Archive for October, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 29, 2010
After I saw an article last month in the Grand Forks Herald about the Somali refugees that Border Patrol detained I posted on the incident, here. U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents detained the Somali refugees, one of whom had just arrived in the U.S. a month earlier, for failure to carry original copies of their immigration documents on their person.
Last week I put in a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Customs & Border Protection for the incident report. According to the agency’s response they consider me a “commercial” entity! They also demand that I pay $91.60 for the 11 page report, but only if I first send them written permission from the refugees in question. Hmmm.
What’s interesting about this is that, as you can see from my request, I requested the information as an individual. Apparently U.S. Customs & Border Protection personnel took it upon themselves to do some internet sleuthing on me, and then charged me for the hour of their time that it took. Of course a watchdog group like ours that isn’t even a nonprofit would hardly qualify as a commercial entity. In addition, they claim it would take two employees TWO MORE HOURS of their time to press the print button and put the eleven page report in an envelope to me. Interesting.
Still unanswered is why a Grand Forks police officer asked Somali residents of Grand Forks to show their identifications merely for watching the police question a Grand Forks Somali woman resident, Mulki Hoosh, about a parking violation. The Grand Forks police officers then called in Border Patrol agents to detain four Somali residents who could not produce original copies of their I-94 or green cards. According to Hoosh the police said that they asked the Somali residents for their identification because they had “come to the scene of an investigation”. Apparently the police consider anyone just standing and watching them as suspicious. It’s clear that this is a warning to all residents that police civil servants will not allow residents to observe them at work without retaliation. Yet if people can’t watch the police in action how will we know whether they are acting according to the law? I guess I could understand if there were just one or two officers and they asked people to disperse, but in this case the police are deeming residents suspicious merely for standing and watching.
Funny how that works. I’m sure other public servants would also love to have the power to get rid of observers.
Posted in immigration documents, Lutheran Social Services of ND, Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, North Dakota, Somali, U.S. Customs & Border Protection | Tagged: Border Patrol, FOIA, Freedom of Information Act, Grand Forks, police, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Somali refugees, U.S. Customs & Border Protection | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 28, 2010
The Detroit Free Press has an article about the opening of a new health care center that will serve refugees, including many Chaldean Iraqi refugees, in Macomb county in the Detroit area – the new ACCESS Community Health & Research Center. (ACCESS is an acronym for Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services.)
…hundreds of Chaldean refugees [seek] emotional and social services from the new ACCESS center — the only such facility in Macomb County.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for Tuesday. The Dearborn-based agency came to Sterling Heights in May to accommodate the growing population of Iraqi refugees and a shifting population of Arab Americans into Oakland and Macomb counties.
At the clinic, at 14 Mile and Ryan in Sterling Heights, the staff treats about 100 refugees per week, said Abdallah Boumediene, ACCESS director of operations. Clients receive physical and mental health care. A collaboration with Lutheran Social Services allows refugees to look for jobs.
“They want to be a productive part of society,” Boumediene said, but “they come with a number of issues.”
Since the start of the Iraq war, the U.S. Department of State has sent tens of thousands of Iraqi refugees to metro Detroit. More than half of the 2,200 who came to Michigan in 2009 settled in Macomb County. Through August 2010, 60% of 1,560 Iraqi refugees had settled in Oakland County. Refugees have moved mainly to Sterling Heights, Warren and Madison Heights, said Al Horn, director of refugee services for the Michigan Department of Human Services… Read more here
CandGnews.com mentions that smoking and tuberculosis are serious concerns for this group of refugees, in addition to PTSD.
…Two issues appear particularly troubling: smoking — which is more prevalent among Arab-Americans than other ethnic groups, and has a heightened cultural significance in the Middle East— and tuberculosis, he said… Read more here
ACCESS has a contract with the state of Michigan to do health screenings for all incoming refugees in the Detroit area.
…The Dearborn-based organization, which also has facilities in Hamtramck and Allen Park, has a contract with the state to conduct initial screenings, both mental and physical, of all incoming refugees in the tri-county area. Assessment within 90 days of arrival is the goal…
The only problem with that is that refugees should receive their initial health screening within 30 days, not 90 days, according to State Department requirements (see Operational Guidance).
