Archive for the ‘Minnesota’ Category
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 8, 2012
The Minnesota Council of Churches, an affiliate of EMM and CWS, is opening its first outstate (outside the Twin Cities) office in Mankato. Mankato is a small city and site of Minnesota State University and a Mayo Clinic facility. The top four employers are Immanuel St. Joseph’s – Mayo Health System, Minnesota State University, the public school district and MRCI Industrial Operation, a temporary employment services provider. An article in the Mankato Free Press explains:
MANKATO — When the Minnesota Council of Churches was deciding where to build its first outstate office for refugee assistance, Mankato stood out.
That wasn’t because refugees were coming here directly from their home countries. Mankato isn’t designated by the federal government as a first stop for refugees.
But refugees who landed in other American cities were making their way to Mankato and bringing relatives, said Rachele King, director of refugee services for the nonprofit.
She heard good things about Mankato, both as a place to live and one that helps refugees.
The Mankato office opened April 1, but is taking time to figure out what other nonprofits and governments are doing here to avoid competing with them… Read more here
Posted in Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS), Minnesota, Minnesota Council of Churches, Minnesota Council of Churches | Tagged: Church World Service, CWS, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Mankato, Minnesota Council of Churches, refugees, resettlement, Twin Cities | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 22, 2012
Slumlords in the Twin Cities continue their wicked ways, with refugees and other immigrants making an easy target. A landlord in St. Paul allegedly used threats in an attempt to silence tenants — who now fear imminent eviction. An article in the Pioneer Press explains what’s happening:
For years, residents of Westminster Court in St. Paul have complained about rodents, bugs and dilapidated conditions at their apartment complex.
During a recent inspection, city officials recorded some 600 code violations at the 1205 and 1225 Westminster St., near Maryland Avenue and Interstate 35E.
Now, residents are walking a tightrope as they beg city officials for help. They just want their homes fixed, tenants say. But if problems persist, they fear the [apartments] could be ordered vacated.
“If they closed [them] down, that would make us homeless,” said tenant Joe Parker.
[It has] become something of a Catch-22 for the St. Paul City Council and other city officials, who are eager to clamp down on the problem properties without unduly punishing the tenants, most of whom are low-income immigrants or ethnic minorities with children.
Tenants say they’ve been paying market rent to put up with failing heating systems, bedbugs, rodents, damaged walls, doors with no locks, piling garbage, mold, poor sanitation and illegally overcrowded apartments.
A Nov. 21 city fire inspection on a handful of units found 48 code violations, ranging from missing floor tiles to extension cords used in lieu of permanent electrical wiring. Those items later were found to be the tip of the iceberg…
…Several apartments were “condemned as unfit for human habitation,” mostly as a result of bedbug infestations
Both are in foreclosure, and city officials say the listed owners – Randall T. Chun and Peggy J. Chun of St. Paul, Mark and Lisa Marie Thomas of Woodbury, and Pelimar Properties of Grand Avenue in St. Paul – have been uncooperative and unresponsive…
…Several tenants said they were notified through an intermediary, a handyman they know only as Roberto, that if they spoke to the city, they would be removed from the [apartments] or referred to immigration authorities.
Resident Halima Eidl, who recalled such threats, said she and other tenants also received a letter from Peggy Chun telling them they would be fined $50 late fees if they stopped paying rent, as several have in reaction to the conditions.
“This money, I don’t want to give it to her. These are human beings,” said Eidl, who said most of her neighbors are Mexican or Somali immigrants. “She’s taking advantage of the people….Last weekend, when I was cooking with my kids, my oven blew up.”… Read more here
Posted in bed bugs, housing, Somali, Twin Cities | Tagged: refugees, resettlement, slum lord, slumlord, Somali, st paul | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 19, 2012
A pair of enterprising immigrant medical professionals in Minnesota are showing that with a bit of help refugee medical professionals can get back into their professions. An article in the Minnesota Post details the story:
…They have treated patients in some of the world’s toughest places: Pakistan’s earthquake-stricken mountains, Burma’s embattled neighborhoods and crowded camps where Bhutanese families sought refuge.
What hundreds of these doctors and nurses haven’t been able to do is treat anyone in Minnesota where barriers to foreign-trained medical workers are formidable.
