Reborn Maine milling city offers lessons amid refugee crisis

LEWISTON, Maine – The arrival of thousands of Somali refugees in a former mill city in Maine sparked a backlash at first.

Fifteen years later, though, Somali shops, restaurants and mosques serve as an example of how far the city of Lewiston has come.

All told, more than 5,000 Africans have moved to the city of 36,500 on the Androscoggin River.

As the U.S. prepares to bring in Syrian refugees, some point to Lewiston as an example of how immigration can be slow and painful — but ultimately successful.