Archive for the ‘Oakland’ Category
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 4, 2012
Young Cambodians, mainly men, who came to the United States as infants and refugees, and were resettled in some of America’s worst gang infested neighborhoods, are now being deported due to felonies for which they have already served their time. Those who have atoned for their past crimes and are living as productive members of American society have no right to show a judge evidence of this or appeal their deportations. A video at YouTube explains their story:
One of the untold stories of the current immigration hysteria sweeping America is the forced deportation of young Cambodians, mainly men, who came to the United States as infants and refugees after escaping the Khmer Rouge genocide, civil war and illegal US invasion and bombings of Cambodia. Their families, poor, uneducated farmers for the most part, were dumped in some of America’s worst gang infested neighborhoods. Even though they had ‘permanent resident’ status, felony convictions, some more than 10 years old, means under new immigration rules they are being sent back to a country they do not know, where they have no family and little hope of escaping poverty. Even after serving time and paying back their debt to society, over 1500 Cambodians, some as old as 70 years, are being punished a second time and thrown into ICE jails with no right to appeal.
Over 200 have already arrived in Cambodia, leaving behind families, wives and children in the US. The deportees have no right to appeal, no right to see a judge to show that they have atoned for their past crimes and are living as productive members of American society. Considering America’s role in the turmoil that swept through Cambodia in the 1970s, we are breaking the faith with these refugees. Watch video here
By the way, if any of these young men had pursued their right to apply for citizenship, and had attained it, then they would not have been subject to deportation. Parents and resettlement agencies should help with this.
Posted in Cambodian, dangerous neighborhoods, ICE, Los Angeles, Oakland | Tagged: cambodian, deportation, gangs, ICE, Lost Boys, Lost Boyz, refugees, resettlement | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 29, 2012
Documents uncovered by The Associated Press revealed that the New York Police Department conducted an extensive surveillance campaign of the Muslim population in the northeast. Now it turns out that the FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program announced as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California. The claimed intention of the FBI outreach programs was to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they could work together to fight crime and avert terrorism. We learn now, however, that the FBI was operating the community outreach in Northern California as part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program, and conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing. The legacy of this deception will, no doubt, be to undermine trust for genuine outreach programs. An article at Msnbc.com has the story:
The FBI in San Francisco used a public relations program billed as “mosque outreach” to collect information on the religious views and practices of Muslims in Northern California and then shared the intelligence with other government agencies, according to FBI documents obtained by civil rights groups.
The heavily redacted documents, released after a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, raise “grave constitutional concerns,” said Hina Shamsi, director of the National Security Project of the American Civil Liberties Union.
“In San Francisco, we have found that community outreach was being run out of the FBI’s intelligence division and was part of a secret and systematic intelligence gathering program,” conducted without any apparent evidence of wrongdoing,” said Shamsi. “The bureau’s documentation of religious leaders’ and congregants’ beliefs and practices violates the Privacy Act, which Congress passed to protect Americans’ First Amendment rights.”…
…The documents indicate that FBI was keeping records of conversations and activities within mosques and other Muslim organizations from 2004 through 2008, information that was provided by employees engaged in the outreach programs.
The announced intention of the FBI outreach programs is to foster trust between law enforcers and members of the Muslim community so they can work together to fight crime and avert terrorism…
…documents still under analysis by the ACLU indicate FBI San Francisco continued to mingle outreach and intelligence gathering through 2011, according to Shimsa.
The documents undermine trust for genuine outreach programs, said Farhana Khera, executive director of Muslim Advocates, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that makes policy recommendations to lawmakers and leaders.
“I think the recent documents further underscore how well-intentioned community leaders who talk with the FBI are instead the targets of this broad, intelligence-gathering effort,” she said. “It’s easy to see then how that community leader who had a conversation with an FBI agent finds himself being harassed when traveling or crossing borders.”
“These documents are illustrating the actual experiences of American Muslims that we have been hearing for a number of years now,” she added…
…Rules governing FBI surveillance were relaxed in 2008 to give more leeway to FBI “assessments” — a stage of surveillance that takes place before the opening of a formal investigation. These more lenient standards, critics say, allow information gathering on individuals without probable cause.
