Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
About
Friends of Refugees — FORefugees — is a grassroots, independent, nonpartisan citizens group monitoring the U.S. refugee resettlement program. We serve as an ethical watchdog, promoting refugee resettlement agency and government accountability. We are an all-volunteer citizens group composed of people, some formerly volunteers at refugee resettlement groups, who are concerned about the state of the U.S. refugee resettlement program – in particular, the welfare of refugees, who are often neglected. We are primarily focused on refugee resettlement agencies abiding by the requirements of the program – providing publicly-funded services and material items to refugees, as well as inadequate government oversight of the U.S. refugee resettlement program.
We also assist refugees directly with a wide variety of needs.
We receive no money from the government, therefore we have no conflict-of-interest when we advocate on the role of government funding in the refugee resettlement program.
This blog tends to lean socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
Christopher Coen, director, can be reached at FORefugees (at) hotmail (dot) com
Melissa Sogard, contributer, can be reached at LoganRunning (at) hotmail (dot) com
Itedal Shalabi said
I need to talk to someone
Please call to discuss issues with Refugees in Illinois
thank
christophercoen said
Just send us your phone number and we will call you. Email us at FORefugees @hotmail.com
Joddy said
Thank you for the information and website. It help me alot.
Jeannine Giffear said
Hi – I work as an ESL teacher in Buffalo, NY, teaching adult refugees through Buffalo Public Schools. I just saw Nickel City Smiler and am very happy to have found your website! There is very little coordination between the organizations and programs that are providing services to the refugee population in Buffalo, and as I get more involved with my students and learn more about the problems they face (I’ve been teaching in this program for almost a year), I am finding myself more frustrated about this and really wanting to do something to be a better advocate and resource for my students. Also, recognizing that the problem isn’t just imperfections in the system in Buffalo or the need for reform on a national level, but a systemic problem all over the world. Having access to more information certainly helps, so thank you! Sincerely, Jeannine Giffear
christophercoen said
Its illegal (contract fraud) for the resettlement agency to place refugees in housing which is unsafe or unsanitary, yet they do it all the time and there are no monetary penalties. That’s the way the “partnership” between the government agencies and the private contractors works — they protect each other, and there is the revolving door between the two, with government “oversight” officials moving to positions with the contractors, and staff from the private contractors moving to jobs in the government oversight agencies. Local resettlement agencies are at and over capacity in the number of refugee clients they resettle, while the national refugee agencies lobby for huge increases in resettlement. Republican state governments and politicians want the cheap labor that refugees offer (who also work hard but don’t know their rights and fear athority) and the payroll taxes they get from those working people, yet enact policies which not only do not support the refugees, but which hurt them, e.g. driver licence divisons that do not provide permit books and tests in other languages, business-friendly yet consumer-hostile laws (pro-landlord but anti-renter laws) that hurt the working-poor who follow the rules, etc. Then there are the Democtaic state governments and politicians think their friends in the well politically connected relief/resettlement agencies can do no wrong.
Dr. Barbara E. Harrell-Bond said
TO: To Inform the Readers of this website of this course
Unsettling Resettlement
July 10th-17th, 2011
Summer Institute on Forced Migration Studies
Center for Forced Migration Studies (CFMS)
Buffett Center, Northwestern University
http://www.bcics.northwestern.edu/programs/migration/
The Northwestern Center for Forced Migration Studies Summer Institute is offering a one-week, non-degree earning certificate program. The Summer Institute offers participants an interdisciplinary and comparative understanding of the causes and consequences of forced migration and refugee situations. Focused each year on a key topic of concern in the field of forced migration, the Summer Institute is structured to provide participants expert knowledge and a team based forum where participants actively engage to develop new approaches, policy recommendations and implementation strategies. In commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the UNHCR and the 1951 Refugee Convention, the topic for 2011 is “Unsettling Resettlement” and seeks to engage participants in examining the current refugee regime concerning resettlement and become part of designing durable solutions.
Why Focus on Resettlement?
Resettlement has long been one of the durable solutions for refugees. Whereas there have been large-scale resettlements to the US and Northern States over the past decade, most refugees in the world are hosted and will remain in the poorest countries of the world that lack the capacity or will to absorb refugees, do not have an established asylum system, and where refugees lack access to most of the rights and protection mechanisms enshrined in international refugee and human rights laws. Less than .01% will be resettled to countries where these rights are respected.
Although many northern states receive a quota of refugees from the south through ‘re-settlement’ programs (the US being the more generous, being willing to accept some 80,000 annually), there is no comparison between the numbers of refugees hosted by the south and those resettled to the major host countries – the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and some European states.
Given these realities, burden-sharing has been defined as, ‘we will finance UNHCR and you will keep the refugees,’ but in the Global South most refugees are denied their basic human rights such as to work, education and health services. Those ‘warehoused’ in camps are deprived of the fundamental right to freedom of movement which denies them access to all other basic rights. Some of the major host countries are among the 47 states that have not even ratified the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or it 1967 Protocol (for example, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Syria, and Thailand).
A.Q. said
Please I need help. I am in Dallas and need to know about applying for asylum.
christophercoen said
You need to talk to an immigration lawyer, or an immigration specialist. The lawyers are listed in the phone book – in the yellow pages look under Attorneys – Immigration, but you need money to pay them. Instead, first contact a local refugee resettlement agency. Most of those agencies have immigration specialists on staff. Tell them you are not yet one of their clients, but could they set up an appointment for you with the immigration specialist, or do they have walk-in hours. A immigration lawyer or an immigration specialist will probably help you fill out an asylum application and submit it to the USCIS federal agency. There may be a fee involved, or you can apply for a fee waiver if you have no property or money. Watch out for crooked lawyers. If you really need a lawyer, get a referral from one of the immigration specialists at a refugee resettlement agency. But you may not need a lawyer.
Refugee resettlement agencies in Dallas:
1) The International Rescue Committee
6500 Greenville Avenue, Suite 500
Dallas, TX 75206
Tel: (214) 461-9781
http://www.theirc.org/where/the_irc_in_dallas.html
2) Refugee Services of Texas
5302 Junius St.
Dallas, TX 75214
Tel. 214-821-4422
3) Catholic Charities of Dallas, Refugee & Empowerment Services
Dallas, TX
Tel:(214)520-6590
http://www.catholiccharitiesdallas.org