An article in Westlake Malibu Magazine and East County Magazine Refugee Resettlement: A Southern California Snapshot, written by a San Diego Red Cross employee, announces that San Diego is now the nation’s number 1 refugee resettlement site.

The author also claims that refugee arrivals in the United States accounted for less than 8% of all legal foreign migration to the United States in 2009, which was something I wasn’t aware of.

The article also contains an oft-repeated defamation of Iraqi refugees. According to the president of San Diego’s Refugee Forum, Iraqi refugees are troublesome due to their unrealistic expectations about standards of living.

As Ralph Achenbach, president of San Diego’s Refugee Forum points out “many of the [San Diego] refugees arriving are highly educated and skilled, with great potential to immediately contribute to their new communities.” Unfortunately, this can also be a double-edged sword as these refugees are accustomed to a higher standard of living in their home country and arrive in the United States’ harsh economic climate with unrealistic expectations. here

This belief about Iraqi refugees seems as if it is becoming deeply inculturated into the refugee resettlement community. It pops up all the time, even in inappropriate situations. In fact, most refugees with professional credentials and experience, including Iraqi refugees, simply want a chance to find a job in their areas of expertise, while most resettlement agencies are determined to make them take the shortest and easiest path to employment, which by the way also takes the least amount of work from resettlement workers. Resettlement agencies should be required to help refugees with professional credentials to write professional quality resumes, show them how to network for professional jobs, and refer them to organizations such as Upwardly Global, etc. Otherwise they are not only cheating the refugees, they are short-changing our society from benefiting from the refugees’ skills.

Another problem here that I’ve noted, illustrated by the San Diego Refugee Forum president’s defamation of Iraqi refugees with professional skills, is that the refugee resettlement program is insular, and they do not well tolerate different perspectives. Far from being true believers in diversity, most resettlement agencies are quick to criticize any dissenting, diverse viewpoints. In other words, diversity is good if it brings in more types of foreign culinary delights, music, and exotic looks and fashions, but diversity of viewpoints is something that will not be tolerated. Criticize the resettlement agencies and you will get a quick lesson in this.

The author also covers the issue of refugees being screened by US agencies for security threats.

If seeking resettlement in the United States, the Department of State takes on the case and will refer it to the Department of Homeland Security. Both agencies will then screen and interview the applicant to make sure that they pose no security threat.

But how can officials decide from interviews that refugees pose no security threat? Questioning them about their background. Looking for inconsistencies in their stories. Gut instinct. But let’s be clear, none of that is infallible. The system cannot stop all people with ill-intent, and determined to fool authorities by posing as refugees, from entering the US.

And then this blanket statement.

It is important to remember that refugees are not the ones partaking in the violence of their home country; they are the ones fleeing it.

Again, this is not entirely true. While most refugees resettled here are indeed fleeing from violence, there are some offenders among them. For example, an AP article just published details the case of Hutu Rwandan refugee Beatrice Munyenyezi, resettled in New Hampshire by Catholic Charities of Manchester in 1998. She now stands accused of genocidal crimes, including killing Tutsis, as well as participation in roadblocks and ID checks that resulted in untold other Tutsi rapes and killings.

Court papers give a graphic account of Munyeynezi allegedly striking a young Tutsi boy so hard in the head with a wooden club that he died instantly. here

Then of course we have the case last week of Somali immigrants in the US, refugees no doubt, that the federal government accuses of conspiracy to provide material support to a terrorist organization. In Rochester, Mn two Somali women were recently indited, along with five other Somali men in Minnesota (the case that now has 21 defendants from at least three different states — Minnesota, Alabama and California) here, here, here and here. By the way, U.S. Attorney for Minnesota B. Todd Jones said people from the local Somali community provided important tips in the investigations.

Finally, the author also claims that Catholic Charities, the largest refugee resettlement agency in San Diego, typically processes upwards of 1,200 refugees per annum. I was surprised when I read this as a State Department inspection report from 2006 indicated that in 2005 Catholic Charities resettled just 165 refugees, and only 42 refugees in the first four months of FY 2006. Why the huge increase, and how can an agency be expected to resettle such a huge surge of new refugees? It seems like a prescription for neglect.

According to that report the father in a Somali family resettled by Catholic Charities claimed that the agency did not give enough cash for the family to buy food, and did not give them any baby supplies for their child. In addition, Catholic Charities did not give any of the refugees lamps (a minimum-required item according to the Operational Guidance contract document) and did not give refugees’ relatives a chance to decline stepping in for Catholic Charities to supply basic services to refugee clients, if in fact the relatives were not able to do so.