am so
honored
to be a part of this great tradition in Utica. In quite an unusual portion of my background, I had the opportunity
to spend time in the former Yugoslavia. I also was the sole employee at
the former Yugoslav Consulate before the tragic war in Yugoslavia,
which broke the country up in the early nineties. As a part of my commitment to and interest in the people from
Yugoslavia, I was instrumental in helping bring a huge number of
Bosnian refugees to Utica, New York, back in the early nineties and
into the late nineties. And I am so pleased that I was able to have the
opportunity, with my family business, to create the very first Bosnian
newspaper in Utica, known as Mostovi, which means bridges in Bosnian. Today, the Bosnian refugees make up one of the largest, if not the
largest, Bosnian refugee communities in the Nation. They have done a
wonderful job in Utica in successfully starting businesses and
contributing greatly to our community, along with many other refugees. I just wanted to take this moment to recognize Utica and to thank our
tremendous Bosnian refugees for their contributions to our Nation and
especially to our community because without them, we would never see
the prosperity and the growth that we have seen in our small-business
community from their ingenuity and their kindness and their generosity
to us.
Keywords matched
Refugee refugee refugees