Archive for the ‘late health screenings’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 26, 2012
This topic seems to fall under the “Do not do” section of the best practices category. According to the State Department resettlement contracts, resettlement contractors are not to place incoming refugee cases in temporary housing, rather they should place refugees in their own permanent housing, e.g. an apartment rental, upon their arrival. Nevertheless, some contractors do this despite the requirement (I understand that once in a while refugees arrive in the US on short notice from the State Department, but what other excuse contractors are using for use of temporary housing I am not aware of). According to a July 2009 monitoring inspection, World Relief Aurora – an affiliate of World Relief in Aurora, Illinois – is one of the contractors that government inspectors found which have failed to place refugees into their own housing upon arrival. In this case, the agency placed refugees into the homes of unrelated refugee host families.
Monitors visited four refugee families and found that none of the adults were working yet, even though they were eager to work — one family had been in Aurora for four months, and another refugee man three months earlier. In addition, none of the refugees had received an initial health screening, which the Operational Guidance contract document requires be done within 30 days of their arrival. With regard to the housing:
…All of the refugees that monitors visited except [an] Iraqi family had been placed with unrelated refugee host families for a few days when they first arrived until they could sign leases for their own apartments. No form of written agreement showed what the host families had agreed to provide or for what period. The affiliate assured monitors that they provide bedding and other supplies, and that families usually volunteered. The Burmese Chin refugee told monitors that his bed and other items belonged to a previous tenant who had moved away. A case note in his file also revealed that the affiliate had asked the refugee to pay a previous tenant’s rent share for a period before the refugee moved in. The young Karenni refugee did not understand what furnishings were his to keep if he moved out… Read report here
Here is a snippet from a February 2010 posting which shows World Relief has long-placed refugees into non-permanent housing upon arrival.
… [a] Burundian refugee woman in Boise should not have lived with church members after initially arriving in Boise. The State Department’s Admissions Office has repeatedly warned World Relief affiliates (here, here and here) that this practice is prohibited…
Posted in best practices, Chicago, Cooperative Agreement, faith-based, housing, Karenni, late health screenings, Operational Guidance, World Relief | Tagged: best practices, Cooperative Agreement, inspection, monitoring, refugees, Relief Aurora, resettlement, World | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 20, 2012
Last May we read news reports in the Milwaukee media that Lutheran Social Services of Wisconsin and Upper Michigan had placed Burmese refugees in an apartment building overflowing with code violations, roaches, leaking sewage, and owned and operated by a known felon involved in child-porn. A local reporter tried to get some answers from the State Department about their contractor, but answers were not forthcoming.
Now, based on a State Department monitoring report of USCRI’s International Institute of Wisconsin (IIW), it seems that agency was violating almost every State Department contract requirement. Monitors visited the usual small sample (too small?) of three refugee cases and found serious failure of the agency in providing minimal contract-requirements in all three cases. Problems ranged from lack of orientation or help of any type for a refugee family to refugees in substandard housing.
…[A] Burmese family of four lived in an apartment complex…The apartment visited had a smoke detector that did not work; the bathroom had missing ceiling tiles with pipes exposed, mold around the chalk in the bathtub, and evidence of water leakage; there were exposed wires in the hallway; paint was dirty with holes and nails on the wall…
They told monitors they did not receive any orientation from the agency. The caseworker told monitors that orientation was provided but that he had relied on the 17-year-old daughter for translation…This was not documented in the case file…
…[A] single Burmese Karen woman lived in a room in an apartment shared with a Burmese married couple…Her bedroom door did not have a doorknob or lock. She used a bookcase/dresser to block the door at night. The bathroom had a leaky ceiling. There were two broken windows in the living room and in the kitchen. She reported mice infestation in the apartment, and monitors observed mouse droppings in the kitchen pantry… Read more here
By the way, minors should never be used as interpreters.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, community/cultural orientation, Cuban, cultural/community orientation, post arrival, dangerous neighborhoods, home visits, housing, housing, substandard, International Institute of Wisconsin, language, late health screenings, Milwaukee, pocket-money, rats and roaches, State Department, teenagers | Tagged: Milwaukee, refugees, resettlement, substandard housing, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants | 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 May 1, 2011
Slumlord housing in Newcastle, Australia
Reports of a refugee resettlement private contractor abusing and neglecting refugees deepen in Australia as an investigation began. We first covered the case a month ago, in posts here and here. (Australia has been in transition from a refugee resettlement program centered on government agency services to a new arrangement with private contractors, similar to how we resettle refugees in the US.) Aside from both a Catholic nun’s and an MP’s (Member of Parliament – equivalent to a US Congressperson) previous allegations that a resettlement contractor placed refugees in severely substandard housing with exorbitant prices – and then did a cover-up to fool investigators – now come reports of resettlement case workers stealing money from Congolese refugee clients. Another allegation is that the resettlement contractor did not take a young, pregnant refugee mother to a doctor until she gave birth to her child – “No early sort of prenatal services at all”, says the local MP. Read and listen to the following radio program about the case from media outlet ABC Newcastle:
MARK COLVIN: Staff at one Australia’s biggest providers of refugee services have been accused of stealing money from newly arrived refugees and providing them with sub-standard housing at exorbitant rents.
