Archive for October, 2011
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 31, 2011
The US State Department has contracted with Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to resettle refugees to Wichita, Kansas. Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry will act as the subcontractor for EMM. A late announcement says that the groups will begin in the next few weeks, and will resettle up to 180 refugees a year. An article in The Wichita Eagle article talks discusses the plan:
Two groups that help rescue foreigners from war and oppression say they are arranging what they say will be the most significant refugee resettlement in Wichita since hundreds were resettled here from southeast Asia 30 years ago.
The Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry and the Wichita office of the International Rescue Committee say that refugees from Myanmar — also called Burma — Somalia, Bhutan, Iraq, Eritrea and other nations will begin arriving in the next few weeks.
The groups say as many as 180 refugees a year could come in for several years; the first few individuals and families will arrive in the next few weeks. The Episcopal group says it will bring in as many as 35 Burmese a year; the International Rescue Committee says it could bring in as many as 150 from other countries…
…The Rt. Rev. Dean Wolfe, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, and Chryle Nofsinger-Wiens, executive director of the International Rescue Committee, were scheduled to talk publicly Saturday about the new refugees and how they plan to get them settled in Wichita… Read more here
Posted in EMM, IRC, Kansas, State Department | Tagged: Chryle Nofsinger-Wiens, Dean Wolfe, Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Episcopal Wichita Area Refugee Ministry, International Rescue Committee, IRC, refugees, resettlement, Wichita | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 30, 2011
It turns out that resettlement agencies in Lancaster, Pennsylvania have not been giving coats or good shoes to refugees as early as the winter of 2009 (even though resettlement agencies sign a contract with the US State Department promising that they will give refugees Appropriate seasonal clothing required for work, school, and everyday use as required for all members of the family, including proper footwear for each member of the family, here). A school district official also visited refugee families and found instances where two or more Bhutanese families sharing an apartment. The two local resettlement agencies, Church World Service Lancaster and Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern PA, apparently had not even informed the School District of Lancaster – or at least the School District’s point person for homeless students – about the arrival of the Bhutanese families. An article in the Intelligencer Journal/Lancaster New Era covers this resettlement site:
In late 2009, with winter setting in, the children of some Bhutanese families were coming to school without coats or good shoes.
Ken Marzinko, School District of Lancaster’s point person for homeless students, started visiting the parents, and in some cases, found two or more Bhutanese families sharing an apartment.
“I was caught off guard,” Marzinko said of hearing about the refugees and their needs.
Like most Americans, Marzinko wasn’t aware the United States had in 2008 begun taking in 60,000 of the more than 100,000 Bhutanese crowding camps in Nepal. More than 800 now live in Lancaster County, and many more are in the pipeline... Read more here
The most recent State Department inspections of the two local resettlement agencies, from 2006, show other problems. The report for Church World Service Lancaster shows that only 53% of refugee clients were employed after 90 days, even though jobs at that time were quite plentiful in Lancaster, with an unemployment rate of only 3.4% in 2006. Agency staff had also used white out throughout the case logs.
The Lutheran Children and Family Service inspection report also showed that refugees’ relatives who helped with their resettlement did not understand that the agency was ultimately responsible for all contract requirements. Apparently the agency had duped these relatives into believing that they were responsible for the requirements of the agency’s contract (a common occurence according to these State Department monitoring reports). In three of four refugee homes that monitors visited, batteries in smoke detectors were dead.
Although the two agencies, the Lutheran agency being a subcontractor of LIRS, were vested with the State Department contract requirement that each refugee receive a physical health screening within 30 days, refugees were not being screened within that time requirement. Case logs also did not make references to airport reception of refugees and employment referals – as supposedly equired – so that there was no documentation that these services were provided by the resettlement agencies.
Posted in children, clothes, Cooperative Agreement, CWS, employment services, faith-based, housing, housing, overcrowding, late health screenings, Lutheran, Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern PA, meeting refugees at the airport, Nepali Bhutanese, Operational Guidance, Pennsylvania, State Department | Tagged: bhutanese, Church World Service, Church World Service Lancaster, CWS, federal contractors, LIRS, Lutheran Children and Family Service of Eastern Pennsylvania, Lutheran immigration and refugee services, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 29, 2011
The Nickel City Smiler documentary film will be showing next weekend in Buffalo. It gives refugees their own voice, describing their experiences in the resettlement process – something the refugee resettlement agencies regularly ignore, and even suppress.
