Archive for the ‘discrimination in hiring’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 2, 2011
The wait for refugees in San Diego needing to take english as a
second language (ESL) classes has increased by nearly 14-times. The head of the US Department of HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (that would be Eskinder Negash) claims he “was caught off guard by the size of the problem”, and did not offer any immediate solutions. Yet, the California state government has been in deep financial troubles for two years now. An article in Fronteras has more:
SAN DIEGO — On a recent Friday morning, students of Iraqi descent practiced phrases they might need for a job interview in the language lab at Cuyamaca College…
…English as a Second Language, or ESL, courses, are in high demand at Cuyamaca, which is located in San Diego’s East County.
“We had enough students on the wait list to double the program,” said Alicia Muñoz, Cuyamaca’s ESL coordinator. In fact, over the past two years, the wait list for ESL classes has increased by nearly 14-times.
Most of the demand comes from recently arrived Iraqi refugees. More than 13,000 Iraqis have relocated to San Diego County since 2005, making it one of the largest refugee communities in the country…
…But budget cuts – affecting community colleges across the state – have forced schools to cancel classes in many subjects, including ESL. At the same time, the demand for these classes has skyrocketed. And it’s not just community colleges that are feeling the strain.
County Supervisor Dianne Jacob has gotten an earful of concerns from elementary schools, hospitals and other public institutions in her district. They all say that they don’t have the funds to address refugee needs, especially on shrinking budgets.
“There have not been adequate resources available to serve this population,” Jacob said.
The supervisor recently hosted a meeting of refugee resettlement officials and service providers to discuss the problem…
…After the meeting, the head of the federal office of refugee resettlement admitted he was caught off guard by the size of the problem. He didn’t offer any immediate solutions, but conversations between Jacob’s office and service providers are ongoing… Read more here
A year-and-a-half ago we wrote to the ORR about a refugee who was unable to use medical health care in Sacramento – that too, explained a California state official, was related to budget problems. If the ORR had investigated the case – or even talked to anyone in California – wouldn’t they have discovered the budget problems by now, and the effects on refugees? How do they manage to be completely out of touch with the problems that refugees in San Diego (the largest resettlement site in the US) are experiencing?
Another issue we put in a complaint to the ORR about is the issue of discrimination in hiring by faith-based refugee resettlement agencies (World Relief and Catholic Charities). World Relief claimed they could not hire a Muslim former refugee in Washington state because “he might not feel comfortable while they prayed at staff meetings.” Yet, federal regulations prohibit worship on the public dime. The ORR claimed it was investigating, yet has stonewalled since we placed the complaint in April 2010. We wrote once again in April 2011 to find out what progress they were making, Mr. Negash’s Deputy Director, Ken Tota, did not even bother to respond.
Posted in Chaldean, discrimination in hiring, ESL & ELL, evangelical, funding, Iraqi, language, ORR, Sacramento, San Diego, World Relief | Tagged: English as a Second Language, Eskinder Negash, ESL, Iraqi, Ken Tota, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugees, resettlement, SanDiego | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 14, 2011
ORR director -- Eskinder Negash
Last March I blogged about the issue of World Relief Seattle refusing to hire a Muslim man who volunteered with them as an interpreter because he “might not feel comfortable while they prayed at staff meetings.” But regulations supposedly prohibit using government funding for any form of worship (praying at staff meetings in a public program resettling refugees). Oops.
I wrote to the Deputy Director of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), Ken Tota (ORR director Eskinder Negash’s second in command) last April and asked them to look into World Relief and Catholic Charities’ announcements that they would be discriminating in hiring based on religious affiliation.
After waiting two months and getting no response I wrote to Mr. Tota again on June 10, 2010 and asked for an update. Mr. Tota finally responded on June 22, 2010 and wrote that the ORR would be conducting an investigation (now more than two months after my complaint) and that I “should not hesitate to contact [him] should [I] have questions or follow-up concerns in this regard.”