Posted in Chaldean, Christian, Detroit area, health, Iraqi, late health screenings, mental health, PTSD, State Department | Tagged: ACCESS Community Health & Research Center, Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services, arab refugees, Chaldean refugees, Detroit, initial health screening, Iraqi refugees, Michigan, Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, refugee health, refugee mental health, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 27, 2010
According to a November 2009 report from the Migration Policy Institute thirty states started the last school year with ESL teaching vacancies. For example, according to an article in the TRIBUNA newspaper the number of students in the state of Connecticut that speak limited or no English, including refugee students, has skyrocketed while the number of teachers qualified to teach them English has declined.
Statewide, the number of students in the state that speak limited or no English has exploded over the past decade, but the number of teachers trained to help them has actually declined.
Eight years ago, one of every 27 students in the state was classified as speaking very limited English; today the ratio is one in 18, a net gain of almost 9,000 students.
Meanwhile, the number of qualified teachers has dropped by more than 9 percent, from 850 to 772.
“We have more students than we have staff to help them,” said Mark Mc- Quillan, the state’s education commissioner. “We have a problem to solve. … This is one of the neediest groups and we are not making much headway.”
The four-year high school graduation rate for students with limited English proficiency was 53.4 percent last year compared to 79.3 percent for all students, according to the State Department of Education.
Their test scores are also across-theboard way below their English-speaking peers. For example, just 18 percent of 10th grade students at Bridgeport Public Schools tested as proficient in math compared to 38 percent of all students being proficient statewide…
…The Migration Policy Institute, a non-partisan think-tank for immigrant integration, reports that the number of limited-English students nationwide has grown by 57 percent from 1996 to 2006.
The problem, their November 2009 report says, is there are not enough trained teachers in the U.S. to work with these students. Thirty states started the last school year with ESL teaching vacancies.
That was the case in Connecticut this school year. In a recent report, the Connecticut Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said hiring more qualified teachers for limited-English students is a key to closing the state education achievement gap… Read more here
The result here is that we have a lot of refugee children moving through the school system and either not graduating or graduating with poor knowledge and abilities, and none of that comes cheap. The two obstacles are a limited number of qualified teachers and not enough money to fund education for students that speak limited or no English. Who should pay these increased costs? The refugee program is a federal program and some argue that the federal government needs to start reimbursing local school districts for refugee children. Or should states absorb these costs since states voluntarily accept refugees for resettlement? (At least those that do not come on their own volition from other states.) Or should local school districts pay these costs since that is how we fund our schools? One way or another we should not let children grow up in this country without basic education.
This is another issue of refugee resettlement capacity that is often ignored when refugee resettlement agencies each year reflexively demand that a larger number of refugees be resettled than were resettled in the previous year. If the agencies’ lobbying group RCUSA had its way we would be accepting 100,000 refugees this fiscal year instead of the 80,000 that the Obama Administration authorized.
Posted in capacity, children, Connecticutt, funding, school for refugee children, schools | Tagged: bilingual teachers, Connecticut, English proficiency, ESL, limited-English students, Migration Policy Institute, RCUSA, refugee children, Refugee Council USA, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, TESOL | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 26, 2010
The Obama administration determined that refugee admission numbers for fiscal year 2011 will be 80,000 refugees. A detailed report to Congress can be found at the State Department’s Refugee Processing Center (RPC) website – Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2011 Report To the Congress.
According to the requirements of the Immigration and Nationality Act the report must contain detailed information on various aspects of the refugee admissions program including “An analysis of the anticipated social, economic, and demographic impact of their admission to the United States”. The Act requires that this information be submitted before the start of the fiscal year. Curiously they footnoted this requirement with the following statement.
Detailed discussion of the anticipated social and economic impact, including secondary migration, of the admission of refugees to the United States is being provided in the Report to the Congress of the Refugee Resettlement Program, Office of Refugee Resettlement, Department of Health and Human Services.
Sort of sounds like the ORR is simultaneously issuing a report to Congress for FY2011, doesn’t it? Yet, the ORR has not furnished Congress with a refugee report since fiscal year 2007! This seems to be some pretty serious flouting of the requirements. Of course this is hardly surprising in light of all the other violations of requirements that refugees discover once they arrive in the U.S. during their initial resettlement process.
Posted in Annual Report to Congress, Congress, ORR, RPC (Refugee Processing Center) | Tagged: Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, Proposed Refugee Admissions for Fiscal Year 2011 Report To The Congress, Refugee Processing Center, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, RPC (Refugee Processing Center), State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 24, 2010
A Chinese journalism student named Xue Jianyue studying at the Missouri School of Journalism wrote an article for publication at the Columbia Missourian about Iraqi refugees with professional credentials. The article did not get published in the end because his interviewee refused a photograph. The article is now published as a post in Jianyue’s blog.
