Archive for December, 2010
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 31, 2010
The Tennessean has an article about that state “opting-out” of refugee resettlement oversight responsibilities, as twelve other states have already done. I put opting-out in quotes because it doesn’t seem to me anyone or any entity can really opt-out of responsibilities.
Next year, the Office for Refugees at Catholic Charities of Tennessee will administer more than $9 million in federal funds aimed at helping refugees statewide overcome language barriers, get jobs and become self-sufficient.
The office, based in Nashville, acts as a go-between for the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and Tennessee agencies that serve refugees. It has been administering between $9-10 million a year since 2008 in an interim capacity under the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement.
“When we were the interim, we acted like the state and ran the program on its behalf,” said Holly Johnson, director of the Tennessee Office for Refugees. “Now, as the permanent office, we have can have a little more flexibility with the programs we offer.”
Thirteen states, including Tennessee, have opted out of the federal program, leaving it to be run by nonprofits in those states…. Read more here
The whole point of having states oversee federal funds is that states are closer to the action so are theoretically better positioned to oversee local refugee resettlement efforts. In Tennessee we now have Catholic Charities of Tennessee overseeing itself, and they like the new “flexibility with the funds” that this new arrangement will confer. That’s sort of stating the obvious. What amazes me is how states keep doing that seemingly without any debate whatsoever. Is the public involved in these decisions at all?
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of Tennessee, ORR, Tennessee | Tagged: Catholic Charities of Tennessee, Holly Johnson, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, oversight, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Tennessee, Tennessee Office for Refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 30, 2010
An article in the Houston Chronicle details the amazing way one individual is helping refugees in her community to become self-sufficient. Quynh-Anh McMahan is a former Vietnamese refugee living in Houston who has helped refugee women form a group called The Community Cloth. The refugee women from Bhutan, Burma, Iraq and Burundi, gather informally to knit, weave, embroider and sew and have sold almost $40,000 in merchandise — scarves, children’s clothes, table runners and place mats.
Quynh-Anh McMahan enters a dilapidated apartment complex on Hillcroft and walks toward the crowd. It’s National Day in the South Asian country of Bhutan, and the local celebration is about to get under way.
Suddenly McMahan is surrounded by a small band of women, chattering in newly learned English:
Could they help her with her packages? Would she like some tea? Won’t she come upstairs and see the scarves they have just knitted?
The refugee women have no education to speak of and few conventional job skills. But with the help of McMahan and other volunteers from The Community Cloth, the Bhutanese women are able to contribute to their family incomes with each click of their knitting needles.
Roughly 40 refugee women, representing Bhutan, Burma, Iraq and Burundi, gather informally to knit, weave, embroider and sew in what is essentially their own small business.
In the past year they have sold almost $40,000 in merchandise — scarves, children’s clothes, table runners and place mats — and all profits come back to them.
It’s very lucky to know McMahan, says Bhutanese refugee Nar Rai, 38. “She is helping us, so that we can pay for diapers and the electric bill.”
Kate Morgan and Roxanne Paiva, who co-founded the The Community Cloth with McMahan, says their Vietnamese-American friend is key to the organization’s success.
“Quynh-Anh brings wisdom to the project and love and tenderness,” Paiva says. “She draws from her own experience.”…
…McMahan works full time for the Rockwell Fund, a private, philanthropic foundation that focuses on health, education and human services. She also devotes considerable energy to the local Asian-American Giving Circle.
“Philanthropy isn’t just for the rich and famous,” McMahan says. “Everyday people can come together, put funds together as a group and make decisions about where they want the money to go.”
Then, of course, there’s The Community Cloth.
McMahan reconnected to her refugee roots almost by accident, she says. A friend who was going out of town asked her to pick up a family of Bhutanese refugees and take them to a nearby Hindu temple.
Sure, she thought, no problem. But that Sunday, there were several dozen families aching to go to the temple. She ferried them all back and forth. She was hooked.
“I have a heart for these families,” she says. Read more here
I must be dumb or something because I cannot figure out how to do things like this. I wonder where they sell their product?
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Nepali Bhutanese, Burundian, Iraqi, Houston, economic self-sufficiency | Tagged: houston, Philanthropy, Quynh-Anh McMahan, refugee res, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, The Community Cloth | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 29, 2010
An article in Immigration Daily discusses the strange relationship formed between some pro-immigrant organizations and anti-Moslem, anti-gay hate groups.