Then, four more months went by with no response from Mr. Tota or anyone else at the ORR, so, once again, I wrote to Mr. Tota on October 19, 2010 asking for an update. Mr. Tota wrote back on November 2, 2010 and claimed that his agency needed at least two more months to close its “investigation”, and said that he would send me the conclusions by late December. December came and went.
On January 20, 2011 I wrote to Mr. Tota yet again to find out what was happening. No response. On February 8, 2011 – almost one year after my original complaint – I wrote again to Mr. Tota to ask what was happening. Again, he has not responded.
This Hosni Mubarak Egyptian-regime-style of responsiveness, accountability and transparency shows me that the ORR does not take its responsibilities seriously, and apparently views the public, whom they supposedly serve, as nothing more than an irritant. Of course, this is an agency that has also refused to release to the Congress their annual reports for 2008, 2009 and 2010, even though the law requires it.
It’s clear that laws and regulations don’t seem to matter much to these federal agencies or these public servants. How do we explain to refugees that their new country of residence has government agencies as non-accountable to the people as the governments they have escaped from?
Posted in Annual Report to Congress, Catholic, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, funding, Islamic, openess and transparency in government, ORR, religion, Seattle, World Relief | Tagged: Administration for Children and Families, catholic charities, discriminating in hiring based on religious affiliation, Eskinder Negash, HHS, Ken Tota, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, religious discrimination, seattle, separation of church and state, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, World Relief | 7 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 10, 2010
The African Community Center and the State Department are continuing to resettle refugees to Las Vegas despite the city’s official unemployment rate of 14.2% (some estimate the “real” unemploymaent rate is closer to 25%). An article in the Vegas Seven publication extolls African Community Center’s virtues, while not asking any questions, here.
Since 2003, the ECDC African Community Center has helped hundreds of legally admitted refugees resettle in Las Vegas, often working with Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Nevada Partners to provide much-needed resources such as health insurance, language classes, job training and cash.
“One of the missions of the ECDC is to resettle and to help refugees, to integrate them fully in their new community and to help them find their way around in the new community, and to organize all the resources available, public and private, toward that end,” says Berihun Teferra, managing director of the African Community Center.
The center obtains funding from federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which offers a variety of assistance programs. The programs’ qualifications vary, and the center sifts through the details to find funding sources for every refugee. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also provides $1,100 of direct assistance for each refugee, which the African Community Center manages on their behalf.
Prior to the recession, the African Community Center saw 80 percent of its refugee clients placed in jobs within three months of arrival, which limited the amount of monetary assistance they needed. Now it usually takes six to nine months for refugees with training and knowledge of English to find work.
“Times are tough,” Teferra says. “Nevada is leading the nation in unemployment. That makes our task more difficult, but we’re not giving up. We have to do everything possible, and we are optimistic that the public is still generous.”
Private donations help bridge the gap when federal funding runs out, Teferra says. The African Community Center also relies on its partnerships with local hotel-casinos to find jobs for new refugees.
Yet, why is the State Department, the African Community Center, and ECDC (Ethiopian Community Development Council) continuing to resettle refugees to a state and city with such a high unemployment rates? Does it make any sense to do so? The ECDC and the African Community Center would no doubt protest that they would have to shut down operations in Nevada if the State Department were to cut the flow of refugees and federal funding, but at what price does this come to refugees to continue to resettle them to a place with such low employment prospects? What is more important, jobs for refugees or jobs for refugee resettlement workers? I guess we know th answer.
I also notice that the African Community Center’s managing director Berihun Teferra refers to private funding that her organization supposedly gathers for refugees, yet doesn’t give any details. This always seems to be the way it is with the private refugee resettlement agencies. They claim their involvement in the US refugee program is critically important as a “private sector” contribution, but give no information about what funds they actually give.
We know that these groups’ participation comes at a price to the refugees and the public, e.g. some of the agencies discriminate in hiring against the public and the refugees based on their religions. Also, the private resettlement contractors don’t have to answer to the public. They use layers of contractors and subcontractors, and the public is not able to look at their books the way we can with government agencies. So again, what are we getting for having to give up so much? How much do they actually give in real private funding?