Just as most Americans in Missouri are preparing for bed, Mr Kamal Mohammedali, a 51-year-old Iraqi refugee from Baghdad, heads to work at midnight, delivering the Columbia Daily Tribune to the newsstands across Columbia.
Even before the sun rises, Mohammedali starts his second job at 4 a.m., doing maintenance at public schools here.
Both Mohammedali and his wife, 49-year-old Bushra Faris, are overeducated for the jobs they currently hold – Muhammadali holds a degree in civil engineering and had helped the Iraqi government construct dams for many years. Faris holds a doctorate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology but works as a medical interpreter in Columbia.
“Our degree certificates are not recognized in America,” he said. “We are expected to start from zero.”
Mohammedali is among hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Missouri who are underemployed, working in low-skilled jobs as their academic qualifications are not recognized.
In order to get it recognized, they have to go through a lengthy process called recertification, which involves submitting academic certificates for evaluation, and taking tests on their professional knowledge and English proficiency.
While the recertification process can vary from each occupation and state, being recertified in a regulated occupation “requires significant financial, emotional and time commitment,” according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement website. For example, medical degrees can cost up to $4,000 and several years of tests and revision to get recognized.
For refugees like Mohammadali, they face 2 big obstacles; saving enough to pay for recertification, and verifying their certificates with home universities in war-torn Iraq…. Read more here
Although the post goes on to repeat some of the resettlement agencies’ talking points, such as IRC’s unsupported yet widely reported claim that the refugee program is “dangerously under-funded”, and that the State Department’s aid is $900-$1100 per refugee (no, it’s $1800), the post is interesting in what it reveals about employment services that USCCB’s Refugee & Immigration Services offers to refugees. The agency is still not set up to help refugees with re-certification, and needs to take more time to find more funding and connections, even though Iraqi refugees began arriving a few years ago.
…”It takes a very long time and costs alot for many to get re-certified,” Anne Zellhoefer from the Refugee of Immigration Services said. “These individuals must take the jobs they can in the meantime to support their families which complicates the process considerably.”
“Our staff members are pursuing additional funding and connections in the community to assist with this.”
Zellhoefer is not sure if 1-2 years is enough to even get a good start with recertification much less complete the process.
Individuals must be self-sufficient, save enough for the courses and tests, take the TOEFL and pass, before investing more than 5 years in the process, she added…
…It is also too early to decide if re-certification will be successful. “We have only just begun receiving highly educated Iraqi refugees in the last 1-2 years,” Zellhoefer said. “This is not enough time to offer any type of definitive statements or statistics on the process or results.”…
Yet, resettlement agencies have dealt with earlier waves of refugees who had professional experience and credentials, such as those from former Soviet republics and those escaping the wars in the former Yugoslav republics. What explains the seemingly complete lack of know-how about proper employment services for refugees with professional credentials? When I was helping an Iraqi engineer figure out how to find a job in his field I quickly located Upwardly Global’s website, which is a goldmine of information for immigrant professionals in the U.S., as is the ORR’s Recertification/Re-credentialing of Refugee Professionals page.
Do we really have to pay resettlement agencies to bureaucratize the process? Much of what they would do would probably be reinventing the wheel of what Upwardly Global has already done. It’s interesting to me how much a couple of volunteers with a phone and an internet search engine can do to help refugees that the resettlement agencies claim they would need government grants and years to do. I’m not saying that its easy for these refugees to get recertified, but resettlement agencies should at least be giving the refugees all the information they need about how to move forward on the process.
Posted in Catholic, Columbia, employment/jobs for refugees, Iraqi, ORR, professionals, Refugee & Immigration Services (Columbia, State Department | Tagged: Columbia Missouri, Iraqi refugees, Office of Refugee Resettlement, recertification, Refugee & Immigration Services, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, refugees with professional credentials, resettlement, State Department, TOEFL, Upwardly Global, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 22, 2010
World Relief announced that they are pulling out of Fort Wayne two years after opening an office in the city. World Relief claimed they opened the office to relieve strain from the other refugee resettlement agency in the city, Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne-South Bend, but it became clear that World Relief arrived in town to resettle more refugees and not to help care for those who were already there. When the State Department tried to restrict resettlement to the city in response to a large influx of Burmese refugee secondary migrants that the city and county have had trouble absorbing, World Relief attempted to convince the State Department to reverse course, and thereby make the crises even worse. When they were unsuccessful at that they decided to abandon ship altogether. An article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette gives more details:
FORT WAYNE – One of Fort Wayne’s two refugee placement offices will close, a consequence of the federal government’s limitations on the number of refugees sent to the city.
