Archive for the ‘States’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 26, 2012
Darfurian refugees have begun to arrive in New Jersey, outside of New York City. (Approximately 480,000 Darfurians were killed, with over 2.8 million people displaced, in a conflict fueled by Sudan’s government between 2003 and 2010. In 2008 the International Criminal Court announced ten criminal charges against Sudan’s military leader and self-proclaimed President, Omar al-Bashir, including sponsoring war crimes and crimes against humanity.) The HIAS affiliate United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ says it will help to resettle three young Dafurian refugee men now, followed by several families and 25 young men in the next few months. The price of housing in the area is a concern, therefore the group is looking for donated space for transitional housing until the refugees can save up enough money from jobs to pay for housing. An article at New Jersey Jewish News explains:
After fleeing from the ravages of genocide in their native land, three refugees from Darfur are now crafting new lives in the MetroWest community with a large assist from the Jewish Vocational Service, a beneficiary agency of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ.
Thanks to a $88,532 grant from the federal State Office of Refugee Resettlement, JVS has helped the men find transitional housing in the area, while providing caseworkers, translation services, English classes, vocational training, job coaching, and other support.
The men are the first wave of Darfuris to arrive in New Jersey, ahead of several families and 25 young men expected to be coming to this area in the next few months. JVS and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society hope to resettle 25 or more refugees from Sudan’s Darfur region, which suffered under genocidal attacks by the Sudanese government…
…“There are major issues,” said [Nancy Fisher, the agency’s assistant executive director for education and training]. “Each refugee is given $1,100 from the federal government when they arrive in the United States. For a family of five, the $5,500 can tide them over. But for the single guys, the $1,100 is not enough. We need to find them transitional housing at reduced rates. Housing around here is not cheap.”
To help out, JVS board members provided goods, services, and contributions for the refugees. The Sleepy’s mattress company donated five beds to a temporary housing facility in Newark for new arrivals.
“This is a huge expense we cannot pay for ourselves,” said Fisher.
JVS is looking for donated space for transitional housing.
“Maybe a large house or something connected to an old church or synagogue that is not being used, where they can spend a couple of months and get used to this country and its customs, then save a bit of money and move into their own places,” said Reilly. “For now, it would be helpful for some families to be willing to take in people, especially others who are coming soon”… Read more here
Posted in Darfurian, housing, New Jersey, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ | Tagged: Dafur, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, HIAS, New Jersey, refugees, resettlement, sudan, United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 25, 2012
In November a report came out that revealed that 60% of Myanmar refugees living in Oakland were trapped in poverty. In December Iraqi refugees reported that the IRC had exposed them to extreme violence by resettling them to East Oakland (Nepali-Bhutanese refugees have also been mugged). Now comes word that a group of 22 Nepali-Bhutanese refugees in East Oakland are HIV positive and have been getting no health care at all. With a six-month wait for primary care appointments at a local health clinic, one of the refugees died while waiting. An article at New American Media mentions these facts:
OAKLAND, Calif.–Laura Lopez was running late. Inside the common room at Street Level Health Project clinic on Oakland’s International Boulevard, two Cambodian women and two Eritrean men were waiting for her. The group, representing Cambodian Community Development, Inc. and Eritrean Youth for Change, were here for one last meeting to prepare for an upcoming community health fair.
With the help of Lopez’s clinic, the refugee organizations were reaching out to their members to help them get basic health services…
…East Oakland…has been a resettlement site for a small but increasing numbers of refugees fleeing political repression in Burma, Bhutan, Nepal and other countries. Through one of their volunteers, who works at Eastmont Mall’s clinic, Lopez heard about a group of 22 Nepalese refugees who were HIV positive and getting no health care. Thus began the clinic’s work with the East Bay Refugee Forum and its members.
At the prep meeting for the community fair, Lopez and the refugee leaders were strategizing about how to pre-screen as many of their members as possible for health coverage enrollment at the May 19 event. This is no easy feat. At prior similar events, thousands of people eager for medical care had to be turned back for lack of required documents.
