But once people do get a job that pays, Tamene says, they rarely look back.

It is a sign of success, Tamene says, to move away from Cambridge and the high-rise apartment buildings where so many of the newly-arrived Ethiopians live.

"They meaure how they've done by what they have, by where they live," Tamene says. "As soon as they can, many people move to the suburbs, where they are away from their own community."

Tamene bemoans what he perceives as a lack of activism in Cambridge's Ethiopian population.

"Once they've made it, people don't try to help the ones having the same experience," Tamene says.

And for newly-arrived Ethiopian immigrants, volunteering is a luxury they do not have, Argaw says.

Her organization struggles with a lack of manpower. Few members of the Ethiopian community volunteer for the organization. They simply cannot afford to, Argaw says.

"They have to eat, have to survive before they can volunteer," Argaw says. "It's not easy. There's just too much for them to deal with right now--the housing issue, immigration, language. In time, it'll get better."