World Relief, a faith-based international humanitarian aid organization, opened an office at Simpson United Methodist Church on South Harrison Street less than two years ago in anticipation of an increased flow of refugees.
The U.S. State Department resettled about 800 Burmese refugees in the Fort Wayne area the year before the office opened. Refugees have been fleeing persecution in Myanmar, as Burma is called by the ruling military government, for years.
The high number being sent here had social services agencies seeking help, and World Relief said it hoped to ease some of the strain on Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne-South Bend, the sole agency tasked with placing refugees in the area.
But the State Department has since severely restricted the number of refugees who can be sent to the Fort Wayne area, and World Relief’s local office has welcomed only about half the number of refugees for which it was approved.
Calls to World Relief’s headquarters in Baltimore and Midwest office in Illinois were not returned Thursday. Dan Kosten, World Relief vice president of U.S. Programs, said in a statement the organization has tried to have the restrictions loosened.
Without more refugees, keeping the office open isn’t viable, he said.
Officials at the non-profit’s headquarters told Jeff Keplar, executive director of the Fort Wayne office, on Oct. 15 that his office would close...
…After World Relief Fort Wayne opened, the State Department limited refugee placement in the city to those who have parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren or siblings already living in the city.
Fort Wayne and Detroit were the only two cities to have such restrictions. In June, at the request of placement agencies, the State Department modified Detroit’s restriction to allow the placement of any refugees in the Detroit metro region who have ties there.
“This change should have the positive effect of strengthening family reunification and lessening secondary migration from other placement sites to the Detroit area,” a statement from the Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration said.
Secondary migration occurs when refugees are resettled in one city and leave for another. That has contributed to a Burmese refugee population in Fort Wayne that has been estimated to be the country’s largest.
Keplar thinks the restriction did not lessen the influx of refugees; instead, it might have contributed to secondary migration of refugees who arrived in the city without the support system of a resettlement agency… Read more here
So what we have here is private refugee groups whose goal is not to help the local community and the refugees already resettled, or refugees who have migrated to town from other areas, but to bring in more refugees. Fort Wayne has been in dire need of private groups with private funding to help with refugee secondary migrants, but World Relief has made it clear that they only do business when they can tap government funding, i.e. bring in more refugees for resettlement and collect government resettlement funds. This is what the private resettlement agencies sell as the “private sector contribution” — in which resettlement “charities” no longer just contribute private resources, but only get and stay involved if they can feed off of public funding. It’s almost hard to imagine a worse arrangement for the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
It’s also hard to imagine what would have happened if World Relief had suceeded in pressuring the State Department to discontinue the reduction in flow of refugees to this already overburdened community. Its clear, however, that World Relief has no interest in responsible refugee resettlement. I believe that their involvement in the refugee resettlement is detrimental to the program.
By the way, here is a report on some of World Relief’s funny numbers from a 2005 audit by the State Department’s Office of Inspector General. (Part 1 and Part 2)
Posted in State Department, World Relief, Burma/Myanmar, faith-based, evangelical, public/private partnership, secondary migration, refugee, Fort Wayne, refugee magnet city, capacity, moratorium / restriction | Tagged: State Department, refugee, refugees, World Relief, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, Burmese refugees, secondary migrants, Catholic Charities of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Simpson United Methodist Church, Dan Kosten, secondary migration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 22, 2010
Lexington, Nebraska has become a site of refugee secondary migration (when refugees resettled in one place move on their own volition to another city or state.) Approximately 2,200 Somali refugees have relocated to this rural site to take jobs at Tyson Fresh Meats during the past 4-5 years. An article in the Lexington Clipper-Herald covers the problems these refugees face with the lack of services that address their language and cultural barriers.
Four or five years ago, the numbers of Somali residents in Lexington began to grow as work opportunities at Tyson Fresh Meats attracted resettled refugee victims with employment.
The Somali Community Center says nearly 2,200 Somali natives have become Lexingtonites, and are in dire need of language services in order to integrate and be a productive and safe part of the Lexington community...
