Editor's note: Journal Staff Writer Philip Marcelo will be traveling to Liberia in August to report on that country's progress 10 years after the end of a devastating civil war. This is the latest installment of an online and print series called "Rebuilding Liberia: The R.I. Connection."
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Liberia's civil war from 1989 to 2003 is estimated to have resulted in the deaths of 200,000 people.
In a pre-war population of about 2.8 million, it displaced more than one million. Although many Liberians fled to surrounding West African countries, a sizable number made their way to the United States.
Today there are roughly 200,000 Liberians in the United States legally on the bases of political asylum, permanent residency, citizenship or tourist or student visas, according to Rhode Island College professor P. Khalil Saucier, who directs the college's Africana Studies program.
Saucier conducted a sociological survey of the local Liberian community in 2011.
In it, he addresses a wide range of issues facing Liberians in Rhode Island, including the community's challenges with integration into American society, their feelings about returning to their homeland and the uncertainly around the Temporary Protective Status many of them must renew annually with U.S. immigration officials.
Saucier says many Liberians who came to the United States. in the 1980s and 1990s -- the height of civil war violence in the country -- settled in California, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and New York.
But the Ocean State, in part because of its size, has the distinction of hosting one of the largest per-capita concentrations of Liberians in the country, at roughly 15,000 as of 2012.
Saucier's study explores a question I get asked a lot as I talk about my project: Why did so many Liberians settle in Rhode Island?
A majority of respondents said they chose Rhode Island simply to reunite with family and friends. As one family member or friend set down roots, others followed. A familiar immigrant story. (Incidentally, none surveyed cited "economic prospects" as the top reason.)
The study also suggests Liberians preferred Rhode Island to other places because its small size made it easier to develop close-knit communities, and because of its its quality education system (relative to other states nationally) and vibrant church and religious community.
Another issue that Saucier's study explores, which I hope to delve into more with this project, is repatriation back to Liberia.
The RIC survey suggests Rhode Island Liberians - at least those with relatively high levels of education - have a strong desire to go back to their homeland.
Nearly a third of those surveyed said they hoped to resettle in Liberia, with nearly a quarter saying they would hope to do so within the next ten years.
As Saucier observed: "Numerous migrants cited the desire to help Liberia develop as the impetus for return."
That's just a small sampling of the wealth of information in Saucier's 28-page study, which is one of the best foundational materials I've found on the Liberian community here in Rhode Island so far.
Definitely worth a read.