An investigation into the allegations started in the New South Wales city of Newcastle today.
There’d been persistent complaints from refugees and advocates before the Immigration Minister, Chris Bowen, announced the inquiry into the company, Navitas.
The final push came when the local Labor MP
put in a call to the Minister and convinced him to act.
But the Minister’s investigation comes just one month after the Government renewed Navitas’s lucrative refugee services contract.
Wendy Carlisle reports.
WENDY CARLISLE: Congolese refugees who’ve been re-settled in Newcastle say it’s been a grim experience. Exorbitant rents for houses in atrocious condition. Smashed windows, leaking gutters, broken awnings, ripped carpets, no hot water and in some cases, no functioning toilets…
…SHARON GRIERSON: Things like a young mother about to have a baby who had never been taken to a doctor or any medical service until the birth of her child. No early sort of prenatal services at all…
…WENDY CARLISLE: For the last three days, investigators from Ernst & Young have been in Newcastle, interviewing the 20 families in the care of Navitas; a company which has won tens of millions of dollars worth of Government contracts in migrant and refugee settlement services around Australia.
Kwabo Balende from Newcastle’s Congolese community says refugees have been complaining about Navitas for years but the Government hasn’t listened.
KWABO BALENDE: Before this contract to be renewed we started complaining because we didn’t believe that this contract can be sent back to these people.
WENDY CARLISLE: And it’s not just the accommodation that’s causing concern. Kwabo Balende alleges that Navitas case workers have been stealing money from the refugees when they withdraw money for them from ATMs.
KWABO BALENDE: Now when she wanted to pick money from the ATM machine she asked the caseworker to help me and the caseworker asks for the password. He asked me how much do you want? The lady say I need 100. When the caseworker come to the machine he pick out 200, he put 100 in his pocket and he give back 100 to the client. Some of them are stealing money and it is very serious case here… Read more here
…and another ABC Newcastle article here:
A refugee support worker says interviews with refugees this week in Newcastle have been an “eye opener” for the firm investigating claims they are being poorly treated.
Ernst and Young is due to conclude interviews today with refugee families who say they have been provided substandard accommodation, with little access to support services.
Sister Di Santleben says refugees are happy they have finally had a chance to explain their plight to the authorities.
“If you thought up a plan that would disempower people, make them isolated, increase their sense of insecurity, all those things, this system has lead to those outcomes,” she said… Read more here
I hope that Australians will begin to view this website to see what they’re in store for with their new refugee resettlement program that focuses on private contractors and light government oversight.
Posted in abuse, Australian refugee resettlement prgm, Catholic, Congolese, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, late health screenings, public/private partnership, Sudanese | Tagged: Australia, catholic, Chris Bowen, Congolese refugees, Di Santleben, Diana Santleben, Ernst & Young, government oversight, human rights, KWABO BALENDE, Navitas, New South Whales, Newcastle, private contractors, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, SHARON GRIERSON, slum lord, slumlord, substandard housing, Sudanese refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 4, 2011
A refugee client of Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, an affiliate of CWS and EMM, wrote to us today about deficient services at the agency. The refugee reported the following problems:
Here is a 2001 inspection report for Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston (the most recently available inspection report, which means they have not been inspected in quite some time).