…Lexington is full of “secondary migrants,” says Kimberly Thomas, Interim Director of Community Services at Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, an agency involved in providing resettlement services and assistance in conjunction with the international relocation process…
…Thomas encourages all community members in Lexington to reach out to their new neighbors.
On the topic of traffic accidents, customary differences, and especially health and physical safety needs like medical service, and paying bills, Somalis are struggling…
…the language barrier is a very real problem.
This problem is especially challenging because no current state interpreter licensure exists in many fields…
…Medical interpretation assistance is one area in which the SCC board members express the most need., especially during after-hours emergency care.
While not enough adults have gained proficiency in English yet, there is a shortage of volunteer interpreters to help Somalis do things like pay bills or recognize junk mail, and most importantly interface with professionals on a variety of levels including law enforcement and at the hospital…
…Throughout several interviews, the idea of “Emergency ESL” emerged as a potential way community members could volunteer to help each other.
“It’s really going to take a community,” Thomas says, “It’s going to take local people embracing a neighbor and saying, ‘here, I’ll help you, I’ll teach you, because [that which is] outside of Lexington can’t do it for Lexington,” Lexington is going to have to get there.
“It’s going to take volunteer effort. Limited dollars are going to be involved, but it is rewarding work.
“And when people stop seeing them[selves] as outside [the problem] and not responsible, they start [understanding] that this is “our” community.”
Thomas suggested a mentor-mentee model where churches could get volunteers to sponsor a person or a family to help once or twice a week going through the mail, or helping with “Survival English.”… Read more here
Not mentioned in the article is that Nebraska is one of five sites chosen for a U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) funded Rural Secondary Migration Pilot Project study begun in early spring 2009 and conducted by the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning. The study was supposed to “examine the impact of secondary migration on communities, the community response to secondary migration, available community resources and early intervention strategies for assisting refugees, and technical assistance to build social service capacity.” Other states participating in the assessment process include: Texas, North Dakota, Colorado and Kansas.
A delegation from the Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning visited Lexington in August 2009, yet to date there is no word from the Institute or the ORR about what they learned or what technical assistance they offered to build social service capacity. Certainly, the community and the refugee population is still struggling as ORR dawdles.
Posted in ESL & ELL, Lexington, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, meatpacking industry, Nebraska, ORR, refugee magnet city, secondary migration, refugee, Somali | Tagged: Lexington Nebraska, Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Rural Secondary Migration Pilot Project, secondary migrants, secondary migration, refugee, Somali refuges, Spring Institute for Intercultural Learning, Tyson Fresh Meats | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 20, 2010
Texas experienced an 85 percent increase in refugee resettlement this past year, according to an article in the Utne Reader. Apparently resettlement agencies that would normally have sent Iraqi refugees to Michigan were instead directing them to Texas while Michigan had its (now ended) moratorium on free-case refugees. The moratorium in Michigan was due to overwhelming numbers of new Iraqi refugees paired with the state’s dire economy.
…In the past year, Texas saw an 85 percent increase in official refugee arrivals. “We’re still reeling from it all,” says Caitriona Lyons, the Texas State Refugee Resettlement Program coordinator. National voluntary agencies have redirected to Texas refugees who otherwise might have gone to Michigan, a popular destination, or other economically troubled states. Between 2006 and 2009, 2,822 Iraqis officially resettled in Texas. Thousands more are on the way…Read more here
Caitriona Lyons is the state refugee coordinator who was disinterested (and unhelpful) earlier this year when gay Iraqi refugees were being mistreated by Catholic Charities in Houston.
The article goes on to describe experiences by Iraqi refugees in Dallas. Muhammad Haji, his wife Payman, and the couple’s three kids moved to Dallas after first being resettled in Milwaukee. Refugee Services of Texas said it would help the family find an apartment within 3 days, but then left the family on their own for 25 days. Finally, the agency placed them in an apartment – in a complex where drug deals were going down.
…In January 2008 the family resettled in Milwaukee, but the Hajis felt isolated—and cold. They came to Dallas looking for a larger Iraqi community and warmer climes. They assumed refugee assistance would follow them, but they were no longer eligible for the Department of State resettlement funds they had received in Milwaukee. When the family reached Dallas, Haji says, Refugee Services of Texas, a nonprofit agency, said it would find them an apartment within three days. The Hajis stayed with another Iraqi family. Three days passed, then 10, then 18. Their hosts called Refugee Services and said it wasn’t their job to take care of the Hajis.