Screenings are scheduled for:
Friday, Saturday & Sunday (November 4, 5 and 6) at 7pm at the Market Arcade, Film and Art Centre, located a 639 Main Street, Buffalo NY.
Hand-made bags by Karen refugee Ma Dee, who is featured in the film, and other Karen goods will be available for purchase at the screening.
The Nickel City Smiler documentary film is also available for purchase on DVD — here.
Posted in faith-based, housing, overcrowding, household items, missing or broken, Karen, dangerous neighborhoods, housing, safety, Buffalo, Journey's End Refugee Services, Journey's End Refugee Services, International Institute of Buffalo, Catholic Charities of Buffalo, language, Jewish Family Service of Buffalo & Erie County, population levels, using refugees as pawns to boost | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, documentary, Buffalo, Nickel City Smiler, Smiler Greely, dangerous neighborhoods, population decline | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 27, 2011
There has been a second deadly shooting in less than a month involving refugees in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. A Sudanese refugee is accused of killing his neighbor, with police called 17 times this year to resolve a series of disputes between the two. An article in the Argus Leader has the story:
The fifth homicide of the year in Sioux Falls is described by friends and police as a deadly bubbling over of a long-simmering dispute between neighbors. It was marked by harassment and threats of violence and ended Sunday night in a shooting death.
A judge Monday set bond at $1 million cash for Peter Deng Mayen, 29, who is charged with one count of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 51-year-old Bruce Richard Walters in northeast Sioux Falls.
Police say Mayan approached his neighbor with a handgun at 8:30 p.m. at his home, 1505 E. Sage Place, and shot him at least five times. By the time officers arrived, Walters was dead on his porch from wounds to his chest. Mayen was apprehended at a friend’s house shortly after the killing.
Before Sunday night, the police had been called to resolve conflicts between them 17 times this year, and both men had accused the other of threatening to use a gun. The calls involved varying reports of noise complaints, disorderly conduct or juvenile delinquency, and both households had repeatedly asked for police intervention. On nine of those occasions, police were called to Mayen’s house. Eight of the calls were directed to a disturbance at Walters’ address…
…”(Police) would say. ‘You guys just ignore him,’ ” Aware Geu Mayen, Peter Deng’s wife, said outside the courtroom Monday. “We needed the police to be there before what happened yesterday.”
Police spokesman Sam Clemens said such advice is common in disputes between neighbors, especially when no actual violence is reported.
Peter Mayen was cited once this summer for making unreasonable noise. That was the only one of the 17 calls that resulted in a police report… Read more here
I understand that the police can’t arrest anyone until a crime is actually committed. But the two families had called police 17 times this year to help resolve conflicts involving harassment and threats of violence between the two men, with each accusing the other of threatening to use a gun. It’s illegal to threaten to kill someone. So why didn’t the police, before this deadly shooting, ever charge anyone with making terroristic threats? Most likely there would need to have been a witness to the threats for the police to press charges. Didn’t anyone witness the threats, and been willing to
testify? I don’t understand why the police would simply tell the two to ignore each other after 17 calls to the complex involving this ongoing dispute.
Posted in Sudanese, police, secondary migration, refugee, safety, Lutheran Social Services of South Dakota, South Dakota | Tagged: Peter Deng Mayen, police, refugees, resettlement, Sioux Falls, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 26, 2011
Slumlord
Omaha elected officials have finally had it with the 4,000+ unresolved code violation cases in the city involving substandard living conditions that endanger low-income, immigrant and refugee populations. Certain landlords – the slumlords – have been ignoring violation notices and failing to make repairs. An article in the Omaha World-Herald tells more:
An alliance of Omaha churches and community groups celebrated Tuesday after the City Council unanimously approved measures to increase fees for city building permits and inspections.