Finally, a quick look at the State Department’s inspection report for the African Community Center indicates that they did not always bother to deliver the minimum-required items and services they contract to give, here.
Health screenings are often not done until well after the required first thirty-days. The African Community Center doesn’t give ready-made, culturally appropriate meals to the refugees upon their arrival after long intercontinental flights (refugees often haven’t eaten for two days because they are not familiar with food served on airlines). The agency jammed one refugee family into a small apartment that required seven children to sleep in one bedroom and violated local occupancy codes. Refugee families did not have minimum furnishings for their apartments — missing lamps, shower curtains, dresses. Refugees did not know that they had to report new addresses to Homeland Security. Case files were spotty (missing written records means possible missing services to refugees).
Posted in African Community Center (Las Vegas), Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, discrimination in hiring, ECDC, employment/jobs for refugees, food, funding, furnishings, lack of, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, overcrowding, Las Vegas, late health screenings, Nevada, public/private partnership, Rwandan, State Department | Tagged: African Community Center, Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, ECDC, Ethiopian Community Development Council, Las Vegas, Nevada, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 2, 2010
Darci Asche, the community liason for Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota (LSSND), advised the Jamestown, ND community about what their reactions should be to incoming refugees, here.
Representatives from local agencies and businesses attended an informational session Wednesday to learn about Somali culture and how best to serve those people here.
Meet in the middle, was the advice Darci Asche said is most helpful. Asche is the community support services supervisor for Lutheran Social Services in Fargo. Several refugee groups reside in Fargo, including a group from Somalia. Both cultures should attempt to give and take, she said.
In Fargo, for example, employers allowed for prayer time during the business day. Muslims are required to pray five times a day and one of them is at about 1:30 p.m. Also, employers allowed for long gloves and other uniform adjustments at businesses where loose clothing like shawls and headdresses could pose a hazard. Muslim women are required to cover most of their body including wrists and ankles.
Adjustments like those are part of the challenge of migration, Asche said, but the benefits include more taxpayers, new businesses, new employees, more children in schools with declining enrollment and more residents offset the population loss in cities where populations are declining.
“My philosophy is the more diverse, the more exciting a place is,” Asche said. About 15,000 people reside in Jamestown and of them, more than 96 percent are white, according to census data from 2000.
…So far, about 30 Somalis have moved here, but about 400 have applied for housing since March, said Dave Klein of the Stutsman County Housing Authority. Many of them may have applied for housing in several cities, but the influx has created a waiting list for available residences in Jamestown, Klein said. Local people seeking housing come first, Klein said, but the housing authority also seeks to help refugees.
“We’re here to help and find ways to encourage people to be here in Jamestown,” he said.
Some local people may express concern about tax dollars benefiting refugees because some of them need housing assistance, Medicaid or other social services. But for Asche, no American immigrant started without help. The benefits of an employed new citizen outweigh the tax burden. Plus, benefits in this state are limited, she said.
“If anyone were looking for a free ride, North Dakota would not be the place to go,” she said.
Dave Klein of the Stutsman County Housing Authority says that local people are first in line for housing assistance, but his statement is a bit misleading because refugees living in Jamestown are local people.
Darci Asche of LSSND makes the sweeping claim that no American immigrant started life here without help, but government welfare programs are certainly relatively new compared to our long history of immigration. I know that my own ancestors were poor farmers and miners who received almost nothing upon their arrival to this country. In the old days charities helped immigrants, and did so with private charitable funds. I don’t think we have to misconstrue history to advocate for refugee support.
The “limited benefits for refugees from our tax dollars in North Dakota” argument is not really honest either as most of the money is federal money. North Dakota is a net importer of federal dollars, as are most rural states, for a large assortment of welfare for the general population as well as for refugees — Medicaid, food stamps, cash assistance, HUD funds, heating assistance, WIC, etc.