For a week longer, the Hajis moved from house to house, but they finally wore out all welcomes. The family found themselves on the street, sitting at a gas station with nowhere to go. Haji called Refugee Services from the pay phone: “Help us, or I will call the police,” he said. The group finally found them an apartment—albeit in a complex with, the Hajis say, drug deals going down next door. Carol Roxburgh, the executive director of Refugee Services of Texas, says the Hajis were not officially transferred from their agency in Milwaukee to Dallas, so they “broke their contract” and were not eligible for housing. Given the circumstances, Roxburgh says, “We went above and beyond to help them the best we could without any funding.”…
Amira Matsuda, president of the Iraqi American Association of North Texas and head of the Texas Muslim Women’s Foundation, has helped dole out more than $80,000 in private funds to help Iraqi refugees in Dallas-Fort Worth. Her group does not have outside funding, but instead its members reach into their own pockets to help the refugees. She says that refugee organizations have been less than helpful.
…“On a personal level,” Matsuda says, “we take [Iraqi refugees] shopping to cover their basic needs, pay some of their utility bills, rent, collect donated furniture from our community, and distribute it to those who need it.” Matsuda also provides legal advice, translations, and help finding employment.
She is helping at least 150 Iraqi households and receives calls, she says, “at all hours.”…
…Matsuda has heard stories like the Hajis’ scores of times. “Many organizations were very unacceptable in how they treated Iraqi families here,” Matsuda says. But blame for the plight of families like the Hajis cannot be placed solely on the backs of local or state agencies. The policies, the source of the problem, are made in Washington…
Another recent Iraqi refugee arrival named Salah al Bagdadi reports that it took four months just to receive his social security card, during which time he could not look for work.
…At Zituna World Food Market in Richardson, Salah wears a baker’s toque. He was a reform activist during Saddam’s regime, and when his life was threatened, he left Iraq and lived in Yemen and Jordan. When his permit ran out in Jordan, he was imprisoned. In 2008 he was offered resettlement to the United States…
Salah had little choice but to come. For four months, he didn’t get his Social Security card and could not look for work. That bad patch is over, but things are hardly comfortable…His wife, Haifa, is working as a hairdresser, and his daughter is a cashier in the salon. With three wage earners, the family is able to scrape by…
Posted in Dallas/Fort Worth, Iraqi, Refugee Services of Texas, Refugee Services of Texas, Refugee Services of Texas, secondary migration, refugee | Tagged: Caitriona Lyons, dallas, Iraqi refugees, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, Refugee Services of Texas, refugees, Texas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 19, 2010
A nursing home called the police on three Somali refugee women in Jamestown, North Dakota after they went in to apply for a job and were told to leave. According to an article in the Jamestown Sun the women were responding to a newspaper ad, but the administrator of the nursing home said she had inadvertently left the ad in the newspaper after filling the position two days earlier. Yet, after the women left an American friend called the nursing home and an employee told her that the position was still open.
A dispute between a Somali woman applying for work and the management of a local nursing home degenerated into a loud conflict last week that led to law enforcement officers being called, according to reports from the Jamestown Police Department.
The incident occurred on Oct. 6 when Ismahan Ismail, accompanied by two friends, applied for a job at Bethel 4 Acres. Ismail has been a resident of Jamestown since April when she moved to the area from San Diego, Calif. Originally from Somalia, she has lived in the United States for 10 years…
…“They came in and wanted a job,” said Delores Bagan, administrator of Bethel 4 Acres. “We said the job was filled and they called me a liar and showed the ad from the paper. They kept on arguing. We told them the job was filled and they should go. They wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
Bagan said she had filled the job “a couple of days” earlier but had inadvertently allowed the classified ad in The Jamestown Sun to continue to run. She also commented on the appearance of the women, who were dressed in full-length, robe-like dresses and head scarves.
“Dressed in that flowing garb they couldn’t fill a position scrubbing floors and toilets,” she said.
Bagan said the women swore at her and didn’t leave until they saw the police…
…Ismail’s account of the incident differs.
“We were looking for a job everywhere possible,” she said. “One lady came out, she didn’t have a welcoming face, she said there were no jobs so we left. Another lady came out and yelled ‘why you come three at a time.’ She said ‘leave my property’ and started cussing — and I was mad and cussing too.”
The incident caused people associated with the Somali refugee community to investigate.