Jiwan Subba and Laxman Mahat from the Bhutanese Community in California have arrived to the meeting late from work. They raised the issue of Eastmont Mall’s and Highland Hospital’s six-month wait for primary care appointments. “By the time somebody gets an appointment, they’re dead,” Subba observed.
Mahat added that it happened to one of their community members… Read more here
Posted in Catholic Charities of the East Bay (Oakland), IRC, medical care, Nepali Bhutanese, Oakland | Tagged: Bay Area, bhutanese, East Oakland, HIV, medical care, nepalese, Nepali-Bhutanese, Oakland, refugees, resettlement | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 23, 2012
There is now a surge of Nepali-Bhutanese refugees resettling to Akron, Ohio. This happens when refugees seek to join their relatives already resettled in a local area (refugees termed as “geo cases”) as well as my secondary migration from other US cities (the Nepali-Bhutanese may be hearing from friends and families that jobs are available in Akron). Of course the surge puts pressure on the local resettlement agency to find a lot of material-item donations – e.g. furniture, essential household items, clothes, toiletries – in a relatively short period. Akron’s Beacon-Journal newspaper explains:
When members of the Bhutanese family arrived in Akron from a refugee camp in Nepal, they had nothing but the clothes on their backs and a few keepsakes in a bag.
The International Institute of Akron provided them with a furnished apartment, a hot meal and all of life’s little essentials, including kitchen gadgets, towels, sheets, blankets and cleaning items.
“It was a difficult life in the camps for 20 years,” said Bhim Subba, 50, who traveled to Akron with his wife and two children in February. “We were seeing no future there and decided to be resettled.”
The institute expects to serve a record number of refugees this month, with 85 already arriving as of late last week and the possibility of more in the remainder of the month. The figure is more than double the 30 to 40 refugees the agency normally gets in a month.
With the influx, the institute is looking for donations of basic items for the families.
“We need it all,” said Debbie May-Johnson, executive director of the institute…
…May-Johnson said most of the refugees coming into Akron are from Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal and Burmese camps in Thailand. She said they are asking to come to Akron because they already have family here, with refugees from these camps settling in the city for the past five years.
May-Johnson said the institute has an equal number of refugees who come from other U.S. cities to Akron, seeking job opportunities and affordable housing… Read more here
Posted in Akron, International Institute of Akron, Nepali Bhutanese, secondary migration, refugee | Tagged: Akron, bhutanese, geo case, nepalese, Nepali-Bhutanese, refugees, resettlement, secondary migration | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 22, 2012
Like the program that is welcoming immigrants to Dayton, Ohio, Michigan now has an initiative called “Welcoming Michigan” that seeks to welcome immigrants and their entrepreneurial talents. The article points out that, “the U.S. Small Business Administration found that the foreign-born were more than three times as likely as non-immigrants to start a new business,” and, “last year, according to CNN Money, ‘immigrants created 28% of all new firms.’” An article at Immigration Impact explains the case:
While some states pushed for punitive immigration measures over the last year—measures designed to drive immigrants away —others, like those in Michigan, were busy putting together a plan that welcomes immigrants and their revitalizing power to the state. This month, leaders in Michigan—including state Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit) and U.S. Rep. Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit)—helped launch “Welcoming Michigan,” a statewide initiative that seeks to welcome immigrants and their entrepreneurial talents to Michigan…
…Michigan joins 19 others states in welcoming immigrants, including Ohio whose recent “Welcome Dayton Plan” has garnered national attention as a model for other states…
…While proponents of harsh immigration laws falsely believe that forcing immigrants out of the state “will free up jobs for Americans,” Welcoming America points out that in an aging America, booting immigrants from the state means a “smaller gross state product, smaller revenue bases for the state shrinking budgets, and smaller local markets for products and services produced in the state … a smaller population base means a poorer, weaker, and less competitive Michigan.” In fact, Standard and Poor’s Rating Service reported this week that cities with high numbers of foreign born saw tax bases grow and per-capita income increase.