The council’s action, proponents said, helps end a years-long battle to better enforce building code violations that blight neighborhoods and endanger tenants…
…About 30 members of the group Omaha Together One Community filled part of the council chambers as seven of its members testified in favor of the amendments.
Rundown properties damage neighborhood property values and attract crime, they said. They argued that code violations create substandard living conditions that endanger low-income residents or immigrant and refugee populations.
“We know that many owners respond by fixing the problem. Our concern is with those who do not,” said OTOC member Susan Kuhlmann of Omaha.
“They ignore the (violation) notice and fail to make the repairs. Despite any follow-up city reinspections, there is no additional fee. So what’s the incentive to repair the property?”…
…Rick Cunningham, city planning director, said the higher fees were needed for his department to better cover inspection costs and promote more fee collections from property owners who ignore them…
…Cunningham said there are more than 4,000 unresolved code violation cases in the city… Read more here
Posted in housing, housing, substandard, Omaha, reform, safety | Tagged: code violations, crime, Omaha, property values, refugees, resettlement, slumlord, substandard living conditions, Together One Community | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 25, 2011
Dayton, Ohio, is another city that is trying to combat economic and
population decline by encouraging immigration. Dorothy Balser,
manager of refugee resettlement services for Catholic Social
Services, said that finding jobs for refugees is sometimes a struggle – Dayton’s unemployment is nearly 11 percent – but that refugees have generally been able to fit into the Dayton community. An AP article has more:
…While states including Alabama, Georgia and Arizona, as well as some cities, have passed laws in recent years cracking down on illegal immigrants, Dayton officials say they will leave that to federal authorities and focus instead on how to attract and assimilate those who come legally.
Other cities, including nearby Columbus and Indianapolis, have programs to help immigrants get government and community help, but Dayton’s effort has a broader, and more urgent, feel.
Mayor Gary Leitzell told the city commission before the vote that immigrants bring “new ideas, new perspectives and new talent to our workforce. … To reverse the decades-long trend of economic decline in this city, we need to think globally.”
Hard-hit for years by the struggles of U.S. manufacturing, particularly in the auto industry, the recession pounded Dayton, which as the Wright Brother’s hometown calls itself “the birthplace of aviation.”
Thousands of jobs were lost with the crippling 2009 exodus to Georgia of NCR (formerly National Cash Register), one of Dayton’s signature corporations, after 125 years, and by the 2008 shutdown of a General Motors plant in suburban Moraine.
Dayton’s unemployment is nearly 11 percent, 2 percent higher than the national average, while population has fallen below 142,000, down 15 percent from 2000. Meanwhile, the city’s official foreign-born population rose 57 percent, to 5,102, from 2000 to 2010, according to census figures…
…Dorothy Balser, manager of refugee resettlement services for Catholic Social Services, said that finding jobs can be a struggle, but that refugees have generally been able to fit into the Dayton community. She thinks the Welcome Dayton plan will have a “natural positive effect” on those already here without causing a significant rise in numbers immediately… Read more here
Dayton strikes me as a more logical site where we can safely pair refugee resettlement with efforts to combat population decline, as opposed to places with higher crime rates, such as Buffalo, New York.
Posted in Catholic Social Services (Dayton), Dayton, Ohio, population levels, using refugees as pawns to boost | Tagged: Catholic Social Services, Dayton, economic decline, population decline, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 24, 2011
A columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer writes that Senior Obama administration officials have told her that no airlift to Guam being considered for our Iraqi friends waiting on US special immigrant visas. Instead they say that there are top-level meetings dedicated to getting the SIV backlog cleared “within months” – and that efforts to clear the backlog will become more intense as the end of the year approaches. Trudy Rubin’s article is found in the Charlotte Observer:
In September 2007, Barack Obama made a stump speech berating the Bush team for breaking faith with Iraqis who had helped Americans.
“One tragic outcome of this war,” said Obama, “is that the Iraqis who stood with America – the interpreters, embassy workers, and subcontractors – are being targeted for assassination. … And yet our doors are shut.
“That is not how we treat our friends. That is not who we are as Americans.”
