Magazine

Bosnians in Utica, Somalis in Lewiston, Hmong in Fresno: While big-city ethnic enclaves remain the primary destination for immigrants to the Unites States, a number of small towns have recently been revitalized by an influx of a particular ethnic group. However, none can claim the overwhelming diversity of Clarkston, Ga., a 1-square-mile town that government agencies saw as an ideal location for refugee resettlement, thanks to its plentiful rental options, access to nearby Atlanta, and need of a population boost. Over the last two decades thousands of refugees from a litany of headline-prone countries, including Kosovo, Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Afghanistan, the Congo and Liberia, have poured in.

Dumping the United Nations of conflict zones into a small southern town produced countless tensions over religion, food, schools and crime. But the issue that caught the eye of New York Times reporter Warren St. John was soccer. He spent a season chronicling “The Fugees,” youth soccer teams of Clarkston refugees spread over three age brackets. The result is his highly readable account Outcasts United, which bucks the cliches of a feel-good sports story but struggles to transcend the newspaper article that was its genesis.