Immigrants who live in Michigan are already contributing to the state’s economy. They accounted for 11% of total economic output in the Detroit metropolitan area as of 2007 and comprised 6.8% of the state’s workforce. Additionally, the U.S. Small Business Administration found that the foreign born were more than three times as likely as non-immigrants to start a new business. Last year, according to CNN Money, “immigrants created 28% of all new firms.”… Read more here
Posted in Michigan | Tagged: entrepreneur, immigrants, Michigan, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Small Business Administration, Welcoming Michigan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 18, 2012
Denver police say a group that killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat were out on a night of car theft and trouble-making, and included two unspecified juvenile gang members (it was the Latin Kings gang that attacked Sudanese refugees in 2002 in Chicago). The Denver 911 director has now fired a 911 operator for withholding medical assistance from one of the Sudanese callers, who repeatedly asked for medical aid, and wrongly telling him to return to the scene of the first incident, where Reet was then killed. An article in the Denver Post (and here) has updated information on the case:
Denver police believe a group that included two juvenile gang members out on a night of car theft and troublemaking killed Sudanese refugee Jimma Reat.
No arrests have been made in the case. Police are asking for the public’s help in locating witnesses or others involved in the shooting in the early hours of April 1.
Reat, 25, was shot in the back blocks from West 10th Avenue and Sheridan Boulevard in Denver, where he and other members of his family were taunted by a group of Latino men driving a stolen Jeep who threw bottles and waved a gun at their vehicle.
After the altercation, Reat and his family went to their apartment in Wheat Ridge. A 911 operator told them to return to Denver, where they were fired upon by the same group that had attacked them moments before.
Denver 911 director Carl Simpson on Tuesday fired the operator for mishandling the call.
“Witnesses say there were four or five parties in the vehicle,” Detective Randy Denison said of the suspects’ car. “What we are looking for is to identify the other possible occupants.”
The occupants of the Jeep didn’t flash gang signs or tout any gang affiliation, but the criminal history of the two teens now suspected suggests they are gang members, Denison said. He said he didn’t know whether one of them — or someone else in the Jeep — fired the fatal shot…
…Reat and his companions didn’t see the Jeep until it pulled up beside them at a light. “There was not much conversation. The brothers say these guys just pull up beside them, and they think they are just saying, ‘Hello,’ and Jimma and his friends just kind of wave. They just think these guys are just giving them the nod,” Denison said… Read more here
Posted in Denver, police, safety, South Sudanese | Tagged: 9/11, car theft, Denver, gang, Jimma Reat, police, refugees, resettlement, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 17, 2012
A South Sudanese refugee who arrived in Rochester, NY at age 14 as an unaccompanied minor was murdered on Tuesday. Paul Chol Awuol was holding a friend’s son when a man just came up and shot him in the chest, according to the friend, Jessica Lane. He was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused on helping others, when he went to Smith Street Tuesday to watch Lane’s child. In 2010 Sudanese refugees in Rochester reported finding a bullet hole in their apartment ceiling after three men were shot to death in the apartment above. A report at CBS Channel 8 gives details:
As Rochester police search for a suspect in Tuesday’s Smith Street homicide, friends of Paul Chol Awuol say the Sudanese refugee was shot in the chest while watching a close friend’s son.
Jerry DeLuccio wants people to remember Awuol as more than a crime statistic. “This was a young man that has made such a difference,” he said…
…Awuol was in the process of becoming a certified nursing assistant, focused more and more on helping others. That’s what led him to Smith Street Tuesday, to watch a friend’s child. “He was holding my son in his hand when this man came and just shot him in the chest,” said friend Jessica Lane through tears.