A recent article in the Baptist Press illustrates just how diverse the refugee advocacy community really is–and now, some pro-immigrant organizations have joined forces with an anti-Moslem, anti-gay hate group. The issue that has brought together this “coalition of religious, conservative, and human rights leaders” is the material support bar and the Obama Administration’s failure to adopt reforms to prevent innocent refugees from being classified as terrorists (I touched on this problem in a previous post).
Among the groups that joined together to call for reform are the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), Human Rights First, Concerned Women for America, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The group that really stands out to me is Concerned Women for America. Here are some quotes from their website:
- In a time when families are struggling to pay their mortgages and utility bills, much less buy Christmas presents for their loved ones, the Smithsonian Institution, which is partly funded by American taxpayers, is promoting an exhibit that degrades Christianity and exalts homosexuality…. I urge Congress to swiftly take steps to defund the Smithsonian Institution for their reckless and inexcusable judgment in funding such a project.
- On September 15, 2011, CWA will present an in-depth discussion with experts on America’s most important policy issue. This issue affects foreign policy, human rights and perhaps even our own system of law in the future. Come join us and our panel as we expose underlying tenets of Sharia Law and how it threatens our nation and your family.
- Another measure that failed during the lame duck session was the DREAM Act, a back door amnesty bill that would grant automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants, with “children” defined as anyone up to the age of 35.
So, CWA hates Moslems and DREAM Act children. They also hate gay people: the Southern Poverty Law Center notes that the organization’s founder “has blamed gay people for a ‘radical leftist crusade’ in America and, over the years, has occasionally equated homosexuality with pedophilia.” But the CWA supports reforming the material support bar for refugees, and is thus part of the broader coalition.
What’s surprising to me is that mainstream groups such as HIAS and Human Rights First–groups that I strongly support–would join together with a group like CWA. Maybe I am naive to think that reform can occur without a broad coalition, but it seems to me that some groups are simply beyond the pale. Don’t get me wrong–I greatly respect most of the groups that have joined together to call for reforming the material support bar. But I respectfully suggest that they should be more careful about who they partner with in the future. To me at least, the ends simply do not justify the means. Read more here
Posted in HIAS, USCCB | Tagged: and Human Rights First, Concerned Women for America, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, National Association of Evangelicals, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 24, 2010
The author of this Op-ed, Som N. Subedi, about Bhutanese refugees in Oregon sent us the link to the article. Read the OregonLive article for the full story. Below is an excerpt.
I am a refugee from Bhutan. In the early days after my arrival to Portland, I would call friends and family in the refugee camps in Nepal, telling them the United States is close to heaven and they should try to come as soon as possible.
Now, nearly two years later, I see those newly arrived struggling; they question me about my “heaven.” Some say they would return, if it were possible, to their dark refugee camps rather than face their desperate situations in Oregon. I have come to feel that “the
American dream” is dangerous, because people come here with great expectations. I have stopped calling the camps in Nepal…
…The Bhutanese, the newest refugee community in Oregon, began arriving in early 2008. More than 33,000 now live in the United States — including more than 400 in the Portland metro area — as part of a State Department resettlement program. Another 30,000 are expected to arrive in the U.S. over the next three years — destined to face an economic crisis that adds to the challenges of their integration…
…When the United States opened its door to refugees from Bhutan, we jumped at the opportunity. But a three-day orientation overseas did not prepare us for life in America. We were told how to use a toilet or fasten a seatbelt, but nothing about how to deal with a lack of employment opportunities. Bhutanese refugees suffer intense culture shock when they arrive in the U.S. Separation from family and from everything familiar is overwhelming, as is the trauma of war and refugee camp life…
For some, the pressure is too great. Suicide among refugees is a real and growing concern in the United States. Already, eight Bhutanese refugees have hung themselves in four states since 2009. Suicide by a refugee has an added poignancy: Refugees believe they are coming to start a new life, not to end it.
Although no suicide has occurred in Oregon, I have met several Bhutanese refugees here who have contemplated suicide due to their dire financial circumstances. Thankfully I was able to connect them to resources and counseling and tried to give them hope for the future.
Even refugees who do find work must deal with discrimination and injustice. Many are hired for low pay, asked to work extra hours, and some are not paid for the work. They are vulnerable, because they are not fluent in English and do not know their rights. Earlier this year, several Bhutanese men working at a downtown Portland restaurant were cheated of their paychecks. It took two months for community leaders to persuade the restaurant owners to pay them.