It’s interesting that Asche says refugees wouldn’t come to North Dakota for a free ride because certain benefits in the state are limited, but missing here is that most refugees have no say in coming to North Dakota — LSSND and it national affiliate LIRS just places them there. Refugees who come voluntary from other states via “secondary migration” number about 165 per year, while LSSND and LIRS place about 500 per year there involuntarily (almost no one would choose to resettle In North Dakota by choice when you factor in the climate, the lack of employment and consumer protections, and the old-boy power structure evident at almost every level).
LSSND Asche’s comment on the importance of diversity apparently does not apply to their view of diversity of opinion. Our group since 2001 has called attention to their repeated and obvious neglect of their refugee clients, and each time they met us with stonewalling or hostility.
The most ironic issue brought up in this article though is that some refugee resettlement groups advocate for religious freedom in the employment place, e.g. LSSND advocates that employers accommodate Muslim workers, while other resettlement agencies like World Relief and Catholic Charities of Washington DC advocate for their right to discriminate in hiring based on religious beliefs. Which position is the U.S. refugee resettlement program advocating? There seems to be an eery silence emanating from federal government refugee program agencies.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities of Washington DC, Christian, discrimination in hiring, employment/jobs for refugees, evangelical, faith-based, funding, Islamic, LIRS, Lutheran Social Services of ND, Matching Grant program, North Dakota, religion, secondary migration, refugee, Somali, World Relief | Tagged: Catholic Charities of Washington DC, discrimination in hiring, immigration, jamestown, LIRS, LSSND, Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota, Medicaid, Muslim, ND, North Dakota, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, secondary migration, refugee, Somali, somalis, Stutsman County Housing Authority, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 21, 2010
Florida’s Supreme Court may soon be deciding on whether the state has violated its constitutional ban on state money going to “any church, sect, or religious denomination, or in aid of any sectarian institution” (here). The “no-aid” provision, a so-called Blaine amendment, banning this practice has been in the Florida Constitution since 1885, although Florida has applied it loosely. Florida is among 39 states with this type of provision.
A century-old provision of the Florida Constitution may soon be dusted off for the first time before the state Supreme Court, with the fate of millions of dollars in state funding to religious organizations hanging in the balance.
The state’s First District Court of Appeal is asking justices to decide whether Florida has violated its constitutional ban on state money going to “any church, sect, or religious denomination, or in aid of any sectarian institution.”
The provision has been in the Florida Constitution since 1885, approved during an era of sweeping, anti-Catholic fervor. Florida is among 39 states with some version of a “no-aid” provision, a so-called Blaine amendment, named for the 19th Century Maine senator who promoted such prohibitions inspired by fear of a rising immigrant population.
While Florida embraced the ban a century ago, most experts say it has been applied loosely.
Millions of state dollars are budgeted each year for programs serving foster children, inmates, and low-income and elderly Floridians that are provided by religious-affiliated organizations.
Some fear the high court could put the brakes to that.
“Everybody is waiting and watching this case,” said Sheila Hopkins, an associate director with the Florida Catholic Conference. “Our charities have never believed in giving people a loaf of bread and then making everybody pray. We do social work.
“But a lot in the future may depend on how the court looks at this. It’d be devastating if these services were lost,” she added.
But would these services be “lost”, as she claims, or would they just instead be contracted to groups that do not use these government funds for religious purposes? She claims they only do “social work” and that they don’t proselytize, but proselytizing is just one way in which these groups can use public money for religious purposes.
What about Catholic Charities in Houston neglecting Iraqi refugees who are gay, while giving full services to so-called “families” (heterosexual refugees) here? What about World Relief using government refugee program dollars to pray at staff meeting, and then using that as an excuse to discriminate in hiring Arabic interpreters who are Muslim (here)? How about Catholic Charities of Washington DC discriminating in hiring based on religious belief (here)? None of that is proselytizing per se, but it sure does force all of us to pay for other’s people’s religious beliefs and practices. No thank you.