A small memorial has begun where the Sudanese refugee fell, the painful irony all too clear. The man who came to America as a boy to escape violence was ultimately killed by a gunman. “That’s what hurts me so much, is that he was ready to explode, in terms of how he would help others and we’re never going to have that chance,” said DeLuccio… Read more here
Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, men, Rochester, safety, South Sudanese, teenagers | Tagged: dangerous neighborhoods, Paul Chol Awuol, refugees, resettlement, rochester, shot to death, sudanese | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 15, 2012
It was just three weeks ago that a newspaper article featured the International Institute of New Jersey (IINJ) and explained the agency’s services and activities. There was not even a hint of any brewing problems. Today the same newspaper has announced the IINJ’s abrupt closing, and just a day after another article announced that the agency was “downsizing” due to $800,000 in federal and state aid cuts. Now it turns out that when the April article appeared the IINJ had not paid its rent in seven months. An article today in The Jersey Journal announced the closing:
Reversing comments they made yesterday, officials with the International Institute of New Jersey (IINJ), a Jersey City-based nonprofit that provides services for immigrants, said today the organization will be closing by mid-June and declaring bankruptcy.
Yesterday, the director and chair of the organization, told The Jersey Journal the nonprofit was “downsizing” and relocating due to a total of $800,000 in federal and state aid cuts.
The organization’s budget is $1.8 million a year, according to IINJ executive director Catherine Tansey.
According to an email sent to supporters from IINJ board chair Bill Armbruster that was obtained by The Jersey Journal, the nonprofit, located at 1 Journal Square, ended most operations on Friday, “though some will continue to the end of the month”…
…”We are supposed to make the final payments to the staff on May 18, but that will depend on when funds arrive,” he wrote. “We will be filing for bankruptcy shortly after we receive the last grant money due the Institute, which will probably be around mid-June.”
In the email, Armbruster states the organization owes eight months in back rent. “The cutbacks in government funding and our inability to raise sufficient private funds, whether from corporations, foundations and individual donors, put us in a chronic deficit,” he states.
IINJ employs 12 full-time staff and has 10 AmeriCorps volunteers, IINJ officials said yesterday.
IINJ has been serving immigrants in Hudson County since 1918… Read more here
Posted in New Jersey, USCRI | Tagged: International Institute of New Jersey, Jersey City, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 14, 2012
Some refugee population groups entering the US come from a long tradition of farming and may wish to continue farming as a way to earn a living. Refugees from Myanmar and Hmong refugees, mainly from Cambodia, are two groups that come to mind. The National Immigrant Farming Initiative is helping immigrants and refugees with a penchant for farming to apply those skills in the US by teaching them about our growing season, crops, prices, regulations, where and how to sell, how to connect with markets and government farm support programs. This is apparently not only a way for refugees to help them keep up their agrarian practices, but is also a way of avoiding the poverty trap for those with little English and a lack of American workplace skills. An article in Twin Cities Daily Planet has more:
He was born in mountainous Cambodia and dreamed of owning a farm. She was born to the far-reaching plains of the Midwest and flourished in an urban setting of coffee shops and poetry readings.
Now, immigrant Proeun and Amy Doeun are married, have four children, a herd of goats and 85 chickens as well as their own 40-acre farm in Rush City. That’s thanks in large part to the Minnesota Food Association, a farm entrepreneurship program she calls “our alma mater.’’
That program is but one of many to be highlighted at an upcoming national conference with a title as long and as self-explanatory as many a non-fiction book.
“Grassroots and Groundwork: Working Together to Reduce Poverty and Build Prosperity”…
…The need for such agricultural training appeared as Minnesota experienced a “huge and steady influx of immigrants from other countries, many of them from agrarian societies and they would like to know how can I farm in Minnesota,’’ Hill explains. The program teaches about the growing season here, crops, prices, regulations, where and how to sell, how to connect with markets and government farm support programs, he says.
The state group is a member of the National Immigrant Farming Initiative, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., supporting immigrants who don’t have the capital or knowhow or don’t understand the American agricultural system or have limited English, explains the group’s Executive Director Rigoberto Delgado. He will also speak at the conference.
Delgado says immigrants are replacing the disappearing American family farmer, pointing out that the number of Latino farmers in the United States grew 14 percent between 2002 and 2007.
