Officials in Fort Wayne, IN, are working on ways to deal with the language difficulties faced by the city's estimated 6,000 Burmese immigrants.

Language has been highlighted as an issue following the controversy over a local laundry, where a discriminatory sign was posted banning Burmese people from using the facility, "for sanitary reasons."

The owner of the laundry immediately apologised, but civic leaders say tensions could be helped by efforts to overcome the language barrier.

Fort Wayne has seen an influx of immigrants from the troubled Southeast Asian country of Burma, now named the Union of Myanmar by its military dictators.

Local police speak several languages, including Spanish, Japanese, French and German. However, they currently depend on volunteers to translate to and from Burmese and English, often relying on friends and neighbours to offer their services.

Police Chief Rusty York told Fort Wayne's Journal Gazette that finding Burmese police officers was difficult, due to citizenship issues. He said becoming a police officer was "a very comprehensive process and a demanding process, and we lose people at every step."

Fort Wayne Mayor Tom Henry pledged to address Burmese concerns in the city, which is believed to have the largest Burmese community in the USA. He said the recent discrimination incident was an opportunity for "cultural education."

"We are not different from here," Maung Maung Soe of the Coordinating Committee of Burmese Americans Community told Indiana's NewsCenter, welcoming Henry's words. "We are Americans, too."

28 March 2010