Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Church overwhelmed; World Relief Spokane office defiant
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 12, 2010
A church working with World Relief in Spokane says that they cannot keep up with the flow of refugees to the city, according to an article in The Spokane Spokesman. The church’s pastor says that World Relief must draw the line somewhere, or have it drawn for them.
In the fall of 2006, a young Spokane pastor and his wife welcomed an extended family of 12 ethnic Burmese refugees into their East Central neighborhood church called Jacob’s Well and prayed that more would come.
Nearly four years later, that family has been joined by more than 600 Burmese, and the Rev. Eric Blauer wonders how many more refugees from around the world his church, the city and the nation can handle in these tough economic times.
“From our standpoint it’s hard to figure out how we can keep receiving refugees who are unprepared for the realities they find when they get here,” Blauer said…
…ardent refugee advocates such as Blauer believe there are limits to the education, health care and social service resources available to support large, low-income populations of people whose attempts to find employment are impeded by culture and language.
World Relief and other voluntary refugee resettlement agencies must draw the line somewhere or have it drawn for them, they say. here
But the recalcitrant director of World Relief in Spokane, Mark Kadel, indicates that he has no intention of listening to feedback from churches, such as Jacob’s Well, that are working with his organization. He intends to try to bring MORE refugees to Spokane, and not less. Despite his defiance, he may have trouble getting through Washington state’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, whose chief, Tom Medina, says that given the economic situation, this is not the time to increase the flow of refugees to the area.
…World Relief, the resettlement agency responsible for bringing thousands of refugees to Spokane over the past 24 years, says it would like to bring more – not fewer…
…Last year, Washington state received 2,588 refugees. Of the 80,000 refugees authorized to be admitted into the United States this year, Washington is expected to get as many as 2,900, including 500 in Spokane. World Relief expected to bring even more to Spokane next year.
The Baltimore-based agency has no intention of slowing the flow of refugees, says Mark Kadel, World Relief’s director in Spokane.
“Absolutely not. If anything, we need to move forward,” Kadel said in a recent interview.
Kadel said the United States provides a safe haven for less than 1 percent of the 13 million people suffering in refugee camps, and “we are not doing our share”…
…Tom Medina, chief of Washington’s Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance, looked at the state budget and advised the six resettlement agencies operating in the state to slow the flow of refugees this year.
Two other agencies – the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and Catholic Charities of Spokane – attempted this year to begin new resettlement programs in Spokane. Medina convinced them that given the economic situation, this was not the time to initiate new refugee streams.
And then this statement:
Although resettlement agencies like World Relief are not required to notify municipalities about the number of refugees they may be bringing in, they are required under the federal Refugee Act to show that they have at least consulted with someone in state government.
That’s not correct. According to the State Department contract that World Relief signed, the Cooperative Agreement, World Relief must, “…colaborate with state and local officials, other agencies and services in the area in implementing a plan to rationalize the numbers of refugees to be resettled and to ensure quality services and a welcoming atmosphere are provided to refugees.”
By the way, I had an experience myself with Mark Kadel. In 2003 I discovered Lost Boys of Sudan refugees at World Relief’s Tampa affiliate in New Port Richey who complained of severe neglect and mistreatment by the agency. The refugees said that World Relief placed them in unfurnished apartments where they had to sleep on the floor for months, and that the agency made them work in their warehouse moving furniture and then setting up apartments for new refugees, but never paid them for the work. They also said that they had to spend days cleaning nursing homes but were never paid for the work. The World Relief refugees said that before they did the cleaning that a World Relief employee made them sign pieces of paper that he had folded over so that they couldn’t see what they were signing. When World Relief finally helped them get jobs, the jobs were in a different county, and the refugees had to wake early at 4am to commute by bike three hours to their jobs.
I wrote to the State Department and the ORR to forward the refugees’ complaints, but the agencies did not bother to respond. I then wrote to the agencies again in 2004 and 2005 to report ongoing complaints from the refugees. In May 2005 the refugees told us that Mark Kadel came to their apartments and represented himself as a U.S. State Department employee. One of the refugees said that when he asked for Mr. Kadel’s business card, Mr. Kadel failed to produce one, and that he then asked Mr. Kadel to leave the apartment. Mr. Kadel also contacted me, and this time, misrepresented himself as a “mediator”, and tried to get information from me about the complaint. Of course, the organization that is the subject of the complaint could never act as a mediator.
State Department monitors then showed up in New Port Richey to talk to World Relief employees and the refugees. After speaking to dozens of refugees and inspecting World Relief’s records, which indicated extreme disrespect for their refugee clients, the State Department then canceled World Relief Tampa’s refugee resettlement contract.
Eric Blauer said
I wanted to share with you my response to the article, since I am being asked to respond quite a bit after this last Sunday’s article.
-Eric Blauer, Jacob’s Well Church
“We may have all come on different ships, but we’re in the same boat now.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
I want to thank Kevin Graman for the “Freedom from Scratch” article that addressed many of the challenges facing refugees and service providers in Spokane.
It’s not an easy topic to tackle and there are many facets of the refugee resettlement process that are hard to cover in one article.
Kevin wrote another article about the Karen Refugees and our relationship with them back in November of 2006.