Bhutanese refugees are very thankful to the U.S. government and to Oregonians for welcoming them to this community and providing hope and an opportunity for a new life. But we need more support to thrive here. Families are simply not prepared for the complexity of American life. We need longer individual and group orientations, more vocational training, and more civic engagement. Portland resettlement agencies need volunteers and mentors to help refugees with school registration, transportation, and orientation in Oregon and in American culture… Read more here
Posted in Nepali Bhutanese, Oregon, suicide | Tagged: Bhutan, Bhutanese refugees, Lhotsampas, oregon, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, Som Subedi, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 21, 2010
A Burundian refugee working as an interpreter was charged with sexually assaulting female African refugees in Abilene, Texas. An Abilene Reporter-News article gives more details.
Aloys Nzeyimana, the city of Abilene employee arrested and charged with sexual assault on Thursday, has been placed on paid administrative leave by the city…
…Nzeyimana, a native of Africa, provided interpretation services along with his other duties as a health administration specialist, Kidd said…
…Neither Nzeyimana nor the other employees of the health department work strictly as interpreters, Johnson said. Often, clients who visit the district for a variety of health-related services don’t speak English, and employees who are able to translate step into the role of interpreter.
Abilene police said they believe Nzeyimana sexually assaulted female African refugees and that he used his position as a translator to hide his offenses and intimidate his victims into staying quiet. He was charged with two counts of sexual assault on Thursday relating to an alleged incident with a relative…
…The health department contracts with the Texas Department of State Health Services to perform health screenings for refugees who are relocated to Abilene through the International Rescue Committee…
…Johnson said the health district is prepared to interpret for about seven or eight different languages, and that the district provides services for more than 200 refugees a year…
..A story in Reporter-News archives published in May 2006 said Nzeyimana grew up in Burundi and studied in France and Russia. He was an engineer by trade and eventually moved to the United States. Read more here
Jan. 14, 2011 **UPDATE** here and here
Posted in Abilene, Burundian, IRC, language, sexual abuse | Tagged: Abilene, african refugees, Aloys Nzeyimana, Burundian refugee, International Rescue Committee, interpreter, IRC, rape, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, sexual assault | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 21, 2010
In the black and white thinking of refugee officials even a rat biting a baby can’t be as bad as the circumstances from which refugees have escaped. Would you rather have the refugee family die back in a refugee camp? An article in the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette tells how a rat bit a Burmese refugee baby in an apartment. If only the refugees had complained about the rats, but its an acclimation problem you see. But isn’t that why we have refugee resettlement agencies to help refugees with these tasks?
…A report that a toddler had been bitten by a mouse or rat would cause most Americans fear and outrage.
When Dr. Charles Coats – who treated 19-month-old Sage Dar for the bite – learned what had caused it, he was incensed.
“You just don’t hear about rats or mice in the United States attacking babies,” Coats said. “You should never have to worry about your baby being bitten in your own home.”…
…Be Ki, Sage Dar’s mother, lives in Autumn Woods Apartments on the city’s far southeast side with her three children, while her husband works in Illinois. She speaks no English.
…She said that as the complex’s clientele became largely Burmese three years ago, it has been an educational experience for everyone. Recent immigrants have had to learn how to make their way in a bewildering new society, and management has had to learn about which issues it needs to watch because of tenants’ lack of familiarity. For example, plumbing that you cannot pour cooking grease into…
…“You don’t want to take their culture away from (immigrants), but we do try to help acclimate them,” she said. “There’s a lot behind the scenes we try to do. We’re like social workers and landlords here.”…
…Washington said it’s important to remember that issues that arise are not a “Burmese problem,” but simply an acclimation problem. Anyone would have difficulty fitting in to a new culture, and everyone involved needs to learn as they go. Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, children, cultural adjustment, Fort Wayne, housing, housing, substandard, rats and roaches, safety | Tagged: Burmese refugees, fort wayne, rat bites baby, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 13, 2010
An article in the Buffalo News Staff Reporter covers the issue of domestic abuse and juvenile delinquency cases involving immigrant and refugee families. It makes me wonder what quality of cultural orientation refugee resettlement agencies in Buffalo, such as the International Institute of Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, and Journey’s End Refugee Services, Inc., are offering.
A refugee from Somalia was accused of trying to sell her 16-year-old daughter into marriage against her will.
Social Services took another Somali couple’s six children because the father belt-whipped his 8-year-old son and tied him up for misbehaving in school…
…These and other cases like them are raising the concerns of judges, lawyers and human services providers in Buffalo.
Erie County Family Court judges say they have seen a startling rise in the number of domestic abuse and juvenile delinquency cases involving immigrant, refugee and Muslim families who want help but fear police intervention…
…”In America, we emphasize independence and individual freedoms,” said Family Court Judge Lisa Bloch Rodwin in her opening remarks. “This is in direct conflict with certain cultures that emphasize obedience to parents and authority. How do we bridge the gap between behaviors which are accepted between spouses in other cultures, but which are not acceptable or legal here?”