Now, they are surmounting those barriers — and, in the process, filling serious gaps in Minnesota’s health care delivery — thanks to Dr. Wilhelmina Holder and Stephen Nguyagwa.
From scratch, Holder and Nguyagwa built a ground-breaking system for supporting foreign-trained doctors and nurses in their struggle to win the credentials they need to practice in Minnesota…
Their leadership rose from deeply disappointing personal experience…
…Holder, 64, was a medical doctor whose career was shattered by civil war in her homeland, Liberia, where her father had been the president. Like millions of other refugees, she found herself absorbed for years in the distractions of settling in a new land and caring for the needs of a displaced family. By the time she was free to resume her practice, doors had closed to her in Minnesota, even though she had updated her skills.
“To my amazement, I realized I never would get into residency,” Holder said.
Instead, she channeled her energy into helping others overcome the same obstacles. She knew doctors who were working as taxi drivers and parking-lot attendants even while their communities cried for their professional services…
…Of some 250 medical professionals who have participated in the association’s program, only about 20 doctors have stepped up to residency programs so far, Nguyagwa said. About 20 nurses have gone all of the way to nursing jobs, he said. A few dentists, pharmacists and professionals in other medical specialties also have gone through the program and landed jobs…
…All three Somali doctors who went through the program last year won residency slots. So prospects are bright for this year’s class… Read more here
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, Cuban, economic self-sufficiency, health, Minnesota, Nepali Bhutanese, professionals, Somali | Tagged: African & American Friendship Association for Cooperation & Development, medical professionals, refugees, resettlement, Stephen Nguyagwa., Wilhelmina Holder | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 3, 2012
New studies released by the Mayo Clinic identify hepatitis C as a cause of liver cancer. One study found that, among Somali refugees in Olmsted County in Minnesota, 80 percent of liver cancer was due to hepatitis C. Currently, refugees coming to the US aren’t even regularly screened for hepatitis C. Yet, people who have hepatitis should get blood drawn every year, as well as get ultrasound of the liver every six months. An article at MPRnews addresses the issue:
St. Paul, Minn. — The Mayo Clinic released a study today that identifies hepatitis C as a cause of rising liver cancer rates. Researchers say with that information, more people can be screened for hepatitis C and prevent cancer.
The finding may have a particular impact on the Somali community. That’s because a second study published by Mayo today says hepatitis C rates among Somalis are much higher than previously suspected.
The first study from the Mayo Clinic confirms that scarring from hepatitis C can develop over decades into liver cancer…
The study, while in progress, caught the attention of Mayo researcher Abdirashid Shire, who visits most of the Somali patients at Mayo and is Somali himself. He’s seen many friends die of advanced liver cancer. So Shire led a second study by digging into the Mayo database, picking out the Somali names, and looking for patterns.
“When we looked at those who develop liver cancer, during the timeframe we looked at between 1996 and 2001, we found 30 people who developed liver cancer,” said Shire. “And can you imagine — almost 80 percent, the liver cancer was due to hepatitis C.”
Until now, Shire says the medical community only knew of one strain of the hepatitis virus prevalent among sub-Saharan Africans — hepatitis B. Currently, Somali refugees coming to the US aren’t even regularly screened for hepatitis C. Shire says if they were, doctors could catch liver problems before they progress past the point of treatment.
There are few early signs of hepatitis C. The virus is transferred through sex or blood transfusions — and it can run rampant in places like Somalia or African refugee camps, where physicians may not always sterilize needles thoroughly between patients.
Shire says people often don’t know they have hepatitis C until decades after the initial infection. By that time, it can be too late…
…Ayan Hassan, who’s a nurse, says her brother got hepatitis C through a blood transfusion in Somalia.
