Archive for the ‘Missouri’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on April 15, 2012
Inexplicably long delays in deciding applications. Questions about the status of cases going unanswered. Attempts to deprive applicants of legal counsel – some clients were told they didn’t need a lawyer, others were interviewed without their lawyer’s knowledge and still others were told they should appear at hearings without counsel. Interview techniques that are often aggressive, combative and abusive. Office employees often belittle applicants, ask inappropriate questions and refuse to shut their office doors during interviews when others are nearby, depriving applicants of confidentiality. If this description of the St. Louis office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is correct, a day’s work at the office for these apparently sadistic government employees must be fun, albeit, had at other people’s expense. An article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from October documents the allegations:
One person was asked if he was “a good Muslim” after he acknowledged having premarital sex with his wife.
Another was told it was “not very Catholic” for his wife to have had her fallopian tubes tied.
A third was told she was a poor mother because her children had severe food allergies.
Again and again, a complaint said, people seeking the services of federal immigration officers in St. Louis say they’ve confronted adversarial and unprofessional behavior.
More than 170 local lawyers who represent them are now demanding action.
“This is not a case of a few rogue officers. This is systemic management failure, and corrective action is needed,” Kenneth K. Schmitt, chairman of the Missouri/Kansas Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, wrote in a recent letter that was hand delivered to the director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The federal agency oversees lawful immigration and has 18,000 government employees and contractors working in 250 offices around the world, according to its website. That includes 17 employees and six contractors in the St. Louis field office in the Robert A. Young federal building downtown.
In his letter, Schmitt cited a 10-year period in which the local immigration office has become “isolated and hostile towards the public and those who appear before them.”
He said the office has gained a reputation outside St. Louis for its lack of communication with lawyers, adversarial stance, intolerably long and unexplained delays in deciding applications, and being out of line with national immigration policy.
The local office “operates in a culture of conflict and outright hostility that discourages any degree of professionalism or cooperation between the bar and the field office,” the letter said.
Immigrants who seek the help from the office are not those who are charged with a crime or facing deportation. Instead, they are seeking a legal benefit to which they believe they are entitled such as citizenship, family reunification or asylum… Read more here
Posted in immigration documents, immigration services, St. Louis, USCIS | Tagged: bureaucrats, legal services, refugees, resettlement, St. Louis, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 7, 2012
A Catholic volunteer in Kansas City seems to have found the right balance between welcoming refugees to her community without becoming overly involved. She’s found a way to connect with the refugees via her heart and mind while realizing the goal is their autonomy. An article in the Kansas City Star tells her story:
When Bernadette Coulter responded to a note in her church’s bulletin about helping in a conversational English class for refugees, she had no idea what she was getting into.
That was six years ago. On Friday, Coulter was sitting with her husband and friends in a federal courtroom watching Mamur Karabaev, an Uzbekistan refugee she calls her “adopted” son, affirm his American citizenship during a naturalization ceremony.
Karabaev is the last of a dozen refugees who escaped Uzbekistan after a massacre and found their way eventually to Coulter. She calls them her “boys.”
“I never expected to be this involved,” the Shawnee woman said. “It has been very fun and exciting and rewarding, heartbreaking and frustrating.
“I would do it again in a heartbeat.”…
…Barbara Smith, a friend and member of Good Shepherd Catholic Church with Coulter, said she has watched the story unfold from the beginning…
…Friends of Coulter, a 63-year-old retired hairdresser and mother of three, speak of her humility and willingness to help others. Becoming involved in the refugees’ lives, that’s just something Coulter would do, Smith said.
“One person can make a difference and she did it,” Smith said.
But what Coulter did may not always work so well, one person warned.
David Holsclaw, director of English as a second language at the Don Bosco Center, said relationships such as the one between Coulter and Karabaev are the exception to typical stories he’s heard about volunteers who may be over-involved.
“There are some volunteers that go nuts and become way too involved and really become problematic,” Holsclaw said…
…Developing an emotional connection can be detrimental to the resettlement process, he said.
For her part, Coulter thinks being a volunteer helped her.
“I think I had an advantage not being constrained by rules or regulations,” she said. “I was able to jump in feet first.” Read more here
Posted in Catholic, Kansas City, Uzbek, volunteers | Tagged: kansas city, refugees, resettlement, Uzbekistan | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 11, 2012
A volunteer helping Karen refugees in Kansas City added a comment to a December post about Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City (JVS).