That article detailed the horrors and challenges many refugees have experienced that forced many to flee from their home countries.
Kevin’s recent article talked about the many struggles they face in our country.
Both of these stories need to be connected to maintain perspective about the resettlement process, and to understand the lives of these courageous people and the organizations that serve them.
I try to remind our volunteers and frustrated service providers that we are working with ‘people’…not just programs and systems.
At the end of the day we are dealing with families, fathers, daughters and children. They have names, go to our schools, worship with us and work in our community.
Understanding who is an official ‘Refugee” is an important part of this discussion.
“A legal refugee is someone who has fled his or her country because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion.
A refugee has to have left his or her home country and been granted refugee status in a country of asylum. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is usually charged with responsibility for awarding legal refugee status. UNHCR not only confers legal refugee status, but often offers refugees protection, assistance, and alternative legal and travel documents. UNHCR refers only about 1% of all refugees for resettlement in a third country.
Only when all efforts to either help refugees return home or settle permanently in the country of asylum have failed does third country resettlement become the option of last resort.
The following countries have resettlement programs: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United States.
Other countries accept individual refugees on an ad hoc basis.”
This is a complex subject that has produced a lot of polarized positions depending on which part of the resettlement time line you are working on.
The issues and perspectives of new arrivals and refugees that have been here for a few years are going to be fairly different.
Refugees are brought to America through the work of the US State Department, not World Relief, Global Neighborhood, Catholic Charities or Jacob’s Well, a point that wasn’t explained clear enough in Kevin’s article.
We are involved in the work of charity and mercy and that means that we are dealing with people and situations that are already here in Spokane.
If a hungry person comes to you and reveals that they are in need of food…Mercy feeds the hungry person. But if one truly cares for the hungry, they are going to search out why that person was hungry and work with them to make sure they are doing all they can to avoid getting in that situation again.
This is the work of Justice.
Martin Luther King Jr explained Mercy as a group of individuals rescuing drowning people in a river.
Going up the river to see where they are falling in or getting thrown in, is the work of Justice.
I think Justice and Mercy need to kiss in a community to truly see the best good come to a city and it’s marginalized population.
The state of our economy and the political tensions surrounding the issues of immigration and ethnic and religious prejudice, make this subject even more difficult in this hour.
I value the article and its attempts to look at this subject from the perspective of Justice and I think the problems are articulated well,
but where we go from here depends on how we “react” or “respond” to such examinations.
I hope this article fosters more debate and dialogue among service providers and refugees.
I also hope it motivates us to work on structural change that will help empower refugees to work towards a better future for themselves, their families and Spokane.
Last of all, let us never forget the words that sit on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty, that has rung out to all arriving to America since our own forefathers came to this wonderful country.
“New Colossus”
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!” Emma Lazarus
Working towards a better Spokane for all,
Eric Blauer
Jacob’s Well Church
christophercoen said
You say that refugees are brought to America through the work of the US State Department, not World Relief, Global Neighborhood, Catholic Charities or Jacob’s Well, a point, you say. that wasn’t explained clear enough in Kevin’s article.
Yet, the reason that the U.S. resettles refugees here is because private groups and individuals in this country have advocated for resettlement. Groups such as World Relief and the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops (USCCB) also continue to lobby for increased refugee resettlement each year via their lobbying group Refugee Council USA (RCUSA).
Emma said
So that means you don’t advocate for resettlement? Would prefer they all languish in refugee camps?
christophercoen said
I advocate for refugee resettlement, but responsible resettlement. That is taking as many refugees as we can responsibly resettle without abusing or neglecting them, depriving them of basics needed to live here, and without them having to go homeless, or depend on crime or prostition to survive, or be maimed or murdered in extremely dangerous areas of the US where they cannot protect themselves as well as Americans can. The point that was made had to do with the resettlement agencies claim that they have nothing to do with bringing refugees here, which is not true.
Eric Blauer said
The semantics of this issue is what is difficult around here in Spokane. The State Dept brings them in with the knowledge that the resettling agencies are going to via for them and do the work of beginning the refugees resettlement. Our article was not intended from my end to be adversarial. I was simply sharing the struggles facing churches like ours in working long term with the refugees that have been brought to Spokane. Luger’s congressional paper reflects the growing tensions and challenges facing refugees to a lesser but increasing frequency here. These folks have had real opportunity and real challenge here in Spokane.
Eric Blauer said
Christopher,
Yes, resettling agencies do have contracts with the State Sept. Confusion in Spokane centers around some people thinking org’s or churches like ours (Jacob’s Well) have any contracts or lobbying activity going on. We are simply caring for refugees in our city, primarily the ones who are post World Relief’s 90 days commitment to the Refugees. What the President and the State Dept. decide on how many refugees come to the United States is out of our power.
Jampa said
My question – are the ethnic minorities who are sometimes predominantly non-Christian, forced to attend Christian services to get church aid once they have settled due to the termination of World Relief aid…
Eric Blauer said
No one is ‘forced’ to attend anything when resources or assistance in finding them is provided…secular or sacred. We run a ‘Recource Center’ in the local neighborhood/city community center. Services are provided free of charge and without connection to attending any of our church services.