I think this case is interesting though because it demonstrates how government institutions simply ignore constitutional provisions and laws as they wish. The U.S. refugee program could not run, as it now does, with the regular neglect and abuse of refugees, if the refugee resettlement agencies and their government oversight friends actually abided by constitutions, rules, laws, guidelines, and regulations. The current system we have in place is essentially and old boy network program in which cronies inside and outside of government work together to fulfill their own interests while ignoring the interests of the public and the refugees. Laws and requirements are simply shunted aside at will when they interfere with these people’s interests.
Posted in Catholic, Catholic Charities, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, Florida, funding, neglect, religion, World Relief | Tagged: Blaine amendment, catholic charities, church, church and state, constitution, faith-based, Florida, Florida Catholic Conference, florida Supreme Court, no-aid, proselytize, public funding, refugee, refugees, religion, religious, sectarian, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2010
The Christian Century has taken a stand against World Relief’s discrimination in hiring (here). World Relief recently formalized a hiring policy that prohibits the hiring of non-Christians. (See our earlier posts on this issue here, here, here, and here).
Iraqi immigrant Saad Mohammad Ali worked for six months as a volunteer with World Relief, helping the nonprofit Christian-based agency resettle Iraqi refugees in the Seattle area. Apparently he was good at his work, for his superiors at World Relief encouraged him to apply for a job as a caseworker. But then, according to the Seattle Times, the agency called to say it could not hire him after all because he is not a Christian.
Is that a clear case of religious discrimination? Or is World Relief entitled as a Christian organization to hire employees based on religious beliefs?
Before you answer that question, consider this part of the story: over 65 percent of World Relief’s budget comes from federal funds.
That fact should clinch the question. World Relief is perfectly free as a religious organization to hire only Christians. But if it receives government money, it should abide by U.S. laws against discrimination in hiring. Taxpayer money—including Mohammad Ali’s tax money—is supporting World Relief. The government has chosen to give WR funds not because WR is a Christian organization (that would be a clear violation of the First Amendment) but because it provides a social service. It is discriminatory for Mohammad Ali to be denied on religious grounds a job that the government funds and his own tax money helps support.
Unfortunately, the rules on hiring practices are murky since George W. Bush in 2007 declared that religious organizations that receive federal funds can hire on the basis of faith. Barack Obama promised to reverse that directive, but he has not made good on the promise, and his Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships has carefully sidestepped the issue.
Overturning Bush’s directive need not mean overturning the tradition of government partnerships with religious-based nonprofits like Catholic Charities or Lutheran Social Services. Those agencies have long operated out of a sense of religious mission, and they pick their top leaders and board members on the basis of commitment to that mission. But in running their everyday operations that rely on government funds—in hiring social workers or translators, for example—those agencies abide by government rules against discrimination. That basis for partnership both protects religious freedom and respects religious identity—and helps religious organizations be clear about why they are getting government dollars.
Of course World Relief has also admitted that it conducts prayer (a clear form of worship) on taxpayer-funded refugee program time — prohibited by current regulations. We wrote to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in HHS and the State Department about this violation of regulations, but they have not responded.
Posted in Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, Iraqi, Islamic, public/private partnership, religion, Washington, World Relief | Tagged: catholic charities, Christian, discrimination in hiring, faith-based, federal funds, George W. Bush, Lutheran social services, Muslim, public funds, religious, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 31, 2010
It turns out that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 only allows religious nonprofits to hire people ONLY of their own religion if they only accept PRIVATE contributions (here). It does NOT protect religious organizations that take government finds.
The exemptions for religious charities began with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. That law allows such organizations to hire only members of their own faith when their programs are funded by private donations.
The Coalition Against Religious Discrimination is asking President Obama to repeal President George W. Bush’s two executive orders that allowed religious (faith-based) groups to discriminate based on religious-affiliation and sexual orientation (here and here).
Continuing repercussions from World Relief’s new hiring policy
World Relief’s new policy banning the hiring of non-Christians
Is praying at staff meetings a form of worship prohibited by government funding?
