Archive for August, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 31, 2010
An article in the Seattle Times offers a window into current conditions for refugees in Washington State. Low-skill jobs are scarce and homelessness is skyrocketing. A one-night homeless count in January found 978 refugees and immigrants living in shelters or in transitional housing.
Refugee families…displaced people from war-torn parts of the world — are confronting homelessness all over again in their new homeland.
As tough to navigate as the homeless-support system can be for growing numbers of families in the Northwest, it can prove profoundly challenging for refugees, who may be unfamiliar with how the system works, may have few if any marketable job skills, often don’t speak English and don’t understand the culture here.
…”We are bringing people from refugee camps to get a new start in the U.S. only to see them Dumpster-diving somewhere,” said Tom Medina, who heads the state’s office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance.
As part of the federal government’s commitment to helping displaced and persecuted people around the world, the U.S. will resettle about 80,000 refugees this year — about half the total number of those that get resettled across the globe.
Last year, some 2,600 — many of them Iraqis and ethnic minorities from Myanmar (also known as Burma) and Bhutan — came to Washington. The state is second only to Minnesota in drawing refugees who were first resettled in other parts of the U.S.
For many unable to find work, the housing shuffle begins when the government assistance they were receiving runs out, or their lease expires and the rent goes up, or the family dynamic changes in a way that they can no longer cover housing expenses.
In January, King County’s most recent annual one-night homeless count found families of refugees and immigrants that together totaled 978 adults and children living in shelters or in transitional housing — up from 638 the previous year.
That doesn’t account for the untold numbers who bed down in hotels, camp out in churches or squeeze into the already cramped apartments of friends or relatives.
Often, families that do have housing struggle to hang on to it… here
Local community-based groups that contract with the state to help refugees find work have a poor track record. In 2007, agencies placed 48 percent of refugees in jobs, but last year only 28 percent.
Together with state and local governments, the federal government invests heavily in helping refugees settle in.
Across the country, the State Department contracts with 10 agencies known as “volags” — short for voluntary agencies — to support refugees, helping them find housing, enroll their children in school, apply for benefits and look for work.
Separately, the federal government last year gave $4.2 million to Washington state and the state kicked in $4.6 million more. Washington, in turn, awards contracts to a network of community-based service providers to help refugees learn English, and get job training and other services.
In terms of direct financial help, refugees are eligible for cash assistance and food stamps — $360 per month for up to eight months for single adults. Families with children under 18 are eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, known as TANF.
A family of three is eligible for $562 — higher than in all but 10 states — with the amount increasing about $100 for each additional eligible person, up to a maximum of $1,320.
Additionally, the federal government provides upfront cash for each arriving refugee — $1,100 per person.
…State Department officials acknowledge the current job market is creating a problem for many refugees but say that, as bad as things are in this country, conditions in the camps are even worse.
The federal government is studying how it might resettle people in areas of the U.S. where there are more available jobs. For example, with the recession coming to Washington later than other parts of the country, this region might have been one of those places.
But even in good times the community-based groups that contract with the state to help refugees find work have a poor track record.
In 2007, for example, 48 percent of refugees in the state were placed in jobs at an average hourly rate of $9.25. Last year, only 28 percent found work.
The article also mentions that President Obama will soon announce an increase in the number of refugees the US will accept next year.
The Obama administration is conducting the first major review of the nation’s 30-year-old resettlement program. But even before the findings are released, the administration is preparing to announce an increase in the number of refugees it will invite into the country next year.
State Department officials say refugees in camps overseas are told about the hard realities of the American economy, giving them the option to stay or go to another country.
But refugees themselves say that’s a tough call — that after years in squalid refugee camps, it’s hard to let go of their high hopes about life in America.