Rights groups are asking the Department of Justice to restore stricter rules on surveillance and to prohibit racial and religious profiling in all cases.
“What we need is for the FBI to go back to the standards set after the Hoover-era abuses.… guidelines put in place that required the FBI to engage in surveillance only if there’s evidence of wrongdoing,” said Khera of Muslim Advocates. Read more here
Posted in California, FBI, Islamic, NYC, Oakland, Sacramento, San Francisco, Santa Rosa, security/terrorism | Tagged: ACLU, American Civil Liberties Union, community outreach, FBI, intelligence gathering, Muslims, probable cause, refugees, resettlement, surveillance | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 30, 2012
A reader sent me another article from earlier this month about that recent report by San Francisco State University, and the nonprofit Burma Family Refugee Network, about refugees from Burma living in extreme poverty in Oakland. It has details about a Karenni refugee woman in Oakland who had to give birth at home (because she couldn’t find a ride to the hospital). The director of the International Rescue Committee in Northern California says he would like to see services at resettlement agencies for a longer period than six months. (Bear in mind we are just now making our way out of this severe recession since 2009, and the IRC in Northern California still hasn’t extended services – in spite of the doubling of the US State Department per capita refugee grant 2 years ago — see analysis here.) The article is in the East Bay Express has added details about the problems:
Hae Htoo lives in a one-bedroom unit in East Oakland with five other family members [her husband, brother, and three children]. The twenty-year-old arrived in the US six months ago and hopes to learn English and find a job. But a recent report by San Francisco State University and nonprofit Burma Family Refugee Network shows that refugees from Burma who now live in Oakland, such as Hae Htoo, are facing dire circumstances…
…even…employed [refugees from Burma in Oakland] are living in poverty — 75 percent, according to the report — since jobs may be short-term, part-time, and low-wage. The study also found that some people eligible for welfare were not on it. Another paradox is that 90 percent said they had doctors, but healthcare was still one of their top problems, due to the language barrier. ”Even though they have doctors and insurance, they still don’t get healthcare,” said Jeung. “They didn’t understand how to get an appointment, or if they are given a prescription, how to take their drugs”…
…Hae Htoo gave birth to a newborn daughter just two months ago. That morning, she felt contractions but wasn’t sure if she was going into labor. By the time she was ready to give birth, she could not find a ride to the hospital. She gave birth in the bathroom; her husband caught the baby….Following [a] 911 operator’s instructions as translated by [a] neighbor, Hae’s husband tied one of his shoelaces around the umbilical cord and waited for an ambulance…
Mental health is also an issue; more than 70 percent [of the refugees surveyed in the study] reported stressors that impaired them. (The survey included culturally appropriate answers such as feeling “heaviness” or “head is hot,” mental states that prevent someone from focusing or being able to work). Jeung said mental health issues stem from both war trauma and the acculturative stress of having to adapt to a new land…
…[Ken Briggs, interim executive director of the International Rescue Committee in Northern California] hopes the [IRC] will be able to offer long-term case management in the future…”I would like to see services within the resettlement agencies that provides support for a longer period [than six months], particularly with job search and case management”…
…Hae Htoo…is worried. Her husband will be laid off from his bakery job in three months. “I am worried we won’t be able to pay rent and bills”…
Zar Ni Maung, co-founder of the Burma Family Refugee Network, said that even folks who have been here since 2007 still struggle. Some are exhausting their CalWorks lifetime benefits [The lifetime cap for welfare and CalWorks was recently cut from five to four years]. He fears some refugees will remain a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass.
