CAMDEN – Even though non-native populations moving into a city such as Lewiston can strain city and school budgets, immigration is ultimately good for Maine, a panel agreed Saturday at the annual Camden Conference.

The panel focused on the recent controversy surrounding the influx of Somalis in Lewiston, and the mayor’s plea to the immigrant community to dissuade family members from joining them in Maine’s second-largest city.

The panel included Phil Nadeau, Lewiston’s assistant city manager; Matt Ward of Catholic Charities of Maine; Mike Finnegan, director of the Maine Housing Authority; and Abdirizak Mahboub, speaking on behalf of his fellow Somalis in Lewiston.

Two years ago, as many as 30 Somali families were arriving in Lewiston every month, Ward said. The U.S. immigration system is family-based rather than merit-based, he said, and is the only industrialized nation to use that method.

Portland is the only Maine city to which the federal Immigration and Naturalization Service directs refugees, Ward said. Since 1975, 5,000 immigrants have come, but many have since relocated elsewhere in the United States.

What was unusual about the situation in Lewiston, Ward and Nadeau said, was that the Somalis came from places within the United States, such as Atlanta, so federal support was unavailable.

Mahboub, a Somali native who has lived in the United States for 21 years, said the question often asked is, “Why Maine?” His answer, and the answer many Somalis give, is “Why not Maine?”

Mahboub said his uncle emigrated to the United States and was placed in Memphis in a neighborhood that often erupted in gang warfare.

“He was scared,” he said, and so Mahboub helped him relocate to Boston.

“That’s why the Somalis moved to Lewiston” to avoid crime and to take advantage of good schools, he said.

“The Somalis are used as a scapegoat,” he said, referring to a letter sent to the conference by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Annan wrote: “Immigrants and refugees should not – and must not – be seen as a burden. Those who risk their lives and those of their families are often those with the greatest ambition to make a better life for themselves and they are willing to work for it. If they are given a chance to make the most of their abilities, on an equal basis, the vast majority will be assets to society.”

With a total of 1,100 Somalis in Lewiston, Nadeau said the city and schools have had to adjust. Suddenly, 150 elementary school children needed English-as-second-language teachers, he said.

Finnegan acknowledged the economic challenges of an influx, but said, “We need immigrants in the state of Maine to keep our work force going.” The 2000 census showed Maine as the fifth-slowest growing state, which has handicapped it economically.

Nadeau said that after years of flat population, Lewiston may see growth by the 2010 census.

Other points made at the conference:

. Migration is difficult to measure. Deidre Mageean, director of the Center for Public Policy at the University of Maine, said migration is even more difficult to predict; the 1948-1964 U.S. “baby boom” was not predicted by demographers, she said.

. If all the world’s migrants – those who were born in one country but now live in another – were gathered in one place, they would compose the sixth-largest country in the world.

. Water use in the world has increased sixfold over the last 40 years, while population increased threefold.

. 70 percent of sewage in developing nations is dumped without being treated.

. “Alien smuggling” is often more lucrative than drug smuggling, said Phyllis Oakley, former assistant secretary of state for population.

. There are now 7 million illegal immigrants in the United States.

. Hispanics now outnumber blacks, and are the largest minority group in the United States.

. Maine has one of the lowest numbers of illegal immigrants in the United States, estimated at 2,500.

. In 1999, 247 immigrants came to Maine (56 families); in 2000, 256 immigrants came (67 families); in 2001, 223 (61 families) came; in 2002, because of post-Sept. 11 federal limits and a poor economy, immigration fell to 96 (21 families).

. U.S. population has grown from 132 million in 1940, to 151 million in 1950, 179 million in 1960, 203 million in 1970, 226 million in 1980, 248 million in 1990, 281 million in 2000 and 290,182,746 in 2002.