Posted in State Department, Burma/Myanmar, Nepali Bhutanese, Somali, Iraqi, Washington, Karenni, Obama administration, funding, employment/jobs for refugees, secondary migration, refugee, housing, homelessness, Seattle | Tagged: refugees, karenni, resettlement, refugee resettlement, seattle, washington state, refugee resettlement agencies, Somali refugees, Burmese refugees, Kent, King county, homelessness, homeless refugees | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 30, 2010
An article in the Los Angeles Times details how the International Rescue Committee office in Boise has helped approximately 50 refugees from Bhutan, Myanmar Somalia, and Sudan to get jobs five hours away at Threemile Canyon Farms a dairy near Boardman, Oregon (Oregon’s largest factory farm, a sprawling 93,000-acre operation). An onion plant near Boardman has also started hiring refugees. The jobs are relatively well-paying and offer benefits, however the remote location and long hours means refugees go without basics such as English classes and refugee support services. Refugees are also packing into apartments since so few housing options exist in the Boardman area.
In Boise, Lana Whiteford, a 27-year-old employment specialist with the International Rescue Committee, was struggling to find work for refugees. Over her year in the position, she had watched as the office went from placing six or seven refugees in service and factory jobs each week to placing none for weeks at a time.
“I had this major gnawing guilt,” she said. “We had people receive eviction letters.”
Whiteford, who grew up in Anaheim, had never heard of Boardman, Ore. Then an e-mail from Threemile Canyon Farms landed in her inbox. “I Googled it,” she said.
She learned that the farm was a five-hour drive from Boise. Agencies like the International Rescue Committee, contracted by the government to help resettle refugees, look for jobs that are closer to their offices, so they can assist with housing, education and other needs. But these were extraordinary times.
…The refugees were told that the farm is unionized, salaries start at $9.45 an hour, and health insurance is provided. In Boise, they could expect to earn about $7.50 an hour with no benefits, and most jobs are part-time, Whiteford said.
…Since last year, the farm has hired about 50 refugees, all new to commercial farming and from countries as varied as Iraq, Myanmar and Sudan.
Rose Corral, the farm’s human resources director, says most have proved to be dedicated workers. The main challenge is communication. About 80% of the 300-strong workforce is Spanish-speaking. Few of the refugees speak much English, either.
The farm offers free English lessons, but most refugees find they are too tired to study after working 9 1/2-hour and longer days. After a few months, some say they speak better Spanish.
…The only problem has been finding housing for the refugees. Most Boardman workers commute from larger cities. But that can be difficult in winter, when extreme weather closes many roads.
So the refugees pack into shared apartments at [an apartment] complex…
Regardless of whether they stay, this quiet agrarian community offers them something many refugees can’t find elsewhere: the chance to become self-sufficient. here
Of course the refugee resettlement program supposedly requires that refugees be resettled to permanent housing that is safe, sanitary and in good repair. Refugees should not have to be “packed” into housing. In addition, the difficulty of attending English classes may pose problems for the refugees’ long-term self-sufficiency. The article also mentions a deadly car crash, which was blamed on a refugee who had tried to overtake another vehicle on a hill.
Many workers have tried to help the newcomers, offering to share food and rides. They collected nearly $3,000 for the widow and children of a Somali man, who was killed shortly after he was hired last year when the car he was riding in crashed into two other vehicles.
Is this the same accident in which refugees in Boardman were traveling back to Boise to visit family members?
Refugees…face long drives to see their families back in Boise. One car-load of refugees this year had a head-on collision, killing one. here
The fact that these refugees are so isolated from any support services gives me pause for concern. Refugee resettlement agencies all over the country are helping refugees to move to distant and remote locations for meatpacking jobs. Even more refugees are simply picking up and moving on their own to these jobs. Burmese refugees in Houston had a bad experience after relocating to a chicken-processing plant in Alabama (here). Refugees in Greensboro have also been relocated to a poultry plant processing plant in Moorefield, W.Va., a six-hour drive away (here). A problem with this is that these locations often do not have needed support services for refugees (English language classes, schools set up to teach refugee children, immigration services for green cards, torture survivors services, etc.), and local entities, e.g. emergency police and medical services, are rarely ready to deal with people who can’t yet speak English.