Posted in Texas, faith-based, Christian, churches, beds, transportation, community/cultural orientation, housing, substandard, Houston, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, furnishings, lack of, employment/jobs for refugees, late health screenings, housing, rats and roaches, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston, Interfaith Ministries for Greater Houston | Tagged: Ali Al Sudani, Church World Service, CWS, Elliot Gershenson, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, houston, Interfaith Ministries, refugees, resettlement | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 22, 2010
Nothing seems to have changed at Catholic Charities, Archdiocese of San Antonio, Inc. Last March we reported about the severe problems that Burmese refugee clients were having with the agency. Now Somali and Ethiopian refugee clients of the agency are coming forward to express their distress and frustrations. Refugees report that Catholic Charities placed them in small, roach-infested apartments without any home-safety orientation. When refugees call the agency they don’t hear anything back for days at a time, or case workers tell them they will be out to see them and then don’t show up. The agency has made late rent payments to landlords resulting in landlord warning letters to the refugees. Some refugees are also receiving electrical disconnect notices. Refugees lack transportation and report that overall communication with the agency is extremely poor. They asked to meet with the agency’s director of refugee programs, Paula Walker, but so far she will only speak to them by phone. Some refugees have been so desperate for help that they have resorted to calling 911.
An American volunteer said that some of the refugees asked him a couple of times to come and meet a group of new refugees “that nobody is helping”. He said he went and the small apartment soon filled with over 30 people. Most of the refugees were Somali and they were desperate. They shared some
of their stories. One said that his family was picked up at the airport and left for three days and two nights without enough food. Another refugee said that instead of the traditional rental assistance for six months, it was being cut to three months because of the huge influx of refugees into San Antonio. Yet another refugee said that they were a family with eight kids and had a two room apartment. None of the refugees had a job and no one was helping them look. The volunteer said he came out of the meeting and saw a refugee woman with a young child with hydrocephalus—the child’s head twice the normal size. The woman said the family had been in the country for a month and still had not seen a doctor, nor did they yet have a doctor’s appointment. The child clearly needed a shunt inserted into his head to relieve fluid buildup.
The volunteer said he went back the next day and started on the myriad problems of one family – because the Catholic Charities’ caseworkers were refusing to help. While he was there, one refugee man called his Catholic Charities caseworker about an appointment to get scheduled inoculations for his family. The caseworker said that he couldn’t take the family because it wasn’t “in the budget”. Another refugee had an 85-year-old mother with hepatitis-C and a wife with a uterine infection – and again, no scheduled appointments. The volunteer reports that the number of serious complaints went on and on. Some refugees complained of verbal abuse from Catholic Charities staff, with an assistant director named Hisham telling one man that he “didn’t care about his problems!” All of this added to the volunteer’s experiences from earlier this year with the abandoned Catholic Charities Burmese refugee families. One Burmese refugee man hung himself and his body was found by children. The volunteer said that his conclusion is that there are hundreds of abandoned refugees in the Wurzbach-Gardendale-Datapoint streets area – and another 80 families are expected within weeks.
After the crisis with the recently arrived Somali refugees, a couple of days later the refugees called the police on Catholic Charities. Four police cars pulled up to the apartments. The police then called Catholic Charities to find out why they weren’t helping the refugees. Then two Catholic Charities administrators arrived and passed out $100 gift cards and told the refugees to go back into their apartments. A couple of days later, four blocks away, Catholic Charities held their annual “International Gala” at the Omni Hotel. The volunteer reports that San Antonio has been completely overwhelmed by vast numbers of refugees that continue to be mindlessly pumped in. The apartment complexes in the Wurzbach, Gardendale, and Datapoint streets area have basically become “refugee camps” of confused, frustrated, un-served, and under-served refugees.
Catholic Charities’ refugee program director Paula Walker was quoted last year in a news article about the agency saying, “In the past two years, the local program grew from helping 600 refugees settle into new lives to more than 1,000.” Perhaps this is the result of raising the number of refugees an agency receives so quickly in such a short period. That, of course, would be the State Department’s doing.
Posted in State Department, Burma/Myanmar, Somali, Somali Bantu, health, faith-based, Catholic, San Antonio, Catholic Charities Archdiocese of San Antonio Inc., food, transportation, housing, overcrowding, police, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, Ethiopian, late health screenings, housing, children, capacity | Tagged: Archdiocese of San Antonio, Burmese refugees, catholic charities, Ethiopian refugees, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, San Antonio, Somali refugees | 1 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 September 22, 2010
An article in WHYY News and Information gives more information about the welcome that newly arrived refugees face in Philadelphia. Some refugees have waited as long as three months just for health screening.