“It really upset me when I find out his doctor was not doing ultrasound, because people who have hepatitis should get blood drawn every year and they should be getting ultrasound every six months,” she said… Read more here
Posted in health, medical care, Minnesota, Somali | Tagged: health screening, hepatitis, Hepatitis C, liver cancer, Mayo Clinic, Minnesota, Olmsted County, refugees, resettlement, Somali | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on November 22, 2011
A refugee man from Burma/Myanmar in St. Paul allegedly stabbed another refugee to death and then stabbed and blinded his own wife in an incident Saturday involving hallmarks of severe mental illness. The murder victim was purportedly another refugee from Burma/Myanmar, employed at a meat processing plant in Albert Lea, Minnesota. This tragedy may be another consequence of not consistently screening or treating refugees for major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, PTSD and other mental illnesses. An article in the St. Paul Pioneer Press tells what happened:
A 48-year-old St. Paul man has been charged with murder and attempted murder after he allegedly killed a man he believed had designs on his wife, then turned the weapon on her.
Police were called to an apartment in the 1400 block of Farrington Street about 7 a.m. Saturday. A witness yelled, “He killed him. There is a body in there,” and pointed to the window of the apartment, according to a criminal complaint filed Monday in Ramsey County District Court.
Police found Po Lye, 40, deceased, with “a very deep and wide laceration to (his) neck,” the complaint said. The wife was blinded in both eyes from stab wounds.
Officers said previously that Lye was from Albert Lea, Minn. Alleged assailant Pah Ber was arrested at the scene… Read more here
The federal refugee resettlement program does not require contractors to screen incoming refugees for mental illnesses – medical screening during refugees’ first 30 days in the US only involves physical health issues (State Department’s requirements for contractors – see Health at bottom of list). This is obviously foolhardy when we know that the traumatic experiences and upheaval involved in the refugee experience is associated with suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depression, and other mental disorders. We need look no further than incidents of tragedy among refugees from Bhutan/Nepal (and here), Burma/Myanmar, Sudan, Somalia (and here), and other refugees.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, mental health, Twin Cities | Tagged: Burma, mental health, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement, st paul | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 22, 2011
Wouldn’t you think that the US, which has now been resettling large numbers of refugees here from around the world since the end of World War ll, would have figured out how to screen refugees for mental health problems? After all, we screen every refugee for physical health conditions, supposedly within 30 days of their arrival. It turns out that our resettlement program still hasn’t worked out the nuts and bolts of the screening process — let alone treating them for these conditions — though we have long known that many of these people are survivors of torture, abuse, deprivation, dislocation and other hardships associated with the process of becoming refugees. Minnesota Public Radio News has an article discussing the (still disorganized) process of directing refugees to the basic mental health care that many of them so desperately need. An emerging theory is that we should use community health workers to screen refugees.
According to the Minnesota Department of Human Services, our state is home to more than 70,000 refugees.
Refugees arrive here from countries wracked by political violence. Torture is used intentionally in their homelands to silence opposition and transform cultures through fear. So it isn’t surprising that refugees aren’t comfortable speaking about the atrocities they survived.
Resettlement programs seek to integrate refugees into our communities and to help them achieve economic self-sufficiency. But unless we address their traumatic experiences, we condemn many to live in silence with undiagnosed and misunderstood symptoms of major depression and post traumatic stress disorder.
The real tragedy is that their symptoms are treatable.
Refugees arriving in the United States typically receive a health exam to identify physical problems, but they are not screened systematically for mental health problems…
…The Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) often receives referrals of refugees who are torture survivors after an eight- to 10-year period of difficult resettlement due to undiagnosed and untreated mental health symptoms. Those symptoms make it difficult for refugees to learn English, adjust to community life, learn a new culture and support their families.
Health clinics often tell us they know how to treat trauma, but they lack the language and cultural knowledge. Refugee leaders and groups often tell us they have the cultural knowledge but don’t know how to treat trauma…
…more must be done to include mental health screening along with the required medical exam. CVT is currently collaborating with the University of Minnesota, the Minnesota Department of Health and four refugee groups to develop a culturally appropriate mental health questionnaire for refugees coming to our state. Simple questions in the refugee’s language will identify those who might benefit from mental health services, and allow the health care screeners to refer them to the best resource in the community.
One such resource emerging in Minnesota is community health workers. They are bicultural and bilingual health workers who help link vulnerable populations to the health care system and could be used when larger numbers of refugees are screened and identified for mental health concerns… Read more here
Apparently no one has thought to ask why refugee resettlement agencies aren’t already screening refugees for major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental stress related conditions. Why would refugee resettlement case workers, who do nothing but work with refugees every day, not already be educated in recognizing these illnesses? Resettlement agency case workers are supposedly bicultural and bilingual, and in contact with every resettled refugee already. Aren’t they the refugee experts?