In the 2 1/2 years she’s been judge, Rodwin said, she’s seen at least a doubling of cases involving newcomers to the country and culturally isolated Muslims, noting that child neglect, abuse, family violence and juvenile delinquency are rampant.
These issues certainly are not confined to immigrants and refugees. Domestic violence and child neglect reach across all ethnicities and income levels.
However, social service and legal advocates say immigrants and refugees face additional burdens of cultural differences, post-traumatic stress, generational power struggles, language barriers, immigrant community pressure and family isolation. Read more here
Posted in Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, International Institute of Buffalo, Journey's End Refugee Services, Journey's End Refugee Services, Somali | Tagged: Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, community orientation, cultural orientation, domestic abuse, domestic violence, International Institute of Buffalo, Journey's End Refugee Services, juvenile delinquency, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 12, 2010
Alier Malual Kang
It saddens me to think about how a young Sudanese refugee I knew died almost six years ago. He died at the age of 21 (or 24, we’re uncertain of his age) on January 23, 2005, in Rochester, Minnesota. His name was Alier Kang and he died of hypothermia. Alier had a difficult life that included a great deal of suffering, first in Sudan during the war in the late 1980′s, then during a death-defying trek to Ethiopia, years spent in a refugee camp, and then another period of homeless in Rochester after he was resettled there in 2001. At that time he was featured in a local newspaper article about young people at risk.
I came to know him when I was helping to care for a 29-year-old Sudanese refugee who was dying of cancer in early 2002. I found Alier sleeping on a couch at an apartment where some other young Sudanese refugees lived. We talked a few times and I often gave him ideas on how to quit smoking. He was a sweet kid, and appreciative of someone trying to help him. He also showed his compassionate side by visiting the other Sudanese refugee in the nursing home where he spent his last weeks of life.
One thing I didn’t know about Alier until after I heard Wonder/Hostess store employee found him dead one morning, lying in the snow, was that he also engaged in occasional binge drinking, as many young people do. He had been out at a local nightclub drinking with a friend the night he died. He apparently was trying to walk from an apartment in one part of town to a friend’s house in another part of town when he apparently tired, lied down to rest, and fell asleep in the snow. The temperature was below zero that night.
People who are more susceptible to hypothermia including infants, the elderly, and those who are already sick, people with a thin build (like Alier), and people who have consumed alcohol. Alcohol has the ability to dull the senses and interfere with the body’s thermal regulation. It can also make one drowsy. I’m sure Alier had no idea the danger he was in that night.
I prefer to remember how Alier lived, rather than the way he died, but I hope that by writing this post that others will realize the danger and take precautions so that this tragedy will not be repeated. If you know any refugees who are resettled to cold climates, and who may be at risk due to their age, thin build, or alcohol consumption, or history of trama, please try to make sure they and those around them know about the risk of hypothermia.
Posted in Minnesota, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: Alier Kang, at risk youth, hypothermia, hypothermia and alcolhol consumption, Lost Boys of Sudan, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, Rochester Minnesota, Sudanese refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 11, 2010
An article in the New York Times details the case of a Burmese refugee family resettled to the Bronx by Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York. Despite being sponsored by the New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, Catholic Charities can’t see to find a few extra nickles to take the family to the Statue of Liberty, or even to Manhattan.
…Mr. Bae Reh and Ms. Moo Pro, both 27…are refugees from Myanmar whose parents fled to a camp in Thailand to escape a government that drafted citizens at random and forced them to commit atrocities against their own ethnic tribes…
In 2007, the American government began admitting some of the refugees. After a two-year investigation ensured that Mr. Bae Reh and Ms. Moo Pro had no health problems or messy political entanglements, they arrived in New York in March…
“They didn’t even know where to put stuff,” said Onita Misa , the family’s case manager at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, one of the seven beneficiaries of The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. “They put food in the cabinet with detergent,” she said. “I had to start with the A B C’s: ‘Here is the toothbrush, here is the toothpaste.’ ”
The organization was enlisted to help after being alerted to the family’s plight by the State Department’s Reception and Placement Program. Ms. Misa found an apartment for them in the West Farms section of the Bronx; it is below street level at the end of a dank outdoor hallway. The Neediest Cases Fund provided $900, which paid for their first month’s rent. Ms. Misa filled out the rental paperwork and bought the essentials.
“It was amazing for them, compared to the camps,” she said of the modest apartment, where the two children sleep in the only bedroom and their parents sleep on the couch. The couple’s wedding photo dominates a wall in the living room: In it, Mr. Bae Reh is wearing blue jeans and a sports jacket over an untucked shirt, and Ms. Moo Pro has a youthful smile.