The Philadelphia region is seeing a new influx of political refugees from the South Asian nation of Bhutan. Like other refugees, they are entitled to eight months of medical coverage. But providing that care is a challenge.
Jefferson Family Medicine dedicates Wednesday afternoons to refugees. Nearly three years ago, when the clinic opened, many of the refugees came from Myanmar, then a few Iraqis, some Eritreans. Now, it’s the ethnic Nepalis from Bhutan. Clinic director Dr. Marc Altshuler says one of the first steps is to make sure everyone has had their shots.
Altshuler: The kids cannot go to school without vaccines, and if the kids don’t go to school the parents can’t go out and get a job.
The Nationalities Service Center, a resettlement agency, helped launch the Jefferson clinic. Now, demand for the clinic’s services has the agency looking for other providers capable of the same type of one-stop care…
…Newly arrived refugees should have an initial health screen within 30 days, but it took more than three months for Bagi Adhikari and her adult son Kamal to get in to see Dr. Packer… here
So a question becomes why continue to place more new refugees in Philadelphia if health screenings are delayed so dangerously long? It’s not like the city is a particularly safe place for the refugees’ children, here. Of course resettlement agencies such as the Nationalities Service Center isn’t going to advertise to the State Department that their area has late health screenings and dangerous schools. That will have to wait until the State Department does one of its once-in-a-decade inspections. Even then, the State Dept. will simply note the problems and suggest that the Center make some attempt to correct it. In the meantime years have passed in which refugees have gone months at a time without medical care, and have also been harassed, attacked, and assaulted on the streets and in the schools. That’s how our refugee resettlement program operates.
The refugees can have serious health problems while they sit for months without medical care. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is also a common ailment.
…The ailments differ with each refugee group but latent tuberculosis, malnutrition and malaria are common. When the Adhikaris arrived last winter, both were a little underweight…
…Altshuler: We spend time asking ‘Why did they become refugees?’ cause that can help us figure out … Were they exposed? Were they beaten? But the bigger picture is, are they sometimes at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder because of what they went through? …
…Altshuler: We see significant mental illness and post-traumatic stress disorder. We’ve been trying to collect a lot of data on the refugees that we’ve been seeing, and I think our rates of PTSD are probably two to three times higher than the national rate.
All are adjusting to a new city and culture; Altschuler says some also have stubborn, decades-old hurts that resurface once they’re safe…
…The Nationalities Services Center recently hosted a training session for health providers on the medical and mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers.
It seems as though the main reason the US refugee resettlement program resettled refugees to Philadelphia is because a national volag, the USCRI, happens to have an office there – Nationalities Service Center. Is that really a “rational plan for resettlement”? That’s what the volags have to prove to the State Department each year in their annual report (see Guidelines for Participants).
Strategy for Site Selection
Headquarters should have in place a coherent strategy for selecting resettlement sites and placement of individual refugee cases. That strategy should show evidence of adaptability to new circumstances, e.g., influx of new ethnic groups, welfare or economic changes in any given location. Such strategy should also provide adequate justification for continued use of a site with poor employment outcomes.
But the USCRI essentially just recommends all the places where it already has affiliate offices as good refugee resettlement sites. Therefore, long after South Philly is no longer a rational place to resettle refugees, the State Department continues to let its contractor (USCRI) place refugees there.
Posted in State Department, USCRI, Burma/Myanmar, Nepali Bhutanese, Iraqi, health, mental health, Philadelphia, late health screenings, safety, Eritrean, PTSD, Nationalities Service Center | Tagged: USCRI, State Department, refugees, resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, tuberculosis, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, Philadelphia, south philly, Iraqi refugees, Burmese refugees, Bhutanese refugees, Nepalese refugees, PTSD, Eritrean refugees, Nationalities Service Center, refugee health screening, Post-traumatic stress disorder, malnutrition, malaria | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 24, 2010
Indiana US Senator Richard Lugar, Ranking Member on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has released a report on the nation’s refugee resettlement program. While repeating the mantra that the solution to all problems is for the federal government to spend more for the program (therefore, tax and spend), the report also takes critical swipes at the private resettlement agencies.