Posted in IRC, Sudanese, Burma/Myanmar, Nepali Bhutanese, Somali, Iraqi, Idaho, Boise, meatpacking industry, housing, overcrowding, employment/jobs for refugees, secondary migration, refugee, housing, Oregon, Boardman | Tagged: refugees, IRC, resettlement, Boise, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, International Rescue Committee, Somali refugees, Burmese refugees, Threemile Canyon Farms, Bhutanese refugees, Myanmar refugees, Sudanese refugees, Boardman OR | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 28, 2010
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration (ORAM) is a group based in San Francisco that is working to help LGBTI refugees who are fleeing persecution in their home countries. The Bay Area Reporter has an article detailing the work of the organization.
A little known agency founded two years ago in San Francisco is helping to shine a spotlight on the plight of LGBT refugees around the globe who are fleeing persecution in their home countries.
The Organization for Refuge, Asylum and Migration, called ORAM for short, is the brainchild of Neil Grungras, an openly gay lawyer who specializes in immigration and refuge law whose career has included stints with the State Department and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
Since founding ORAM in 2008, Grungras has devoted himself full time to growing the nonprofit. He oversees its program in Turkey for LGBT Iranians seeking to immigrate to Western countries and lobbies United Nations officials in Geneva about the needs of LGBT asylum seekers and refugees from around the globe.
“No one had touched on the issues of LGBT refugees, period, from a legal perspective. No one had confronted the reason why the international system does not protect LGBT refugees,” said Grungras…
Unlike more established groups that advocate on behalf of LGBT people within their home countries, such at Human Rights Watch and the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, ORAM is focused on what happens once an LGBT person crosses the border to a foreign country.
“People constantly ask us to comment about the situation of gays in various countries but that is not what we do. We help people who have actually left the places where they have been persecuted and help them get refugee status and some legal protection and get settled in a new country,” said Grungras. “We don’t make it our business to focus on persecution in the country of origin. We are a humanitarian organization who helps people who have left their country. Of course we know what is going on, but our mission is to help our brothers and sisters reach safety.”…
…”Who ORAM works with is the 95 percent of LGBTs who haven’t been able to get anywhere. They have crossed the border to get out with their lives and that is where they are. But they are not looking to stay in those places,” said Grungras. “When they come to our hands, they are just beginning a very long road to find safe haven. Sometimes they won’t have it for a few years.” …
…This year ORAM has a budget of $650,000. As of June it had a caseload of 35 active clients, five of whom are now living in the United States. Two are in Texas, two in Arizona, and one is living in Florida.
It has three lawyers, including Grungras, working full-time on cases, and a handful of other staffers helping to process and coordinate its caseload.
This summer ORAM opened an office in downtown San Francisco and received $150,000 from the Arcus Foundation to survey numerous non-governmental organizations about their attitudes toward LGBT refugees and what services they offer such clients.
The agency has also launched an “Adopt-a-Refugee” program where it matches donors with one of its clients. Participants must donate $500 in order to be matched with a refugee, and ORAM will provide updates on the person’s immigration case.
The money donated is transferred directly to the adoptee, who can also opt to be in contact with their “adopter” and communicate directly via e-mail or social networking sites such as Facebook.
…Since many LGBT immigrants lack the support of family, the program is a way to help them create new support networks.
“LGBTs are often running away from their family, so to know there is an individual out there who cares enough to open their wallets and give a person money, that is really empowering to them,” said Grungras. here
I wrote to Mr. Grungras several months back, when we posted the case of the two gay Iraqi refugees that were neglected by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, to ask him if it was normal for refugees who are resettled to the US based on their LGBTI status to be assigned to resettlement organizations who offer no services to LGBTI people. And in the Houston case, no services to these refugees who claimed to have been sexually assaulted.
Mr. Grungras said that only just beginning in April did it became possible for OPEs (Overseas Processing Entities) to show refugees’ persecution status in the WRAPS [computer] system. He said that before this the only information about refugees given to resettlement agencies was gender, age, nationality, and special medical issues.
