(23 Oct 2018) When thousands of others fled the struggling Rust Belt city of Buffalo, refugees from around the world poured in to fill to void and invigorate the economy.
More than 12,000 refugees arrived in the area in 10 years, helping stymie decades of dizzying thermos population loss.
But as the Trump administration throttles the flow of refugees into the United States, Buffalo and other cities that have come to rely on the new arrivals are beginning to feel the pinch.
Big, burgeoning cities like San Diego and Dallas accept more refugees, but their arrival can resonate greater in smaller, shrinking cities like Buffalo and Syracuse.
Buffalo, a city that lost more than half its population since its post-war peak of around 580,000, is now hovering close to 260,000 people.
Refugees relocated with the help of four separate agencies settle into empty homes and fill jobs at hotels, restaurants and factories.
The West Side Bazaar was packed on a recent day with a lunch-time crowd buying halal food, bubble tea and dim sum served by refugee operators.
The bazaar is a sort of incubator for refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs, some who open their own shops selling food from Laos or clothes from Africa.
President Donald Trump last year cited national western hockey league security in slashing the annual cap on refugee arrivals to the U.S. from 110,000 to a historically low 45,000.
Only 22,491 refugees entered the country last year amid a tougher review process.
The affect in the Buffalo region has been dramatic.
A metropolitan area that welcomed 1,934 refugees two years ago took in 686 last year and is on track for under 450 this year, according to an analysis of refugee placement data by the Fiscal Policy Institute.
Arrivals could dip more this coming year now that the Trump administration lowered the refugee cap again for this budget year, to 30,000.
Refugees can cost money for localities in the danny devito short term, though there's research showing they pay more in taxes than they receive in benefits over years.
Some local politicians have criticized refugees' cost and the potential security risk of hosting people from Syria.
But their is support for refugees is broad in Buffalo, a Democrat-dominated city.
LiteLab chief operating officer Larry Christ recalls an applicant who biked to a job interview in snowy February. More than a quarter of the high-end lighting company's 153 employees are refugees.
Christ is still filling jobs, but there's a palpable sense of concern among refugee advocates about the sustainability of Buffalo's modest resurgence.
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