FRED DE SAM LAZARO, guest anchor: Our next story is from Utica, New York -- one among countless northern industrial cities where industry disappeared. But there's a bit of historical deja vu in Utica. The city is once again a haven for immigrants and many refugees from religious persecution. They are breathing new energy into some old factories and houses of worship.

Lucky Severson visited Utica earlier this year.

LUCKY SEVERSON: At the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Utica, New York, as with many other churches here, visitors might wonder if they're actually in Utica or, in this case, Burma. Pastor Mark Caruana says accommodating so many refugees has been challenging, to say the least, but his congregation is better for it.

Pastor MARK CARUANA (Tabernacle Baptist Church): This is a congregation that's been willing to embrace a new group of people -- have been willing to go with changes that set people's heads spinning. There have been times when I've wondered if the whole thing would just kind of blow apart. It hasn't yet, and actually I think we're at the best place we've been as a congregation in years.

SEVERSON: Of the 1,500 Burmese who've arrived here in recent years, about 400 now attend Tabernacle Church. They're known as Karen people -- Christians long persecuted by the Burmese military. But they make up only a small part of the 10,000 or so refugees from more than 31 countries who have escaped to the U.S. and settled in Utica since the Vietnam War. About one in six residents here is a foreigner. Tabernacle Baptist is only one of many Utica churches full of new faces. Churches have played a key role in welcoming refugees.

UNIDENTIFIED ENGLISH TEACHER: So, when you're talking about a woman . . .

SEVERSON: Virtually all newcomers are enrolled in English classes, sponsored by the Mohawk Valley Center for Refugees, which is affiliated with the Lutheran Refugee Service. The center is responsible for resettling immigrants from all faiths and getting them off to a good start as quickly as possible. Peter Vogelaar is the executive director.

PETER VOGELAAR (Executive Director, Mohawk Valley Center for Refugees): Our target is that any work-eligible refugee that comes into the community will be working by the time they've been here 120 days.

SEVERSON: Vogelaar says over 75 percent do find work within four months -- often, but not always at entry level jobs like that of Ser Na Waw working at an Indian casino a few miles from Utica. He's supporting his wife, Ta Da Pa, and their two boys. Their names are Elton John Wa and Washington Wa.

TA DA PA WA: I understand more about here. Yes, I like because we also have rights and freedom about everything you can do. I like.

SEVERSON: In the heart of Utica is a collection of old abandoned warehouses and factories, remnants of Utica's heyday in the 1950s. Cafe Caruso's was here then, and so were these customers, maybe at the same table.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1 (Customer, Cafe Caruso): You should have been around here about 40, 50 years ago -- completely different. This main street here, Bleeker Street, was there maybe about 1,000 stores?

SEVERSON: Caruso's survived but most didn't after the manufacturing moved out, rust settled in, and the population of the city shrank more than half to around 60,000. Utica was settled originally by Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrants, and these gentlemen think it will be saved by the new immigrants.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2 (Customer, Cafe Caruso): They've sort of given the city a rebirth. The early immigrants would do anything to support their families, and that hasn't changed at all.

SEVERSON: Not everyone in Utica is happy about the huge influx of foreigners. There are some critics, typically people who grew up here, who feel that immigrants from other countries have been given special treatment -- opportunities and advantages they never received.

Cleveland Harris is not an unreasonable man, but he's upset. He just got laid off and is about to lose his apartment.

CLEVELAND HARRIS: Well, I feel like everybody deserves a chance to get into a better life because a lot of people come from places worse than this. So I don't begrudge them that. But what I will say is this: the people that are already here, they need to take care of them. You know what I'm saying?

SEVERSON: Patrick Johnson, head of the racial justice department at the Utica YWCA, says that the resentment is based on longstanding racism in Utica -- an attitude that the darker the skin color, the greater the discrimination will be.

PATRICK JOHNSON (Director, Racial Justice Department, YWCA): There have been some groups that have been able to be more progressive. Some people would attribute that to their skin color. But we have to be fair. They are hard working people. But other immigrants and other people who have been here in this community historically for 50 years and for generations are also very hard working people.

SEVERSON: Do you think that they have taken jobs or created jobs?

Mr. HARRIS: Some have created and some have taken. Some come in to get family businesses. They can get a business loan quicker than we can. Others have taken because they don't know the real pay scale, and I'm not going to say that all employers are like sweat shop workers, you know what I'm saying? I'm not going to say that. But they will do things that Americans sometimes seem to be too proud to do, you know.

SEVERSON: This may look like a sweat shop, but it isn't. These workers, from several different countries, make Kevlar gloves for the U.S. Army. Salaries range considerably above minimum wage, and mothers are offered flex time to take care of their kids. John Inserra is the owner.

JOHN INSERRA (Owner, U.S. Sewing): The work ethic of these people is so intense. They're not taking anything away from anybody else, because no one else wants to do it.

SEVERSON: Onn Da Kim from Cambodia arrived here three years ago with her husband and four children. Two kids are now in college.

ONN DA KIM: I work just six hours, because at noontime I go to school.

SEVERSON: You go to school at noontime? What are you studying?

Ms. DA KIM: I'm studying cosmetology.

SEVERSON: She tells me she's very happy because her family is buying a home. Immigrants have reportedly purchased about 600 homes in the Utica area.

Mr. INSERRA: They're creating more jobs for the population of Utica -- from the grocery stores to the pharmacies to the -- you know, all the way around. Sometimes people are a little smaller-minded, and they don't look at the well-rounded picture of economics.

SEVERSON: With Muslim, Somali, Bantu, and Bosnians co-existing with Christians in a small city, some people were worried about a clash of religions. But Pastor Caruana says it hasn't materialized.

Pastor CARUANA: I haven't seen a lot of friction inter-religiously here in Utica. There's a large Bosnian population here in Utica now and a significant Muslim population. There are -- there is a small Buddhist population. There's now a Buddhist temple not far from this church. I haven't seen those kinds of tensions here.

SEVERSON: He says a few of his longtime members have gone away and not come back, but most think it's their duty as Christians to embrace newcomers, and Caruana says these newcomers have inspired his congregation.

Pastor CARUANA: They are the most resilient, hardy, good, good-natured people I've ever met. Generous to the extreme. Hopeful. And life is not easy. It's challenging coming halfway around the world.

SEVERSON: Imagine the trepidation the Dah Ler family must feel after only three weeks in their sparsely decorated apartment surrounded by words they don't understand. They've yet to learn about drivers' licenses, credit cards and debt. But the most difficult adjustment, as Dah Ler would tell you on this bitter Utica day, is the winter.

Pastor CARUANA: One of the things the church does is to try to make certain that every refugee who is part of our community of faith has adequate winter clothing. Often for the first year, though, we find that people just do not wear them because, because they really don't realize how cold it is.

SEVERSON: Compared to their past lives, hardships here, even the cold, seem trivial to most new residents, especially considering because they are refugees they can become U.S. citizens within five years. For some, it's the first time they will be citizens of any country.

(speaking to Sa We Thu): So now are you going to become a citizen here?

SA WE THU: Yeah, yeah.

SEVERSON: Are you excited about that?

SA WE THU: Yeah, I like that.

SEVERSON: For RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY, I'm Lucky Severson in Utica.