That being the case I hope that LGBTI refugees will no longer be placed with gay-unfriendly groups such as Catholic and fundamentalist Christian resettlement groups.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Houston, Iraqi, LGBT refugees, ORAM | Tagged: asylum, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Houston, Iran, Iraqi refugees, LGBT refugees, Neil Grungras, OPE, ORAM, Organization for Refuge Asylum and Migration, overseas processing entity, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugees, resettlement, Turkey | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 27, 2010
The State Department’s top refugee official, assistant secretary of state for population, refugees and migration Eric P. Schwartz, has hinted that the administration is not interested in doing a major airlift to Guam of endangered Iraqis who worked for the US military and US contractors. The US government conducted similar airlift for US allies after the fall of Saigon in 1975 and from northern Iraq after Saddam Hussein’s troops moved to reclaim control of that area in 1996. In an article in the Washington Post Mr. Schwartz said that, instead, the Obama administration is focusing on promoting reconciliation and security in Iraq.
With the Iraqis…many more are arriving through the refugee program. But a separate program created by Congress for Iraqis who worked for the U.S. government has been criticized as cumbersome and ineffective.
Only about 2,100 of the 15,000 available visas have been issued under that program.
Recently, 22 House and Senate members wrote to the State and Defense departments asking for a comprehensive plan to protect the thousands of Iraqis who worked with U.S. forces, including a possible airlift.
“Schwartz has a great reputation,” said Kirk W. Johnson, executive director of the List Project to Resettle Iraqi Allies. “The main policy tool that I want put back on the table is directly derived from his leadership on Operation Pacific Haven.”
That was the airlift of U.S. allies from northern Iraq to Guam, after Saddam Hussein’s troops moved to reclaim control of that area in 1996.
Schwartz said the Obama administration is focusing on promoting reconciliation and security in Iraq. “We don’t expect the kind of contingency the members described,” he said. here
The article also praises Mr. Schwartz for doubling the per capita (per refugee) grant to refugee resettlement agencies for refugees first 30-90 days in the US.
Perhaps Schwartz’s greatest accomplishment in his current job hasn’t come overseas, but at home.
Early on, he traveled around the United States to see how resettled refugees were faring.
“It was heartbreaking to hear the stories,” he recalled. Refugees were struggling in the depressed economy, forced to decide between buying food or diapers for their children.
Schwartz realized that the State Department grant of $900 given to refugees for housing, food and other expenses for their first several weeks had not kept up with inflation. He decided to double it, to $1,800.
What no one considers here is that Mr. Schwartz doubled the money the State Department gives to refugee resettlement agencies without any corresponding promises by the agencies to abide by their resettlement contracts to give refugees at least the bare minimum required services and material items, which they have long failed to give. Mr. Schwartz has also kept in place the extremely cozy relationship the private resettlement agencies have with the State Department and other government oversight agencies; a type of relationship that always leads to wrongdoing by private businesses.
Posted in Assistant Secretary of the PRM, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), funding, Iraqi, NSC (National Security Council), Obama administration, PRM, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants, State Department | Tagged: airlift, Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Population Refugees and Migration, Eric P. Schwartz (former Asst Sec.), Eric Schwartz, Guam, Iraq, Iraqi refugees, PRM, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, resettlement agencies, SIV, State Department, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 26, 2010
Catholic Charities, Inc. in Oregon this week dedicated a brand-new 60,000 square foot headquarters in Portland. The building, designed by Lundin Cole Architects, includes a homeless shelter with computers, laundry and shower facilities, an administrative floor with 14 conference rooms, and an oratory with beautiful sculptures of the Holy Family and the risen Christ. A significant part of the complex is an empty second floor that will allow for future growth.
…Catholic Charities will dedicate its new building, the Clark Family Center.