“I called (Bethel 4 Acres) right after I heard,” said Jackie Hyra, a Jamestown resident associated with the refugee community through her membership on the outreach committee of the First Congregational United Church of Christ. “I told them I lived in the country and didn’t want to drive in unless there was a job opening. I was told there were openings and I should come in.”
When asked about this, Bagan reiterated there were no job openings available and it’s possible an employee hadn’t been informed. Read more here
I suppose it is possible that the nursing home administrator left the ad running after filling the position. That happens often enough. But then an employee also tells someone calling that the position is still open? Well, I suppose that’s possible. Employees make mistakes.
One thing I can say though having taken hundreds of refugees to look for jobs – the experience is often best described as nothing less than peculiar. I took one African refugee to a furniture store to apply for a labor position and they told him the guy doing the hiring wasn’t in. They didn’t give him an application, tell him when to come back or anything. I told the refugee to go back in and ask when he should return. They told him to come back in two hours. When we returned two hours later they told the refugee once again that the guy wasn’t in. This was my first experience with an employer who didn’t at least offer an application.
I think employers that put out notices for job positions and then don’t let people apply for the positions should reasonably expect suspicion of their motivations.
Posted in employment/jobs for refugees, North Dakota, police, Somali, unwelcoming communities | Tagged: employment discrimination, jamestown, North Dakota, refugee employment, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Somali refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 17, 2010
Betsy Cooper and Katie Reisner of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project are proponents of the idea of elimination of the annual refugee ceiling limit, an idea first proposed by academic David Martin, according to a post at the Congressional blog The Hill. The proposal is to treat the declared refugee numbers (e.g. President Obama’s limit of 80,000 refugees this fiscal year of 2011) as a target and not a ceiling. In other words, the number authorized by the President whould be a goal for refugee resettlement and not an absolute limit. This would allow the State Department and the private resettlement agencies to surpass the ceiling limit in the event of an emergency, such as the Iraqi refugee crisis or the Haitian earthquake, or any other reason of their choosing.
…Last week, the President set an 80,000-person ceiling on the number of refugees who can enter the United States next year. This is the upper boundary of our commitment – rather than the goal we commit ourselves to fulfilling. In doing so, the President missed an opportunity to rethink our responsibility to vulnerable populations, especially the 4 million Iraqis now scattered across the globe…
…On face, the refugee resettlement numbers are disappointing. Despite the scale of the Iraqi refugee crisis, the United States plans to accept only around 17,000 Iraqis into the country this year – roughly the same as last year. This means that many clients of our organization, the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, will be stuck waiting abroad…
…One simple solution requires only that President Obama rethink what we’re already doing. Five years ago, academic David Martin proposed an important fix: to treat the declared refugee numbers as targets rather than ceilings. In other words, the number authorized by the President should be a goal for refugee resettlement rather than an absolute limit – making “admissions shortfalls . . . a failure of the system.”…
…There’s reason to hope that President Obama will adopt this mantle of reform: its innovator, David Martin, is now a top Department of Homeland Security official. We strongly encourage the President to take his advice. Read more here
Yet, how does this address the capacity issue? Do we have unlimited capacity to take in refugees in any single year? This is not only the capacity of the private refugee resettlement agencies but also the capacity of local communities to accept newcomers — including the ability of local government agencies such as public health offices, the capacity of local nonprofits that offer services incoming refugees need to become self-sufficient, and the capacity of local co-sponsors and volunteers.
The federal government’s goal of assisting refugees is a worthy one, however resettlement to the U.S. is just one option. In the case of the Iraqi refugee crisis we may need an intermediate solution to resettle Iraqis who cannot safely return home. The List Project promoted the idea of bringing Iraqi refugees to Guam until we can process and resettle them. That would allow for a safe place to stay until we can slowly bring them to the U.S. as capacity allows. The notion, however, that we focus on absolute numbers without addressing capacity, funding, and other essential factors seems to me like simple-minded idealism.
Posted in capacity, Iraqi, Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, Obama administration, reform, State Department | Tagged: airlift Iraqi refugees to Guam, annual refugee ceiling limit, David Martin, Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, Iraqi refugees, Obama administration, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement capacity, refugee resettlement program, refugees, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
After I saw an article last month in the Grand Forks Herald about the Somali refugees that Border Patrol detained I posted on the incident, here. U.S. Customs & Border Protection agents detained the Somali refugees, one of whom had just arrived in the U.S. a month earlier, for failure to carry original copies of their immigration documents on their person.