Catholic Charities of Washington, D.C. joins World Relief in discriminating based on religious affiliation
Faith-based control of refugee resettlement in some cities
Posted in Catholic, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, faith-based, religion, World Relief | Tagged: chicag, church state, civil rights act, Coalition Against Religious Discrimination, division of, faith-based, George W. Bush, hiring policy, Obama, religion, religious affiliation, religious organizations, sexual orientation, Title VII, World Relief | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 29, 2010
World Relief’s new hiring policy banning non-evangelical Christians has triggered an exodus of World Relief Chicago staff members, who have denounced the policy as religious discrimination (here).
See our previous posts on this issue (here, here, here and here).
The former director of the Chicago office of World Relief, a global evangelical Christian charity that receives federal funds to resettle refugees, said she was forced out in January because she disagreed with how the policy was implemented. …
….”As a Christian, I feel it is my duty to advocate for the most vulnerable,” said former legal specialist Trisha Teofilo, who also left because of the policy. “I believe Jesus would not promote a policy of discrimination.”President Barack Obama faces pressure to reverse former President George W. Bush‘s executive order enforcing the right of organizations to receive federal funds while hiring based on faith. On the campaign trail, Obama recommended halting government contracts with groups that proselytize to clients or hire only members of a certain faith.
The hiring policy comes as
Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the hiring policy is legal. But opponents, including current and former employees, say it is hypocritical for an agency to discriminate when its mission is settling refugees — many of whom have fled religious intolerance in their home countries.
“It’s legal, but it’s ridiculously wrong and un-Christian,” said Delia Seeburg, the director of immigrant legal services in World Relief’s Chicago office. She plans to leave for a new job next month.
World Relief, an arm of the National Association of Evangelicals, said the policy simply establishes a routine that has been in place for years.
The hiring policy is legal under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, but that doesn’t mean that religious organizations that discriminate against refugee services workers based on religion are the right agencies for the U.S. refugee resettlement program. President George W. Bush enacted two executive orders that made it easier for faith-based groups to take part in federal programs.
Executive Order 13198 created a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at HHS in order to identify and eliminate regulatory, contracting, and other programmatic obstacles to the equal participation of faith-based and community organizations in the provision of social services by HHS (Federal Register, January 31, 2001).
Executive Order 13279 charged HHS to give equal treatment to faith-based and community groups that apply for funds to meet social needs in America’s communities. This Executive Order was designed to ensure that no organization is discriminated against based on religion, and that federally funded social services are available to all regardless of religion (Federal Register, December 16, 2002).
In addition, World Relief’s new discriminatory hiring policy has led to refugees losing an important local mental-health services program.
The agency also has dismantled mental health services for refugees in Chicago after losing staff and funding because of the hiring rule, officials said. …
….Because a selective hiring policy could conflict with professional guidelines for social workers and clinical psychologists, the mental health unit was forced to close and refer its clients elsewhere.
Furthermore, World Relief is also now losing important private sources of funding as a result of this discriminatory hiring policy — a problem in the refugee resettlement program where private resettlement agencies must add significant private funding to most of the funding that comes from the federal government, also known as the “public/private partnership”.
But some foundations have declined to renew grants for World Relief based on the hiring policy.
Nikki Will Stein, executive director of Polk Bros. Foundation, said that as long as the policy is in effect, the foundation will not consider applications from World Relief.
“We live in a multicultural, multireligious world,” she said. “We were very surprised with the specificity of the document. … People should be free to believe what they believe as long as they’re doing their job.”
President Obama’s stance on this issue during the 2008 election was that he did not belive that organizations that discriminate based on religion should receive federal funds, but he is now reviewing the legal ramifications.
Since suggesting that federal funds be held back from organizations that discriminate based on religion, Obama has referred the matter of religious hiring to the Department of Justice.
A current World Relief Chicago employee also worries about what might go on behind closed doors, his implication being that groups that are so wedded to their personal religious beliefs irrespective of our Constitution, laws, and regulations may not be playing by the rules when the doors are shut.