…In less than 18 months, 145 individuals, corporations and foundations, along with funding from investors from a special federal tax credit program brought the project funding to completion…Major gifts came not only from individuals such as Robert Franz and the Clark family including, Maybelle Clark Macdonald, Mary Clark and Mike and Tracey Clark, but also from many of the major foundations in the area including the Joseph Weston Public Foundation, the Collins Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Meyer Memorial Trust, M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust, Regence BlueCross BlueShield and Providence Health and Services. The response was an affirmation of the positive impact of Catholic Charities in our community. Community Funding Group also helped Catholic Charities get a large tax credit for the new building.
In June 2010, the staff and clients of Catholic Charities began to occupy their new home and the activity in the building is teeming.
On the basement level, chronically homeless women, who are assisted by the Housing Transitions program, now have space for meeting with caseworkers, access to computers, and laundry and shower facilities to assist them in preparing for job interviews.
A storage facility exists on the basement level to hold the many donations Catholic Charities needs. Along with helping homeless women furnish an apartment, Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement services furnishes apartments with household items and furniture when the agency moves a refugee family from war-torn parts of the world to the Portland area.
…For the first time, Catholic Charities will have storage space on site for easy access.
Most program staff will work in open spaces on the third floor and fourth floors. The vital work of the agency is done, however, in the 14 conference rooms located in this space.
…In addition to some program staff, the top floor of the center houses Catholic Charities administration. …with more than 180 employees the need for accounting, human resources, technology services, development and executive management is important.
…A unique feature of the top floor is the Regence Life Learning Center. Internally, the large room will be used for board of directors meetings and employee gatherings.
…Within an intimate area of the Regence Life Learning Center is a unique space – an oratory dedicated to the Holy Family donated by Mark and Leslie Ganz. This chapel-like space, with beautiful sculptures of the Holy Family and the risen Christ, offers the opportunity for quiet reflection for the staff during what can be challenging and stressful daily work.
A significant component of the complex is an empty second floor. This space allows for the development of new programs in the future.
…The Clark Family Center was designed by Lundin Cole Architects and incorporates many green features including sun shades to sunlight, electric car charging stations and permeable pavement. here
The question that comes to my mind, however, is how Catholic Charities is able to raise such sizable funding for this type of complex while seemingly not being able to pay for minimum, basic services for their refugee clients.
The State Department’s most recent inspection report of Catholic Charities, from October 2006, indicates that the resettlement agency placed a Somali refugee family of nine into a three-bedroom apartment. Yet, according to Portland’s occupancy codes a dwelling unit is deemed overcrowded (29.30.220) “if there are more residents than one plus one additional resident for every 100 square feet of floor area of the habitable rooms in the dwelling unit”. The family had arrived 7 weeks earlier and the head of the household said that Catholic Charities had not given them winter coats, hats, or mittens, and that no one from catholic Charities had advised the family about immigration issues or advised them about repaying their IOM refugee travel loans. The family also had no personal hygiene items in the bathroom, and there were no towels anywhere in the apartment even though Catholic Charities represented in the case files that they had given the family towels.
An Ethiopian refugee family of four also indicated that no one from Catholic Charities had provided them with information about their immigration status or about repaying their IOM travel loans.
An elderly husband and wife refugee couple from Cuba that arrived five months earlier was found living in a three-bedroom home crowded with eleven people, all relatives (his son and family had been resettled just 11 months earlier and appeared to be struggling with their own resettlement). The elderly refugee man was suffering from epilepsy, diabetes, and chronic depression, and was hospitalized twice since arriving. His doctor advised him to find a separate apartment due to high activity and noise levels in the house. The couple told the State Department monitors that they wished that Catholic Charities had offered them more support.
The monitors also found that Catholic Charities’ case files were haphazard and disorganized. Of particular concern was lack of compliance regarding services to refugee minors, including lack of post-arrival assessment, home visits, and regular in-person contact with the minor for 90 days after arrival.
I know that refugee resettlement agencies always claim that they don’t have enough public funding for minimum-required services for their refugee clients, but then how are agencies such as Catholic Charities at the same time able to afford multi-million dollar new headquarters?
It would be nice if mainstream journalists would ask some of these tough questions.