The only clothes they wear now are donated or bought for them from thrift stores. They have never been to Manhattan.
Ms. Moo Pro said she wanted to see the Statue of Liberty. “But how can I go there?” she said through an interpreter. “I don’t even know how to get there.”
Until she learns English, she is essentially unemployable. Mr. Bae Reh travels only to his job in Brooklyn — he makes $7.25 an hour as a packer at the 4C Foods Corporation in East New York. Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Catholic, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, employment/jobs for refugees, faith-based, housing, housing, overcrowding, NYC | Tagged: bronx, Burmese refugees, Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, Myanmar, New York City, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 9, 2010
An article in Cronkite News explains the ongoing problem that refugees with professional credentials have when they resettle to the US. Resettlement agencies are often less than entirely helpful, sometimes they don’t even help refugees look for jobs.
…Saad Ahmed fled Iraq with his wife and his grown children, two sons and a daughter, after receiving death threats for renting his Baghdad home to an American company. He left behind the appliance store that he owned and has yet to find work since arriving in Phoenix in 2009.
His sons, one a medical student and the other a computer engineer in Iraq, have worked at gas stations. His daughter, a medical school graduate, has sold shoes.
“The truth is,” Ahmed said, “it’s been hell.”…
…The urgency of establishing an income means skilled refugees often must compete with other refugees and unskilled workers for low-wage jobs at convenience stores, retailers and restaurants.
Ahmed’s resettlement was through the International Rescue Committee’s Phoenix office, but he said didn’t get any employment help from his caseworker.
“We went there the first week, and after that we had no correspondence from them. That was it,” Ahmed said. “So my sons and I went to the laptop and figured out what we needed to do.”
Representatives of the International Rescue Committee didn’t respond to several phone calls seeking comment about Ahmed’s case…
…Craig Thoreson, director of refugee and immigration services at the Phoenix office of Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, said…he doesn’t know of an organization in Arizona that specifically assists the skilled-refugee population with job placement and recertification…
…Unlike her father, Shihab, 26, is pursuing recertification of her degree. She had just finished medical school when her family left Iraq. She worked in a hospital in Syria but has only been able to find one job here: selling shoes at Scottsdale Fashion Square.
She later was able to get a volunteer position in a hospital’s surgery waiting room but had to quit both positions when her family moved to Peoria. These days she keeps busy studying for her recertification exams.
Shihab said she received no guidance from the resettlement agency about recertification but rather learned about it through word-of-mouth and through a short-lived Facebook group of Iraqi doctors seeking recertification… Read more here
Refugees also say that resettlement workers often treat them as if they should know how to do things American-style, instead of teaching them.
…Often what seems obvious to Americans can be completely foreign to Iraqis. For example, Ahmed recalled the confusion he experienced as employees at DES and the resettlement agency set him up to access benefits through debit-card technology.
“They kept saying, ‘You need to select a PIN number. You need to select a PIN number,’” Ahmed said. “And I kept saying, ‘What does this mean? What’s a PIN number?’ They don’t explain.
“We don’t have plastic cards in Iraq. I had no idea what this meant.”
Alkledar said although agencies have useful information about low-income housing, health and social services and job hunting it’s often not provided to the refugees, and when it is, it’s not comprehensive.
Another obstacle, according to Alkledar, is that some caseworkers who are themselves refugees aren’t intimately familiar with the American process of job hunting and interviewing, making them not ideally qualified to advise others on it.
“How can he do that?” he said of refugee caseworkers. “Himself, he needs help”…
Five states have established gubernatorial executive orders to help skilled immigrants re-establish their careers. Other state agencies and refugee coordinators seem to be completely oblivious about how to help refugees with professional credentials.
…According to Jennifer Perez-Brennan, who monitors state policy initiatives for Upwardly Global, five states have gubernatorial executive orders to help skilled immigrants re-establish their careers: Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland and Washington. Illinois at one point committed $1.3 million to its initiative, and Maryland has a staffer dedicated to working with highly skilled immigrants on credentialing..
…Kevan Kaighn, a spokeswoman for the Arizona Department of Economic Security, said DES wasn’t aware of Upwardly Global but would review its services…
Posted in Arizona, employment services, employment/jobs for refugees, Iraqi, IRC, Phoenix, professionals | Tagged: International Rescue Committee, IRC, Lutheran Social Services of the Southwest, Phoenix, refugee res, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugees, refugees with professional credentials, Upwardly Global | 1 Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
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