“They come with the American dream and a penchant for farming. We are like the doorway for immigrants and refugees to find their way,’’ says Delgado… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, community farms, Hmong, Minnesota | Tagged: Burma, community farms, family farmer, Hmong, Minnesota Food Association, Myanmar, National Immigrant Farming Initiative, refugees, resettlement, Small farms | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 13, 2012
The first refugee family has moved into a vacant, foreclosed house in Cleveland as part of a program to rehab empty housing stock in the city. The project is a collaboration between the Cuyahoga County land bank and International Services Center. It turns out that the $40,000 expended to rehab the house is less than what it would have cost to demolish it. An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer explains:
LAKEWOOD, Ohio — A pilot program operated by two nonprofit groups to place refugees in vacant, foreclosed homes has settled its first family into a renovated house in Lakewood.
Bhutanese natives Ruk and Leela Rai, along with their 3-year-old son, Anish, moved into an updated century home on Hopkins Avenue last week.
Two years ago, the International Services Center resettled the Rais in Cleveland from a refugee camp in Nepal,where Ruk and Leela had lived for 20 years. Their son was born in the camp.
Through the center’s programs, they learned life skills and found jobs. And now they are the first recipients of the new housing program created bythe center and the Cuyahoga County land bank.
About a year ago, the land bank, which has acquired a number of empty foreclosed homes, teamed with the center to split the costs of renovating the vacant Lakewood home and renting it to a refugee family.
So far, the partnership has worked well. And there’s a good chance it will continue, as the center needs housing for its stream of refugees, and the land bank, which razes many empty foreclosed homes, needs occupants.
It cost $40,000 to rehab the Lakewood house, which is cheaper than demolishing an empty foreclosed property… Read more here
Posted in Cleveland, housing, International Services Center, Nepali Bhutanese | Tagged: Cleveland, Cuyahoga County land bank, housing, International Services Center, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 10, 2012
An Iraqi refugee family now living in Idaho says that they were told, on the day before travel to the US for resettlement, that they should come in to “sign” for tickets. At the signing they claim they were then told to sign for a $4,500 travel loan. I wrote to the State Department about my concerns about the refugee Travel Loan Program program in 2005, but the agency’s refugee office did not make any major changes until now. In March the State Department announced that it was planning significant changes to the refugee program beginning in October (the beginning of the next fiscal year). A State Department spokeswoman says monthly loan payments will be capped according to income, loan agreements will be translated into nearly a dozen languages, and there will be a new informational website explaining the travel loan program. An article at StateImpact explains:
…[Qusay Alani] says he left Iraq after he was jailed for refusing to join Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party. In Jordan, he says, he lived like a fugitive. As more and more Iraqis fled there, they were less and less welcome. Alani began the process of applying for refugee status. He didn’t aim to come to the U.S. He and his family simply needed to go somewhere. “Any country, I go to,” he says. “The only thing is just to protect my family. Because, you know, if I go back to Iraq I might get killed, you know. So – do my family.”
In 2009, after years of waiting, Alani and his family learned they were bound for the United States. This is where the travel loan comes in.
“They gave us like a month prior,” Alani explains. “They told us – in a month ahead, you’re going to travel. Then a day before, they told us to come and sign for your tickets.”
Alani says that’s when he found out he would have to sign a loan for more than $4,500…
…there is an effort underway to make changes, says Deborah Sisbarro, a spokeswoman for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration.
“We are, in fact, in the process of making improvements in the way the travel loan program works, yes,” she says.
Sisbarro says there will be a new informational website explaining the travel loan program. She says monthly loan payments will be capped according to income, and loan agreements will be translated into nearly a dozen languages. She says the changes should be in place by next year…
…In reporting this story, StateImpact requested interviews with current and former State Department officials and the official who oversees the travel loan program. None was available for an interview… Read more here
In the article the IRC’s Jim Carey complains about the travel loan program, yet his organization offers no private partner solution to the problem. Couldn’t the nine national resettlement agencies offer to set up a private endowment to help the refugees with part of the cost of travel?
Posted in Idaho, Iraqi, Travel Loan Program | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, State Department, Travel Loan, US Department of State | Leave a Comment »
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