Posted in State Department, USCCB, Somali, Cuban, faith-based, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio Inc., housing, overcrowding, clothes, Ethiopian, housing, children, immigration assistance, Travel Loan Program, Oregon, Portland, lavish new offices | Tagged: IOM, State Department, refugees, catholic charities, USCCB, resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, us catholic conference of bishops, Somali refugees, Portland Oregon, Clark Family Center, IOM travel loans, refugee travel loans, Cuban refugees, Ethiopian refugees, refugee minors | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 25, 2010
The Catholic San Francisco reports about an Iraqi refugee family resettled by USCCB’s Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco that arrived in San Francisco in April. Although the minimum standards of the State Department refugee resettlement contract (see Operational Guidance: furnishings) that Catholic Charities signed requires that they give refugees basic furnishings, they apparently didn’t bother to do so for this refugee family.
The Abeds are clients of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which helped them find an apartment in Daly City and line up what little government aid was available for rent and groceries. But the young migrant family, homeless for five years, is struggling as it tries to set roots in a new land.
The funds the Abeds were given in Jordan to get established in the United States, enough for a car or some furniture, were used up on rent. The Abeds are merely subsisting, on welfare and food stamps, and do not have easy access to services in their suburban neighborhood. They have no cash to take their children to a movie at the local multiplex, let alone for furniture or a car.
…“You see no furniture, no money,” Abed said, looking over the empty apartment. here
So why did Catholic Charities San Francisco place this refugee family in a suburban area without easy access to services? No doubt because rent is astronomically high in San Francisco. But then why not have a van easily available for refugee clinets to transport them around the Daly City area? I guess its silly to ask that question if Catholic Charities won’t even abide by their contracts and give the family basic used furnishings for their apartment.
Here we have a published report of a refugee resettlement agency committing contractual fraud, yet what will be the consequences? None. The State Department’s refugee Admission’s Office believes that because the refugee resettlement program is a “public/private partnership”, that it would be non-partner-like to penalize Catholic Charities for violating its contractual responsibilities and neglecting its refugee clients.
Too bad for the refugees.
Posted in State Department, USCCB, Operational Guidance, Iraqi, faith-based, Catholic, transportation, public/private partnership, furnishings, lack of, San Francisco, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco | Tagged: Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of San Francisco, Daly City, Iraqi refugees, Operational Guidance, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, us catholic conference of bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 24, 2010
Ethiopian Community Development Council Inc.’s (ECDC’s) African Community Center in Las Vegas is at the center of a controversy involving two of their refugee clients who have been accused of sexual assault. The African Community Center is now altering its cultural orientation program in response to the allegations.
The recent arrests of two African refugees in the sexual assaults of young girls shocked the Las Vegas refugee community, especially after one man told officers he didn’t know the alleged abuse was wrong in the United States.
The arrests have prompted a Las Vegas refugee resettlement agency to expand an orientation program to reiterate that sexual assault isn’t allowed in the country…
…While sexual assault and child molestation are illegal in Africa, the center wants to reinforce the message among refugees: they must sign a document during the orientation program acknowledging such acts aren’t permitted in the United States. The program will place a greater focus on sexual assaults after the two recent arrests, he said. here
The African Community Center’s focus here seems to be more on protecting itself from liability, by having refugees sign documents acknowledging the illegality of sex crimes, then it does on protecting potential victims. Wouldn’t it be more useful, not to mention more ethical, to focus on the quality of the orientation and the results? Will the orientations be in the refugees’ languages? Will they be accompanied by handouts in the refugees’ languages summarizing what was taught in the orientation? Will the sessions be in manageable segments so as not to overwhelm the refugees with information they will not be able to absorb and remember?
Of course the resettlement agencies and their government oversight agencies should have standardized all of this decades ago, and slowly refined it. As it is, each resettlement agency covers community and cultural orientation in its own way. There is no established curriculum. There are no quality standards. I’ve never heard of tests to show what refugees have learned from these orientations. Some resettlement agencies do a 15 minute home safety orientation. Others invite in representatives from local police departments to orient refugees to rules and laws.