…In 2008, Congress passed legislation calling for 25,000 special immigrant visas, or SIVs, to be issued over a five-year period – to Iraqis whose lives were endangered because they’d worked for U.S. soldiers or civilians. The law’s criteria were so arduous that only about 3,600 have been issued; at least 1,500 are pending a decision.
What’s worse, the numbers have slowed to a trickle just as we’re departing. Only 10 SIVs were issued in August. The preliminary figure for September is 46. At that rate, it will be years before the backlog is cleared…
…Senior administration officials tell me of top-level meetings dedicated to getting the SIV backlog cleared – “within months.” I believe they are sincere, but the numbers aren’t moving.
Too many agencies are involved, and no senior White House official seems seized with this issue. (Where, I wonder, is the push from the National Security Council’s Samantha Power, who once wrote so eloquently on Iraqi refugees?)…
…There is one obvious way to clear the logjam: an airlift to remove our Iraqi friends from danger.
There is plenty of precedent for such an airlift. In 1975, after initially abandoning massive numbers of our South Vietnamese allies, Gerald Ford finally authorized a massive airlift to evacuate them to Guam and, eventually, to the United States.
In 1996, Bill Clinton ordered Operation Pacific Haven, which flew 6,000 Iraqi Kurds and other opposition activists from Iraqi Kurdestan to Guam, after Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded the region. If Obama ordered a similar airlift, security checks could also be conducted in Guam.
There are more recent precedents, too. The Poles, Danes, and Australians airlifted their Iraqi staff out of the country; after the massacre in Basra, the British returned and flew out endangered staff.
Are we less honorable than the Poles, Danes, Australians, and Brits? I’ll hold off on an answer. Yet, senior administration officials tell me no airlift is being considered…
…Administration officials also tell me that efforts to clear the backlog will become more intense as the end of the year approaches. But if those efforts fail, it may be too late to organize an airlift.
In 2007, Obama said we had a “moral obligation” to those Iraqis who helped us. History will judge him on how he honors that pledge. Read more here
Posted in Iraqi, Obama administration, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: airlift, embassy workers, Guam, interpreters, Iraqis, Obama, refugees, resettlement, SIV, special immigrant visas | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 22, 2011
Wouldn’t you think that the US, which has now been resettling large numbers of refugees here from around the world since the end of World War ll, would have figured out how to screen refugees for mental health problems? After all, we screen every refugee for physical health conditions, supposedly within 30 days of their arrival. It turns out that our resettlement program still hasn’t worked out the nuts and bolts of the screening process — let alone treating them for these conditions — though we have long known that many of these people are survivors of torture, abuse, deprivation, dislocation and other hardships associated with the process of becoming refugees. Minnesota Public Radio News has an article discussing the (still disorganized) process of directing refugees to the basic mental health care that many of them so desperately need. An emerging theory is that we should use community health workers to screen refugees.
According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, our state is home to more than 70,000 refugees.
Refugees arrive here from countries wracked by political violence. Torture is used intentionally in their homelands to silence opposition and transform cultures through fear. So it isn’t surprising that refugees aren’t comfortable speaking about the atrocities they survived.
Resettlement programs seek to integrate refugees into our communities and to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency. But unless we address their traumatic experiences, we condemn many to live in silence with undiagnosed and misunderstood symptoms of major depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
The real tragedy is that their symptoms are treatable.
Refugees arriving in the United States typically receive a health exam to identify physical problems, but they are not screened systematically for mental health problems…
…The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) often receives referrals of refugees who are torture survivors after an eight- to 10-year period of difficult resettlement due to undiagnosed and untreated mental health symptoms. Those symptoms make it difficult for refugees to learn English, adjust to community life, learn a new culture and support their families.
Health clinics often tell us they know how to treat trauma, but they lack the language and cultural knowledge. Refugee leaders and groups often tell us they have the cultural knowledge but don’t know how to treat trauma…
…more must be done to include mental health screening along with the required medical exam. CVT is currently collaborating with the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health and four refugee groups to develop a culturally appropriate mental health questionnaire for refugees coming to our state. Simple questions in the refugee’s language will identify those who might benefit from mental health services, and allow the health care screeners to refer them to the best resource in the community.