“They’ve been here long-term now,” he said. “Who’s going to pay for their rent? Who is helping them find a job? A lot of people have been placed [in jobs], but they do not continue going to work or have been laid off. Nobody seems to be looking into why this is happening. They don’t have skills. The issues are here. How are we going to fix it?” Read more here
Posted in IRC, R&P, Burma/Myanmar, Karenni, funding, housing, overcrowding, employment/jobs for refugees, Oakland, housing, safety, economic self-sufficiency, Catholic Charities of the East Bay (Oakland) | Tagged: refugees, karenni, IRC, resettlement, Oakland, International Rescue Committee, interpretation, poverty, east bay, Catholic Charities of the East Bay | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 28, 2011
An article in the San Francisco Chronicle identifies the many Iraqi refugees who have been attacked in East Oakland. In response, the State Department’s PRM spokeswoman, Beth Schlachter, reminds us about its lax, partner-friendly regulations by saying that the department’s guidelines for relocating refugees don’t even consider crime rates (funny how that works). A reader commenting on the article reminds us that Bosnian refugees had similar problems in the 90s, so the private resettlement agencies and their friends at government oversight agencies have obviously long-known about this problem. Refugees from Burma/Myanmar in the area have also experienced muggings and robberies, as have refugees from Bhutan/Nepal. The article details the situation in Oakland for Iraqi refugees:
…In June 2008, [Ghazwan Al-Sharif] moved in with two other Iraqi refugees, sharing a two-bedroom apartment in Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood – a situation arranged by the nonprofit International Rescue Committee…
…One night, he decided to walk home alone. Two men attacked him, bashing him in the face with a metal object and robbing him of some money, his cell phone and his ID. He was left screaming on the ground, his face gushing blood.
He said the police never identified his attackers.
Al-Sharif, 40, is one of more than 50 Iraqi refugees who have been moved to East Oakland by the International Rescue Committee. The nonprofit’s officials say they won’t settle refugees in unsafe neighborhoods, but Al-Sharif and dozens of other Iraqis blame the organization for exposing them to an unfamiliar type of violence – one perpetrated by gangs rather than political militants…
…Like many of his fellow Bay Area refugees, Al-Sharif does not believe the International Rescue Committee has done enough. “Why are you putting them in Oakland and letting them suffer?” he said, referring to his fellow refugees. “I want to be safe. … I can find work and manage to survive, but I need to be safe.”
Oakland as refuge
Oakland has a long history of hosting immigrants from around the world. Affordable housing, easy access to city services, efficient transportation such as BART, and an accepting, multicultural society make the city a great place for refugees, said rescue committee spokeswoman Melissa Winkler.
But the nonprofit receives only $1,800 in federal funding to provide each refugee with housing, employment and other basic needs. That doesn’t go far in the Bay Area, and refugees are expected to be financially self-sufficient within four months.
That’s why the IRC chose to resettle many of them in Oakland, where housing is often inexpensive…
…Unfortunately, the city also has one of the country’s highest crime rates, according to federal statistics and other studies.
Beth Schlachter, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department, said government guidelines for relocating refugees don’t consider crime rates. The requirements for “decent, safe and sanitary housing,” she said, extend only “from the apartment itself to the building or apartment complex they’re living in.”…
…[Harith Al-Kaiate, 47] hasn’t forgotten the time a nighttime gunfight near his home left his car, which was parked outside, riddled with bullets…
…Ragheed Abdulameer, 32, another recent arrival, [was] robbed at gunpoint earlier this year just a few blocks from his home at East 24th Street and 14th Avenue…One of Abdulameer’s friends has yet to bring his wife and children from Iraq, believing they’re safer in Basra. The friend declined to be interviewed or identified for this article, saying he fears retaliation from federal authorities and the rescue committee.
More than a dozen Iraqi refugees who have been resettled in Oakland say they live in varying degrees of fear.
“Had I known about this place, I’d never have agreed to come,” said Oday Fatah, 33…
…the only solution for you is to get beaten or mugged and then you can get out,” quipped Al-Sharif, who says he became depressed and attempted suicide after he was mugged. His condition persuaded the International Rescue Committee to help relocate him to San Francisco.
The rescue committee agreed to move another refugee and his family after he was shot multiple times in a drive-by shooting outside a Fruitvale mini-mart earlier this year, Climent said.
[Iraqi refugees who make it to the US] almost certainly suffered horrendous trauma in their home country.