According to the report refugee resettlement agencies have failed local communities in key areas:
- Local governments rarely have an official role in influencing how many refugees are resettled by local voluntary agencies and often are not even informed in advance that new residents will be arriving. The process should require local resettlement agencies to formally consult with state and local officials/service providers regarding the proposed number and backgrounds of refugees to be resettled in the area. The refugee coordinators in each state and PRM representatives should verify that the consultations took place and that the views of the officials/service providers are accurately characterized.
I wonder if Senator Lugar and his staff are aware that state refugee coordinators are already required, via ORR regulations, to convene quarterly meetings each year whereby representatives of local resettlement agencies, local community service agencies, and other agencies that serve refugees meet with representatives of State and local governments to plan and coordinate the proper placement of refugees in advance of the refugees’ arrival.
In addition, according to the State Department’s Cooperative Agreement contract with refugee resettlement agencies ”the number of refugees assigned to an approved applicant will be determined by the [State Department], in accordance with the needs of the Admissions Program, taking into account… placement recommendations of state and local officials…” (see V. Refugee Caseload Assisgnment).
So, Senator Lugar is suggesting creating more requirements when the federal government is not enforcing almost identical existing requirements. Existing regulations and contract requirements are ignored, so just add more?
- The administration should improve accountability by examining: A. Institutional processes and practices of voluntary agencies, including but not limited to factors that influence the scope of an agency’s annual refugee resettlement proposal submitted to PRM, organizational structure, and administrative overhead to ensure an adherence to best practices and a resettlement program that is sensitive to local community capacity. B. Oversight and accountability metrics used by PRM for monitoring voluntary agencies as well as mechanisms for assessing internal strengths and inefficiencies within PRM’s administrative processes, the nature of PRM’s consultations with local and state elected officials, and the factors influencing the annual cap of refugees admitted to the United States. C. Mechanisms used for assessing internal strengths and inefficiencies in the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) within the Department of Health and Human Services, the nature of ORR’s consultations with local and state elected officials, and the extent of ORR’s capacity to oversee voluntary agency grantees, address the unique needs of refugees, fact-find into community capacity shortfalls as well as monitor the impact of secondary migration—potentially through some type of targeted census. D. Metrics for evaluating refugee integration, including but not limited to qualitative and quantitative measurements of employment levels, language acquisition, community interaction, etc.
In terms of quantitative measurements of employment levels the federal government already records employment numbers at 90 and 180 days. Is Senator Lugar recommending that these be measured again at say, the one-year mark, two-year mark, or what? Or is Senator Lugar simply unaware that employment rates are already measured?
How would anyone measure “community interaction”? Plus, most American citizens wouldn’t even pass that measurement if you look at things like voting participation, participation in community groups, etc.
- The administration should require voluntary agencies to [promote community engagement by] submitting as part of their annual proposals a ‘‘community engagement strategy,’’ which delineates concrete plans for increasing public awareness of and interaction with refugees, in order to achieve greater community cohesion. …Providing opportunities for established residents and families to engage members of the refugee population will help to demystify preconceptions and make integration more achievable. Encouraging face-to-face interactions between individuals or small groups can also make inter-ethnic encounters less intimidating for all participants.
No argument there. The problem is that many of the resettlement agencies are incompetent at these type of tasks. I recently attended a court commission that was looking at how the courts deal with racial and ethnic minorities. Hardly any refugees or other minorities showed up to testify. A refugee resettlement agency director on the commission panel, a former refugee himself, said his outreach to the refugees did not even include outreach to the main places where they gather — churches and mosques.
And then there’s this tidbit about how refugee resettlement agencies in Clarkston, Georgia (an Atlanta suburb) reacted when called on to account to the public.
- Georgia Representative Karla Drenner, whose district includes Clarkston, convened a townhall meeting [this past year] where she publicly encouraged the voluntary agencies located within the city to improve communication with elected officials and to provide more warning regarding when refugees were due to arrive. The current mayor of Clarkston, Howard Tygrett, reported that all of the resettlement agencies subsequently relocated outside of the city limits in order to circumvent this appeal.
By the way, in the report Deborah McMahan, Health Commissioner of Fort Wayne-Allen County Department of Health, noted that prearrival health screenings for refugees no longer include HIV/AIDS testing. Prior knowledge of HIV status, she explained, would allow for better planning for the complicated care that refugees with such conditions require.