Posted in disabled refugees, Major depression, mental health, Minnesota, PTSD, sexual and gender-based violence - refugees fleeing | Tagged: Center for Victims of Torture, community health workers, health screening, major depression, mental health, Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, refugees, resettlement, torture | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 19, 2011
Mary’s Place, Minneapolis
According to an article in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, a homeless shelter in Minneapolis now has 39 Somali families, representing a drastic increase in the past nine months. Only six Somali families lived there about a year ago, which were the first homeless Somali families in the shelter’s 16 year history.
Fadumo Isse sat with three other Somali refugee women in the hallway of a homeless shelter in north Minneapolis with her eyes welling up with tears as she told her story of the first six months of her life in the United States.
Isse arrived in the United States in late April, hoping to live a contented life: an illusion people in third-world and developing countries have about America, she recalled.
After six months in the United States, Isse has yet to live that lifestyle. She lives in a one-bedroom apartment in Mary’s Place — a homeless shelter in north Minneapolis — with her daughter.
She is one of 39 homeless Somali families in the shelter, who, like Isse, have recently come from a refugee camp in Ethiopia. Isse lived there for more than 20 years.
The number of Somali families living in Mary’s Place
has drastically increased in the past nine months, said Mary Jo Copeland, founder and director of Sharing & Caring Hands and Mary’s Place.
Six Somali families lived in Mary’s Place about a year ago. Before that, there had not been a homeless Somali family in the shelter, which was opened 16 years ago.
“They started coming just over a year ago. I’ve no explanation for it,” Copeland said. “They’re suffering. I can’t blame them. And I help them with what I can.”… Read more here
Posted in homelessness, housing, secondary migration, refugee, Somali, Twin Cities | Tagged: homelessness, Minneapolis, refugees, resettlement, Somali, Twin Cities | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 2, 2011
An article at the The American Prospect explains the plight of former Hmong refugees who tried to make a go of it in poultry production in the Ozarks. Despite the farming skills and family values many Hmong brought from Laos — and hoped to use to achieve the American dream — American business markets set the Hmong up for failure.
Shane Tawr doesn’t remember exactly why he first decided to try his hand at chicken farming. Tawr had a government job in Milwaukee but wanted relief from the city’s bustle. He decided in 2004 to head down to the Ozarks, buy a chicken farm, and work for himself, just as many of his Hmong ancestors had done in Laos.
The Hmong, who came to the United States in large numbers as political refugees after the Vietnam War, settled mostly in urban communities in California, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Some raised chickens and tended small vegetable gardens, but many worked jobs that kept them near the poverty line. In the early 2000s, chicken producers such as Tyson, which is based in northwest Arkansas, began courting the Hmong, and advertisements about chicken-farming opportunities appeared in Hmong-language newspapers. Roughly 500 Hmong now live in communities throughout Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma and raise breeder or broiler chickens for a handful of companies that operate in the Ozarks… Read more here
Apparently the highly exploitative contract-farming arrangements are not confined solely to Tysons, but practiced by other poultry processors such as Simmons, Peterson, George, etc. Other factors
involved in American businesses exploitation of the Hmong and other immigrants – a long tradition in American business – seem to include greedy realtors and inflated assessments of poultry farms, and “safe for the bank” loans guaranteed by the USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA). Read more here in a blog written by Daniel Krotz, a former Senior Consultant for the Washington DC based Institute for Social and Economic Development (ISED) explains these other factors on a blog at Carroll County News.
…the Hmong began arriving in the United States from Laos following the US exit from Vietnam. The Hmong, valiant allies with the US against communism, became refugees and were settled in the United States to avoid extinction at the hands of our North Vietnamese enemies as punishment for their service to the United States.
and
…Hmong operated farms were destined to fail from the onset or, to be fairly marginal business investments over any period of time, short or long term…
The underlying problem was that the Hmong had purchased farms that were overvalued and with equipment and buildings that were nearly or fully depreciated. The critical information missing from the Pott’s article was that appraisals of farms were too high at the time of purchase, and that area banks made loans even though it should have been fairly apparent to the banks that the Hmong purchasers were entering into fairly risky ventures that had limited potential to ever be
profitable.