“They’ve survived, and they’ve come to the U.S. to start a new life, and if you settle them in an environment like that, you bring back all these things,” Abdulkhaleq said… Read more here
Posted in dangerous neighborhoods, Iraqi, IRC, Oakland, PRM, public/private partnership, safety, San Francisco, State Department, suicide | Tagged: crime, International Rescue Committee, Iraqi, IRC, mugging, Oakland, refugees, resettlement, shooting, State Department | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 6, 2011
In a post last January I wrote about the experience I had taking a refugee to the doctor for a muscle tissue biopsy. He spoke Sudanese Arabic but the medical staff connected him via speaker phone to a Kurdish Arabic interpreter. As a result of this insufficient interpretation he endured excruciating while not being able to communicate that they had given him insufficient local anesthesia. As a result he was too traumatized to go back for cancer tumor treatment. An article in the The San Diego Union-Tribune explains that these mishaps with refugees have included a mistaken abortion referral for a refugee woman, and a refugee man’s close call loss of his sight in one eye:
…David Sein-Lwin, chairman of the newcomers assistance committee at the Oakland Burmese Mission Baptist Church [said], “In my experience, health is one of the biggest issues [for refugees] because of language limitations. The Karenni have even less interpreters. I have helped several times with social services, and it’s pretty tough to do that [interpretation] to Karenni. It takes two [interpreters], it takes more time, and it can be frustrating.”
In these scenarios, one interpreter translates from Karenni to Burmese, and the second from Burmese to English.
[There are] health consequences for refugees who have limited or no access to translation services. Lia Tluang, for example, arrived in Oakland at age 16 with an eye injury that he’d sustained while working in Malaysia. Although he needed surgery to save the sight in his left eye, his Medi-Cal benefits were terminated after eight months. Tluang, who is of the Chin ethnic minority group, initially didn’t have the language skills to reapply on his own. He was able to get an operation at age 18, after he figured out how to sign up for Medi-Cal, but now, the vision in his left eye is limited to a distance of 1 foot.
Because of translation problems with a Burmese interpreter, a pregnant Karen woman living in Oakland who wanted to keep her baby was mistakenly referred for an abortion. A translator and doctor at Asian Health Services was able to intervene before the woman went in for the procedure.
“Our system is so fragmented, and it’s difficult to access care if you are English-speaking and insured,” Jeung said. “So if you are low-income, non-insured and non-English-speaking, this system makes no sense to you, especially if insurance didn’t exist where you came from. They need help in making appointments. If we refer them elsewhere, interpretation in a specialty setting is a challenge, and even physically getting to the clinic and affording bus fare – these are all the barriers that my patients encounter along the way.”
In Oakland, the burden of translation falls on a handful of people like Kwee Say, an interpreter at Asian Health Services who…is seemingly always on call….She is also literally putting out fires – once, a family called her when their apartment was burning down because they didn’t know who else to contact… Read more here
Posted in Karenni, language, medical care, Oakland, San Diego | Tagged: access to medical care, Burmese, interpretation, interpreter, karenni, Language Line, medical errors, medical mistakes, non-English-speaking, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 28, 2011
Researchers at San Francisco State University and the Burma Refugee Family Network (BRFN) released a report that claims almost 60 percent of Oakland’s refugees from Burma/Myanmar are living in extreme poverty, with 63% being unemployed. Those of Karenni origin from Burma fair even worse: 81 percent are unemployed, and 90 percent are living in extreme poverty. The report concludes that refugees from Burma in Oakland are at risk of becoming a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass, and that the local resettlement program has not been successful. An article at EurekAlert has the story:
Refugees who have fled Burma to live in Oakland, Calif., are at risk of becoming a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass warns a new report released today by researchers at San Francisco State University and the Burma Refugee Family Network (BRFN). The report found that almost 60 percent of Oakland’s refugees from Burma are living in extreme poverty…
…”These recent refugees from Burma are facing dire circumstances,” said Russell Jeung, associate professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University…
…Jeung and his students, together with BRFN and other community-based organizations, surveyed 194 refugees from Burma to assess the community’s needs. The researchers found that in addition to high poverty rates, these refugees face barriers to accessing employment, health care and government benefits caused by their lack of English. These barriers have been exacerbated by recent cuts in the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and a lack of appropriate interpretation services…
…The report found that among Oakland’s refugee population from Burma:
- 63 percent are unemployed. Those that are employed have sporadic, low-wage jobs.