Posted in Atlanta, Burma/Myanmar, Fort Wayne, funding, Georgia, Indiana, late health screenings, local officials, failure to notify, ORR, PRM, reform, State Department | Tagged: Clarkston, fort wayne, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, PRM, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Senator Richard Lugar, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 22, 2010
USCCB affiliate Catholic Charities Indianapolis is yet another resettlement agency that has been out of compliance with their State Department refugee services contract. In other words the public pays for them to give certain minimum services and material items to the refugees, via a government contract, and then they don’t abide by that contract. The consequences? None. The State Department’s Admissions Office merely noted some of their failures and asked them to do better. After all, they are not considered merely contractors, but exalted “partners” — with rights. Rights that apparently include violating basic terms of public contracts if they want to. Catholic Charities Indianapolis is one of the agencies that recently requested yet more government money for their refugee services, here.
The most recent State Department monitoring report for this agency (April 2008) indicates that Catholic Charities Indianapolis failed to properly document services, failed to refer refugees to English classes, failed to give refugees community and cultural orientation, failed to give refugees required pocket-money, and failed to show proof that they gave refugees their share of State Department R&P (Resettlement & Placement) money, here. Refugee case files also contained names of unrelated people (privacy violation), and Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not have any structured training program for its employees, as required.
Catholic Charities Indianapolis for the most part resettles Burmese refugees who have ties to friends and family (often distant relatives) in Indiana. The resettlement program refers to these friends and family as “anchors”, and resettlement agencies often talk the anchors into giving the arriving refugees the minimum-required services and material items that the State Department requires via the refugee contracts. As of February 2008, however, USCCB (US Catholic Conference of Bishops)directed Catholic Charities Indianapolis to treat all their refugee clients as “free case” refugees (refugees with no established ties to someone in the US). In fiscal year 2007 Catholic Charities Indianapolis resettled 393 refugees.
State Department monitors visited four refugees families – a Somali family of eight, and three Burmese families, one with seven members, one with four, and one single man. It immediately became clear that Catholic Charities Indianapolis had not given the refugees even the minimum-required services, which are fairly minimal to start with.
None of the adults were enrolled in ESL (English as a Second Language). Two families said they did not get any community/cultural orientation. The Somali family said they had electric bills of between $500 and $700 per month and did not understand the reason for this (apparently Catholic Charities Indianapolis was not monitoring the family’s situation). One of the Burmese families said they did not have enough clothing for the husband for work, or for the children for school. Also, they were unable to close their sliding door completely and cold air was coming into the apartment (in April). The couple was also very concerned about having enough income to pay rent and utility bills.
The adults in the second Burmese refugee family that monitors visited said they were also concerned about paying the rent, and neither of them was working. The husband said that Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not do anything to help him find a job, and although he did not speak English, he said that no one from Catholic Charities Indianapolis told him where to take ESL classes. He said he didn’t even know how to take the bus.
The third Burmese refugee home visit was to the single man. Although he had arrived five month earlier he said that Catholic Charities Indianapolis did not give him any of his R&P money ($425 at that time) until the day before the State Department monitors visited! He said Catholic Charities Indianapolis didn’t even give him any pocket-money (the refugee contract supposedly requires this). He also said that they didn’t give him any orientation. He had no idea about 911 emergency procedures, and had no idea how to bring his wife and children to the US.
Of the 11 other case files that monitors inspected, four lacked refugee client signatures indicating receipt of R&P money (in other words there was no proof to show the refugees ever received the money at all). Seven files contained names and personal information of unrelated persons. Pocket money was not given to any of the refugees. In addition, case files often lacked signatures and dates, all contact with refugees was not recorded, and there was no distinction between money spent for the State Department R&P services and money spent for HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) refugee services. Therefore, there was no way to account for the R&P money.
Catholic Charities Indianapolis is one of the resettlement agencies that geared up for larger numbers of arriving refugees this year, here.
Posted in State Department, ORR, USCCB, R&P, Burma/Myanmar, Somali, Indiana, reform, faith-based, funding, employment services, Catholic, transportation, community/cultural orientation, public/private partnership, pocket-money, immigration services, clothes, ESL & ELL, employment/jobs for refugees, late health screenings, Indianapolis | Tagged: Burma/Myanmar, Catholic Charities Indianapolis, ESL, Indiana, Indianapolis, pocket-money, R&P, refugees, resettlement, Resettlement & Placement, Somali, State Department, us catholic conference of bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