Translators, counselors and legal aid providers help refugees navigate their new world, including emergency rooms, banks, real estate and employment, putting World Relief workers in a unique position of power.
“I really feel for the refugee clients who have no choice,” [another employee] said. “If they are victims of religious persecution and they’re being resettled through an agency staffed by all Christians who may or may not understand their plight, I think that is unjust.”
Yet, the Rev. Brad Morris, an interim director for World Relief Chicago, brought in from Nashville, Tenn., after Embling’s departure, claims that this is about religious freedom.
[Rev. Morris] said the hiring policy has nothing to do with the services provided and that he doesn’t see a conflict.
“I don’t believe it’s discrimination. It’s an internal hiring policy,” he said. “Corporations want to hire people who are in line with who they are and what they stand for. One of the reasons I came to work with World Relief was it was a Christian organization to begin with.”
But World Relief is free to pursue its religious beliefs and pursue good works for the public without having to take part in national programs that are inherently multi-ethnic and multi-religious. The issue here is groups’ participation in our government programs and who use our tax money. Does it make sense for participating groups to discriminate against the very groups of people they are resettling here as refugees?
For example, Iraqi SIV immigrants are a new source of Arabic interpreters for whom we have a shortage in this country. How would World Relief or other religious groups that chose to discriminate be able to serve their Arabic-speaking refugee clients without these interpreters? Is it okay that we just resettle refugees without essential services?
I think its clear that President Obama needs to repeal the ill-advised Bush Administration executive orders that have helped this situation to occur — Executive Orders 13198 and 13279. Please contact the White House via their email form and ask the President to repeal these orders (here).
Posted in Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, funding, Illinois, Islamic, religion, volunteers, World Relief | Tagged: 13198, 3279, barrack obama, bush, Chicago, Christian, Christian organization, civil rights act, counselors, Department of Justice, discriminate based on religion, discrimination based on religion, evangelical, executive orders, faith, faith-based, faith-based hiring, federal funds, George W. Bush, hiring policy, Illinois, Illinois Attorney General, Illinois Department of Human Services, Illinois Human Rights Act, Interfaith Refugee and Immigration Ministries, Iraqi, legal aid providers, Lisa Madigan, mental health services, Muslim, National Association of Evangelicals, Polk Bros. Foundation, polk brothers foundation, proselytize, proselytizing, refugee resettlement, religion, religious, religious persecution, SIV, Translators, welcoming the stranger, World Relief, World Relief Chicago | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 22, 2010
According to a recent story from Seattle, World Relief recently rejected a muslim refugee for a paying job as an interpreter because he is not an evangelical Christian, and World Relief thought he might feel uncomfortable at their staff meetings when they pray (see here). He worked as a volunteer Arabic interpreter with World Relief for six months before applying for a paid position doing the same thing.
But why are they praying at staff meetings? Isn’t that a form of worship? Federal agencies that provide funds for refugee resettlement do not allow the use of their funds for religious activities. According to HHR regulations 45 CFR 87.1 using these federal funds for inherently religious activities is prohibited (here):
“…a participating organization may not use direct financial assistance from the Department, as well as from State and local governments or intermediate organizations administering funds under Department programs, to support inherently religious activities, such as worship, religious instruction, or proselytization. If the organization engages in such activities, it must offer them separately, in time or location, from the programs or services funded with direct Department assistance, and participation must be voluntary for the beneficiaries of the Department-funded programs or services. This requirement ensures that direct financial assistance from the Department to participating organizations is not used to support inherently religious activities. Such assistance may not be used, for example, to conduct worship services, prayer meetings, or any other activity that is inherently religious. The rule clarifies that this restriction does not mean that an organization that receives Department grant funds may not engage in inherently religious activities, but only that such an organization may not fund these activities with direct financial assistance from the Department.”
It seems to me that praying is an inherently religious activity. Resettlement agencies such as World Relief pay their staff members with federal funds to attend these meetings, so praying at staff meetings by staff members would seem to be the use of federal funds for worship, an inherently religious activity.