- 57 percent live below the federal threshold for extreme poverty, earning less than $1,000 per month for an average household size of five. Most of the remainder live below the federal poverty line.
- 38 percent speak no English at all. Another 28 percent speak English poorly.
- 74 percent report that lack of English is their biggest barrier to accessing health care.
- 47 percent report that English classes are the most-needed service in their community…
…Now resettled in Oakland, refugees of Karenni origin are struggling to adapt to life in the United States: 81 percent are unemployed, 90 percent are living in extreme poverty and 90 percent have no high school education…
…”Our findings suggest that resettlement programs in Oakland are not yet successful,” Maung said. “We would like to see federal and local refugee government agencies and nonprofits working together with and supporting grassroots community organizations in order to help members of our community achieve self-sufficiency.”… Read more here
Refugees from Burma/Myanmar have also experienced muggings and robberies in Oakland, as have refugees from Bhutan/Nepal.
Posted in alienation-isolation, Burma/Myanmar, dangerous neighborhoods, economic self-sufficiency, employment/jobs for refugees, ESL & ELL, Karen, Karenni, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of, Oakland | Tagged: Burma, Burma Refugee Family Network, Cesar Chavez Institute, From Crisis to Community Development: Needs Assessments of Refugees from Burma, Myanmar, Oakland, poverty, refugees, resettlement, San Francisco State University | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 4, 2011
ORAM (Organization for Refuge Asylum & Migration) has began a pilot refugee resettlement program out of their Bay Area office, according to the blog LezGet Real: A Gay Girl’s View of the World (Note: 6-15-11 – this blog turns out to have been written by a male). Currently ORAM is reaching out to the local community to ask for assistance with housing for a gay Ugandan refugee.
Melanie Nathan – Jan 12-2011 – SAN FRANCISCO - ORAM, the first migration organization focusing exclusively on refugees fleeing sexual and gender-based violence worldwide, has began a pilot resettlement program out of their Bay Area office. This service will add to the new network spanning national, ethnic, religious, racial and gender divides, as ORAM provides clients with free legal representation and conducts advocacy and education on their behalf.
Today the group – an imperative resource for LGBT refugees, is reaching out to the Bay Area for help, with an urgent call to for housing for a Gay Ugandan Refugee. The young man (approximately late 20’s-30’s) has fled Uganda and is being legally directed to San Francisco, where he will receive assistance from ORAM and some financial support from the US Government. He will be seeking employment as soon as he arrives. He will have a stipend and medical coverage – the most difficult to arrange is a place to stay…. Read more here
For more information about ORAM click here. Here is a posting from August about an article on ORAM.
Posted in LGBT refugees, Oakland, ORAM, San Francisco, sexual and gender-based violence - refugees fleeing | Tagged: Bay Area, gay refugees, gay Ugandan refugee, gender-based violence, glbt refugees, lgbt, LGBT refugees, lgbti refugees, ORAM, Organization for Refuge Asylum & Migration, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement program, refugees, sexual and gender-based violence, Uganda, Ugandan refugees | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on September 5, 2010
The Contra Costa Times details cultural orientation that Nepali-Bhutanese refugees receive just before their departure to the US. It also follows the story of a refugee family resettled to Oakland.
DAMAK, Nepal — Sanjay Deshar has four days to prepare a roomful of Bhutanese refugees for what life will be like in the United States or Australia.
The oldest students in the room at the Beldangi refugee camp are in their 70s and have lived for almost two decades in a camp that has no electricity, no television and few jobs. The youngest were born in the refugee camp and have known little else.
Deshar has a lot of ground to cover today, from how to ride in an airplane and how to pack luggage effectively to how to brace for the sight of bikini-clad beachgoers and public displays of affection.
“Some of the older folks are kind of surprised,” he said.
And then he gets to the crux of his lesson.
“We train the participants going to the U.S. to be self-sufficient,” he said. “The main thing is, you’ve got to work over there. In Australia, you first learn English and go for work later on.”
