On housing, Mr. Gillett said, “We do the best we can within the price constraints we have.”

The institute says most refugees who are capable of working land jobs relatively quickly. But that number is misleading, Mr. Gatsas said, because it includes seasonal jobs that might last only a few weeks or months. And while Manchester used to have plenty of work for people who did not speak English, he said, those jobs are harder to find as the economic base shifts from manufacturing to high tech. A meatpacking plant that used to employ refugees closed in 2004, and a manufacturing company that employed others in nearby Merrimack closed soon after.

And with state and federal budgets being cut ever more sharply in the downturn, Mr. Long said, there is less aid to refugees than ever.

“We’re just starting to see more needs with the new arrivals,” he said. “As the years go by we’re going to be seeing a lot less federal money, a lot less state money, so what do we do? We take a proactive step now, so three, four, five years from now we’re not saying, ‘We’ve got 1,200 people who are out on the street.’ ”

Mr. Long and Mr. Gatsas said a number of refugees had expressed support for a moratorium. But in interviews last week, while several did express concerns about the job market and housing conditions, most said the proposal was upsetting. Some, like Hari Niroula, 25, who arrived here last month, said they had relatives still languishing in refugee camps and feared they would be blocked from coming to Manchester.

Image Mayor Ted Gatsas of Manchester says that the time has come to “catch our breath.” Credit... Joseph Sywenkyj for The New York Times

Suraj Budathoki, a Bhutanese refugee who came here in 2008 after 18 years in a refugee camp, said that while refugees might struggle in Manchester, life here was preferable to the conditions they put up with in camps.

“I stayed in a camp and I know every single minute there is terrible,” he said. “The life here in Manchester is far better, 110 percent better, than the life in a refugee camp.”