Government oversight agencies give resettlement agencies enormous leeway in determining the minimum standards of the services they give for the resettlement grants they receive. One consequence of that is the typical low quality results we so often see in the refugee resettlement program.
Posted in African Community Center (Las Vegas), community/cultural orientation, Congolese, ECDC, Las Vegas, Nevada, police | Tagged: African Community Center, Congolese refugees, ECDC, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Las Vegas, refugee cultural orientation, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 18, 2010
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota (LSSMN) is expanding it’s satellite office in St Cloud and will now resettle refugees directly to the city. They expect to resettle 100 refugees this coming fiscal year, mostly Somalis and a few Iraqis.
Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota has worked with refugees in St. Cloud since 2002, when it opened a refugee employment office. This year, the agency ratcheted up its efforts by establishing a refugee resettlement office in St. Cloud.
The office has contracted to resettle 100 refugees — mostly Somalis and a few Iraqis — in the St. Cloud area this year and in each of the next two years.
Jennifer Jimenez-Wheatley heads the new office, helping refugees find places to live, work, shop and worship. She helps them learn to speak and write English. She coordinates the resettlement process with local school, government and nonprofit agencies. here
Jimenez-Wheatley claims that local partners decided to resettle Iraqi refugees.
Somalis have established a presence in St. Cloud, but the handful of Iraqis she’s helping settle here won’t be joining such a large community from their home country. Jimenez-Wheatley says St. Cloud’s refugee advisory committee — composed of city, school district and nonprofit officials — decided resettling Iraqis here made sense in part because they share the Muslim faith with the Somali community.
But that can’t be true because LSSMN’s national partner, Lutheran Immigration and Refugees Service (LIRS) is the agency that attends meetings each week in Arlington, VA at the State Department’s RPC (Refugee Processing Center), and decides which refugees it’s affiliates such as LSSMN will take. Or is Jimenez-Wheatley implying that local partners put in requests to LIRS about what type of refugees they want, and in this case they wanted Muslim refugees? I find that bizarre.
In any event, I just read an interesting article about what its like for refugees to deal with our system when they arrive here. One Somali refugee family in St Cloud was beside themselves when they could not find a mentally ill adult daughter for two years because Stearns county would not tell them where she was. here
*UPDATE: Minnesota Public Radio had this to say:
While the refugee resettlement program has received positive feedback from some leaders and community members in St. Cloud, another challenge new refugees may face include religious and cultural misunderstandings. The St. Cloud area has been the recent spotlight of racial, religious, and cultural tensions: from anti-Islamic cartoons to broken windows at the mosque to graffiti on a Somali-owned business that read, “GO HOME.” here
Posted in State Department, LIRS, Somali, Iraqi, mental health, faith-based, Islamic, Christian, Minnesota, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), Lutheran, St. Cloud, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota | Tagged: LIRS, State Department, refugees, resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, Minnesota, Refugee Processing Center, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), Iraqi refugees, Somali refugees, Lutheran Social Service of Minnesota, Lutheran Immigration and Refugees Service, St. Cloud, Stearns county, Muslim refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 17, 2010
A notice in Knoxvillebiz.com announces that Bridge Refugee Services Inc. is getting a new director:
Jennifer Ward Cornwell has been promoted to executive director of Bridge Refugee Services Inc. here
Who is this Jennifer Ward Cornwell? I looked her up and couldn’t find much of anything. Then I found a Facebook page with her name, which indicates that she just graduated from Furman University in 2007, and only just got a graduate degree this year. How is it possible that someone just out of school could be qualified to be the executive director of a refugee resettlement agency? (Although we hope she’s highly qualified and we wish her the best of luck, especially for the refugees’ sake.)
I suppose I should not be surprised by this at all in a field that also regularly employs people as caseworkers who have no experience working with refugees, and who often do not have masters degrees in social work. In fact you’re lucky as a refugee if your case worker even has a Bachelor’s degree in social work. But even in that case most of these people do not have a clue how to network with businesses to help refugees find jobs.