Posted in Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, HHS, Iraqi, Islamic, religion, Washington, World Relief | Tagged: 45 CFR, division of church and state, employee, evangelical, faith-based, federal funding, government regulations, HHS, islam, Muslim, praying, prohibited, refugee, refugees, religious activity, seattle, World Relief, worship | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 16, 2010
Catholic Charities of Washington, D.C. is now joining the evangelical group World Relief in creating a new employee policy that discriminates based on religious affiliation (see here).
Meanwhile, officials with Catholic Charities of Washington, D.C., have begun requiring new employees to sign a statement promising that they will not “violate the principles or tenets” of the Catholic Church. It’s a sweeping statement – one that would allow Catholic Charities to dismiss employees for virtually any infraction of church rules, from failure to attend religious services and using artificial contraceptives to cohabitation and publicly criticizing church leaders.
The Establishment Clause of the Constitution prohibits discrimination in government-funded programs. Nevertheless, President George W. Bush issued executive orders allowing faith-based social service groups that receive public money to discriminate in their hiring practices. In addition, Federal and D.C. laws also explicitly give religious groups exemptions from bans on religiously based employment discrimination (see here).
Our position is this — while it may now be legal (by law, although not by Constitution) to discriminate against workers based on religious affiliation, any private organization that does so does NOT belong in the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program. Their participation is purely voluntary, both by them and by the federal agencies that oversee the program. They don’t HAVE to take part in the program, and they should NOT be allowed to take part.
Why? Because their religious beliefs mean that they will ban people who are the MOST qualified from being interpreters, translators, and case workers for incoming refugees. This type of religious discrimination is incompatible with the refugee program. It also just plain violates common sence. If it violates common sence then it has no place in the national, public refugee program.
For example, why would we allow Iraqi interpreters to come into the U.S. on Special Immigrant Visa’s (SIV visas) and then let them be banned from being Arabic interpreters and translators for the other Arabic-speaking refugees simply because most of them are Muslim? Do we have hundreds if not thousands of Christian, Jewish, or other, Arabic interpreters to take their place? No. Then it makes no sence for us to allow a organization to take part in the program that is going to ban their employment. As it stands, what will happen is that Arabic-speaking refugees just won’t get essential Arabic interpretation and translation services if we allow this type of religious discrimination.
World Relief kept Iraqi SIV immigrant Saad Mohammad Ali as an interpreter volunteer in Seattle for six months before he applied to work with them. They decided that his religion was incompatible with employment — that is, receiving a paycheck — but it wasn’t incompatible with doing the work for free for six months. Does that make any sense at all? The best reason they could give for refusing to hire a non-evangelical Christian, or in this case a Muslim, was that the person might feel uncomfortable while they do their praying at staff meetings.
Something tells me these people spend far too much time in meetings and not enough time assisting refugees. Federal oversight agencies must invite World Relief and the Catholic Church (USCCB) to change their new employee policies or consider leaving the refugee program. Although they have the right to discriminate, according to laws and executive orders, they don’t HAVE to. It’s a choice, and a choice that is incompatible with this program. It’s also our choice to allow them to continue to take part in this public program.
Here is our post about World Relief refusing to hire an Arabic interpreter in Seattle simply because he is a Muslim and not an evangelical Christian.
Here is out post about World Relief requiring a volunteer to sign a “spiritual assessmen”‘ in Spokane, Washington.
Posted in Catholic Charities, Catholic Charities of Washington DC, Christian, discrimination in hiring, evangelical, Islamic, religion, USCCB, World Relief | Tagged: ACLU, Arabic, catholic, catholic charities, Catholic Charities of Washington, catholic church, D.C., employee policy, employment discrimination, Establishment Clause of the Constitution, evangelical, executive orders, exemption, faith-based, George W. Bush, interpreter, Iraqi, islam, Muslim, refugee, refugee program, refugees, religion, religious affiliation, religious discrimination, SIV, translator, U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program, USCCB, visa, visas, washington d.c., World Relief | 8 Comments »
Christopher Coen
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