Why would banks make loans for potentially high risk business ventures? Probably because, in most cases, the loans were guaranteed by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), which substantially reduced the risk for lenders…
In very general terms, what appears to have happened is that Realtors found a crowd of eager buyers fo farming operations the buyers were not adequately prepared to operate, and passed the buyers along to banks–accompanied by inflated appraisals–who made “safe for the bank” loans because they were guaranteed by USDA FSA. The only losers were the Hmong.
Again, while I cannot characterize how equitable the business relationships between Tyson and the Hmong farmers are, I can say that many of the farmers had similar if not identical contracts with other poultry processors such as Simmons, Peterson, George, etc. Financial outcomes for Hmong farmers was predictably poor regardless of the processing company they worked with… Read more here
Posted in Arkansas, California, Hmong, Hmong, Hmong, Minnesota, ORR, poultry production, US Department of Agriculture, Wisconsin | Tagged: American business, American dream, Arkansas, contract-farming, Daniel Krotz, Farm Service Agency, FSA, George, Hmong, human rights, Institute for Social and Economic Development, ISED, Monica Potts, Ozarks, Peterson, poultry farms, realtors, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, safe for the bank, Shane Tawr, Simmons, Tyson, US Department of Agriculture, USDA, Vietnam | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 28, 2011
While Minnesota legislators refuse to meet the governor half way on funding state government, and continue to busy themselves with press conferences — repeating positions made at dozens of earlier press conferences – refugees in Minnesota fear for the worst. A state government shutdown could occur this Friday. A Twin Cities Daily Planet article has more:
Day Wah sees the alarm on their faces and hears it in the voices of many of the refugees she works with. They fear this thing called a government shutdown all out of proportion.
“They worry they will have to go and live on the street,” or something worse, Wah tells me, a slight Karen woman with the important job of translating the strange customs and realities of the world we know as Minnesota to the Karen, refugees from Burma, for a program called MORE Multicultural School for Empowerment in St. Paul.
All they know is the news of a possible “government shutdown” that comes to their mailboxes on official government white paper in foreign, black-lettered words.
“They worry. Some people [do] not sleep all night; they cry.” They stockpile food, wonder how they’ll pay their rent or for medical care, says Wah, 27, who came to the United States about four years ago from a refugee camp in Thailand...
In the afternoon, 16 people, including Hmong and Karen translators and an English teacher, gathered…
“We’re meeting because we’re hearing a lot of questions and a lot of worry about the government closing down for awhile. We want to talk about it,” began Sister Stephanie Spandl, a social worker with the program and a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. A nonprofit had to explain what the government had not…
MORE can help, she said, providing free bread and other food on Fridays, clothes on Saturdays and advocacy help other days. She suggested people help each other, too, by forming babysitting coops, for instance, so they can continue going to work or school, that they use emergency food shelves if food stamp payments are unavailable…
Some small businesses such as those providing foreign-language translators or personal-care attendants might have to close temporarily, she explained. Enlist friends to help if possible, she advised.
“You’re not going to lose your housing right away” if you can’t pay rent, she said. Turn first to family or friends to see if they can lend you money, and if that doesn’t work, try talking to your landlord promising to pay as soon as you receive your housing assistance.
For medications, see if the pharmacy will issue next month’s prescription now. (MORE might be able to help with that, too, [MORE's executive director Cathy] Patterson said.)
If you’re sick, go to your doctor, Sandl advised. Most likely the doctor will care for you, trusting he or she will eventually receive state reimbursement, she said. “If the doctor says ‘no,’ go the E.R.”… Read more here
**UPDATE** — June 29, 2011 – MPR reports that judge orders “core” services to continue (food stamps and refugee cash assistance will remain available if MN state government shuts down).
**UPDATE** July 7, 2011 – Refugee advocates ask for resumption – during state government shutdown – of translation/interpretation services for new arrivals who do not speak English.
Posted in government, Karen, Minnesota | Tagged: government shutdown, Minnesota, MORE, Multicultural School for Empowerment, refugee, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, resettlement, School Sisters of Notre Dame | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
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