One such resource emerging in Minnesota is community health workers. They are bicultural and bilingual health workers who help link vulnerable populations to the health care system and could be used when larger numbers of refugees are screened and identified for mental health concerns… Read more here
Apparently no one has thought to ask why refugee resettlement agencies aren’t already screening refugees for major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental stress related conditions. Why would refugee resettlement case workers, who do nothing but work with refugees every day, not already be educated in recognizing these illnesses? Resettlement agency case workers are supposedly bicultural and bilingual, and in contact with every resettled refugee already. Aren’t they the refugee experts?
Posted in disabled refugees, Major depression, mental health, Minnesota, PTSD, sexual and gender-based violence - refugees fleeing | Tagged: Center for Victims of Torture, community health workers, health screening, major depression, mental health, Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, refugees, resettlement, torture | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 21, 2011
Once again a school in Philadelphia is the subject of a case involving a refugee child beaten so badly that he had to go to a hospital. A year ago 30 Asian refugee children went to the hospital after just one bullying incident. Now, a Liberian refugee father claims that his pleas to a teacher and principal about the regular beatings of his 6-year-old son brought no relief, and that a phone call and later letter to the district superintendent also got no
response. An article in the Philadelphia Inquirer explains the story:
At first, Gbahtuo Comgbaye, a West African immigrant, was more puzzled than worried when his 6-year-old son started coming home from school with bruises on his chest and neck.
His concern turned to alarm on a mid-September morning as he helped his child, Menduawor, get dressed for the day. The boy tearfully asked, “If my friends beat me up, and hurt me, and wanted to kill me, would you do something about it?”
The story that emerged: Menduawor, a slight, soft-spoken boy, was being routinely beaten by three bigger first-grade classmates at Patterson School in Southwest Philadelphia. They told him, “We don’t like your name.”…
…Comgbaye described his growing horror as his son came home from school bruised and shaken day after day. He said that his pleas to the teacher and principal brought no relief and that a phone call and subsequent letter to the district superintendent got no response.
At the end of September, the boy was beaten so severely that his mother took him to the emergency room at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Hospital records show Menduawor was treated for chest and abdominal injuries, which physician Sarah Wood wrote were caused by blows from a person or object...Read more here
Posted in abuse, children, dangerous neighborhoods, Liberian, Philadelphia, safety, school for refugee children, schools | Tagged: accountability, bullying, human rights, Liberian, Philadelphia, refugees, resettlement, schools | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 19, 2011
Mary’s Place, Minneapolis
According to an article in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, a homeless shelter in Minneapolis now has 39 Somali families, representing a drastic increase in the past nine months. Only six Somali families lived there about a year ago, which were the first homeless Somali families in the shelter’s 16 year history.
Fadumo Isse sat with three other Somali refugee women in the hallway of a homeless shelter in north Minneapolis with her eyes welling up with tears as she told her story of the first six months of her life in the United States.
Isse arrived in the United States in late April, hoping to live a contented life: an illusion people in third-world and developing countries have about America, she recalled.
After six months in the United States, Isse has yet to live that lifestyle. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Mary’s Place — a homeless shelter in north Minneapolis — with her daughter.
She is one of 39 homeless Somali families in the shelter, who, like Isse, have recently come from a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Isse lived there for more than 20 years.
The number of Somali families living in Mary’s Place
has drastically increased in the past nine months, said Mary Jo Copeland, founder and director of Sharing & Caring Hands and Mary’s Place.
Six Somali families lived in Mary’s Place about a year ago. Before that, there had not been a homeless Somali family in the shelter, which was opened 16 years ago.
“They started coming just over a year ago. I’ve no explanation for it,” Copeland said. “They’re suffering. I can’t blame them. And I help them with what I can.”… Read more here
Posted in homelessness, housing, secondary migration, refugee, Somali, Twin Cities | Tagged: homelessness, Minneapolis, refugees, resettlement, Somali, Twin Cities | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
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