In the past two years, more than 30,000 Bhutanese refugees have migrated to the United States, Canada, Australia and five other countries. The refugees, members of a Nepali-speaking ethnic minority, left Bhutan 18 years ago under pressure from the government. Deshar is one of 15 cultural orientation teachers whose job is to smooth what can be a shocking landing…
The teachers have also been tasked to talk a lot more about the refugees’ big concerns: the tough economy and crime.
Two Bhutanese refugees who had recently arrived in America were killed after robbery attempts in Florida and Texas. Many more have been mugged, including several young Bhutanese men in Oakland. The refugees are placed in cities where they can find affordable apartments and easy access to public transit. Many of these places also suffer from poverty and crime.
Mugging stories spread like wildfire back in the camps, where they are often tinged with racial stereotypes, fears and jokes.
Agency workers said they have tried to tailor their cultural orientation sessions to respond to fears and misconceptions about life in the United States. here
I didn’t know about the muggings of the Nepali-Bhutanese refugees in Oakland, but back in February the East Bay Express reported about Burmese refugees being mugged in Oakland, most in the Eastlake area (here).
Posted in cultural orientation, pre-departure, dangerous neighborhoods, IOM, IRC, Nepali Bhutanese, Oakland, safety | Tagged: Bhutan, Bhutanese refugees, crime, Eastlake, International Rescue Committee, IRC, Nepal, Oakland, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, refugees mugged, resettlement, resettlement agencies | 1 Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 18, 2010
Burmese refugees, most of them Karenni, have been the repeated target of street crime in Oakland, California, according to an article in the East Bay Express (see here). The IRC decided to place them in Oakland due to the, ”relatively low-cost of living, access to public transportation, and — at one time — manufacturing jobs.” This isn’t the first time criminals have attacked refugees in the Oakland area. An Bhutanese/Nepali refugee was robbed at knifepoint in his first month working as a clerk at a 7-11 store in June 2008 (see here). A mob attacked an Iraqi refugee last April (see here). Ale Sho, a Karenni refugee in his 30′s, is one of the refugees most recently attacked by street thugs. Apparently the IRC didn’t do much to help him to find a job.
Meanwhile, robbery victim Ale Sho has been in the country for nine months and is taking English classes. He is receiving public assistance and only recently began looking for a job through Lao Family Community Development, because he couldn’t get into the International Rescue Committee’s employement (sic) program. Until recently, he didn’t know where to get help or how to find a job.
The resettlement agencies always claim that one of their main goals is helping refugees find jobs, yet when I started helping refugees in 2001 I noticed that most of the time the agencies would wait at least four months before they even took refugee clients to apply for any jobs, or just to fill out an application. In this case it sounds like this Karenni refugee sat for nine months before he received any help merely to look for a job.
According to Khatharya Um, associate professor of Asian American studies at UC Berkeley, whose work focuses on Southeast Asian refugees, the government should do more to help refugees.
“For high-need populations, three or six months is not enough to transition to full self-sufficiency,” agreed Um, the Berkeley professor…Um believes the government should invest in language skills, training, and job development for refugees…Um believes the government should invest in language skills, training, and job development for refugees.
I’m not sure why she refers to “three” or “six” months when it’s clear that refugees get at least eight months of government assistance, and up to five years of assistance if they have children. I also disagree that the government should cover all these costs of responsible refugee resettlement. Charity groups such as the refugee resettlement agencies supposedly must help the government in paying for these services. That is the whole point of the public/private partnership. One thing is certain though; the refugees need more help.
I’m wondering if we need to require the resettlement agencies to hire someone to write grant proposals. I suspect that the more we feed government funds to the resettlement agencies, such as the recent doubling of the State Department’s R&P per capita grant, the less motivated they will be in attempting to raise private funding. This will be to the overall detriment of future waves of refugees.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, California, Iraqi, IRC, Karenni, Nepali Bhutanese, Oakland, R&P, State Department | Tagged: bhutanese, Burma/Myanmar, CA, California, charities, charity, crime, employment, government assistance, Iraqi, karenni, Nepali, Oakland, public assistance, R&P, refugee, refugees, resettlement agencies, State Department, unemployment | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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