The other thing that resettlement agencies do is hire almost anyone who arrived here as a refugee themselves, and maybe has a college degree or worked for an NGO before they arrived in the US. But having been a refugee in no way automatically qualifies someone as a good case worker. I suspect that resettlement agencies hire refugees mainly for their foreign language abilities. Yet those skills often don’t help for long. Bosnian and other refugees from former-Yugoslavian republics are found all over the refugee resettlement field working as caseworkers and in other positions, and have language skills that are now fairly useless for the new set of refugees arriving these days. Although resettlement agencies are quick to tout the former-refugee experience of their caseworkers I think we should always ask, “but is this person a good case worker?”
Getting back to Bridge Refugee Services Inc., I just realized that we have a US Department of State inspection report for the agency from 2006. Bridge’s services leave a bit to be desired. Of all the refugees in the four families that the inspectors visited only one refugee was working. A Sudanese refugee family had arrived six months earlier yet the father was still unemployed even though he spoke good English. Refugees had to live in transitional housing for weeks – e.g. in a motel, a shelter, and in a host family’s home – before Bridge transferred them to permanent housing (this is a violation of basic requirements). Bridge also did not give ready-to-eat meals to all refugees upon arrival, as required. Files were often disorganized, incomplete or contained inappropriate documents. Caseworkers also did not know that refugees do not need social security cards to get a job, so the refugees were left to wait for months until social security cards arrived. I’m always struck with how we keep going year after year with the same basic mistakes being made over and over.
Bridge Refugee Services Inc. has had a several publicized problems this year — problems that the State Department inspectors obviously did not detect. See our previous coverage here, here and here.
Posted in State Department, CWS, EMM, Sudanese, Liberian, Meskhetian Turks (Ahiska
Turk), former Yugoslav republics, faith-based, Christian, food, Tennessee, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, Bridge Refugee and Sponsorship Services, employment/jobs for refugees, housing, Episcopal, Knoxsville | Tagged: State Department, refugees, resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, Knoxsville, Bridge Refugee Services, refugee caseworkers | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 16, 2010
Karenni refugee children are attending Baptist vacation Bible school as part of their resettlement services in Winston-Salem, NC. The US State Department has allowed a former Baptist missionary couple to bring the Karenni refugees to the area – described as the “the promised land” – in conjunction with World Relief.
“North Carolina has become the promised land,” said Tim Cross, who co-founded Open Arms Refugee Ministry with his wife, Jody Cross, in 2009.
The Crosses worked with World Relief’s High Point office and Calvary Baptist Church, where they have been members since 1996, to bring the Karenni here last year. The Karenni are political refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
There are now 45 Karenni families living in the area, with a total of about 100 children, the Crosses said.
The ministry also works with Iraqi and Bhutan families. The couple spent eight years living overseas and working for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention before getting involved in resettlement efforts with the Karenni.
Last week the Karenni children participated in vacation Bible school at Calvary Baptist Church. They did arts and crafts, played soccer and learned to read music and play musical instruments. here
Something tells me there is a bit more going on at this Bible school than just arts and crafts, soccer and music.
What the article doesn’t mention is that the Karenni had their own traditional Kay Tyoboe religion before Baptist missionaries began arriving in their lands in the 1860′s following Britain’s colonial conquest of Burma. Many Karenni have never converted to Christianity and are still attempting to practice their indigenous religion.
Posted in Baptist, Burma/Myanmar, faith-based, Karenni, North Carolina, religion, State Department, Winston-Salem, World Relief | Tagged: Baptist, Baptist missionaries, Bible school, Burmese refugees, karenni, Kay Tyoboe, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Southern Baptist Convention, State Department, Winston-Salem | 2 Comments »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
An article in the Seattle Times offers a window into current conditions for refugees in Washington State. Low-skill jobs are scarce and homelessness is skyrocketing. A one-night homeless count in January found 978 refugees and immigrants living in shelters or in transitional housing. 