My wife and I have been working with the Karen refugees in KCMO for two years. Nothing has changed with JVS they still put refugees in terrible housing conditions, they do not explain the lease arrangements with them. We have several families that face legal action now because they did not understand that they could not just break a lease and move. Also they take all Karen refugees to Bank of America to open bank accounts, without explaining anything about checking accounts, balancing a check book, etc. (my wife and I have done this). Most Karen refugees especially adults are left to take care of themselves too soon, very short or no English classes at all. Lack of helping to find jobs, do not explain WIC program with lots of families having months of expired unused WIC coupons due to lack of no knowing what to do or to do it. JVS is a waste of time for the Karen refugees, we have close to 40 families that we work with, taking to medical appointment, helping with WIC, TANF, Food stamps, Medicaid and any other needs to include transportation to appointments, even lighting their furnaces in the winter. We do this for free and do not work for any group…it is out of compassion and love for the Karen refugees…something that should be a requirement for anyone working with refugees no matter where they come from…. See December post
Posted in housing, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, Jewish, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, Karen, language, language interpretation/translation, lack of | Tagged: Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City, jvs, Karen, refugees, resettlement, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on December 5, 2011
Almost two years now after the Kansas City Star – and the Pitch a year earlier – published accounts about Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City (JVS) placing refugees in substandard housing (here and here), comes word that three former employees of the agency are suing, claiming they were blamed for their supervisor’s bad decisions. The three are suing for discrimination due to their race, skin color and national origin, claiming that their supervisor, Deborah Fiene, who was in charge of housing, scapegoated them for her own poor decisions in placing refugees in extremely substandard and unsanitary housing. The three claim that JVS fired them due to “unsatisfactory job performance” yet they all had received positive evaluations and each promoted less than a year earlier. They claim in their suit papers that Feine was never punished despite evidence of impropriety on her job performance. They also claim that the agency rifled through their desks and stole personal documents, including citizenship papers, while later arguing in court papers that the agency was exempt from the lawsuit because it was a religious organisation. A Kenyen newspaper (one of the accusers originates from Kenya), The Standard, has the story:
A Kenyan US based journalist and two other African immigrants have gone to court and sued a Jewish organisation in the US for racial discrimination.
Peter Makori, a resident of Kansas City who originally hails from Kisii in Kenya and Abdi Murasaal and Bakar Abdalla from Somalia have sued Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) of Kansas City for damages claiming they were dismissed from their employment because their boss, of Caucasian origin (white) discriminated against them due to their race, skin colour and national origins.
The three, through their lawyer, Brian Barjenbruch complained in their suit papers filed in the circuit court of Kansas City Missouri, that a white female employee who was herself not punished committed the mistakes that led to their dismissal from work…
…Makori and Abdallah worked as refugee resettlement case managers at the JVS, while Mursaal was their general manager at the organisation’s Centre for New Americans.
They are seeking…compensation for unfairly losing their jobs and other inconveniences. They claim in their suit papers the fact that their colleague who is white was never punished despite evidence of impropriety on her job performance showed that they were victims of racial discrimination.
The centre works with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) – a body that is contracted by the US State Department for Homeland Security – to bring refugees to America from turbulent regions around the world….
…The former JVS employees have claimed that their colleague, Deborah Fiene, who was in charge of housing, had allegedly placed refugees in dirty and sub-standard housing, which contravened the regulations of the State Department and USCRI. Despite this, she was not punished but the boss used the three as her scapegoat and summarily sacked them.
They claimed that their complaints against Fiene to the organisation’s executive director, who is also white, that the housing coordinator was putting refugees in poor housing, were dismissed…
…Makori…claimed in his suit papers that a few days preceding his dismissal, his desk at work was ransacked and numerous documents taken away…
…Bakar claimed in his suit papers that his desk was ransacked and several documents, including his citizen’s certificate, which was in his drawers lost. Abdi claimed that the management had ransacked his desk and several documents taken away.
They pointed out their employer had accused them in their dismissal letters that they were sacked because of “unsatisfactory job performance” yet they all had received positive evaluation and each promoted less than a year earlier… Read more here
The case involved more than JVS simply placing refugees in wretched housing. Newspaper accounts reported that refugees were left on their own for medical appointments, and that JVS failed to give a refugee family all sorts of minimum-required household items, while documenting that it had done so.
Posted in faith-based, household items, missing or broken, housing, housing, substandard, Jewish, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, Kenyen, medical care, Somali, Sudanese, USCRI | Tagged: Deborah Fiene, discrimination, Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City, Joy Foster, jvs, refugees, resettlement, scapegoat, substandard housing | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on October 24, 2010
A Chinese journalism student named Xue Jianyue studying at the Missouri School of Journalism wrote an article for publication at the Columbia Missourian about Iraqi refugees with professional credentials. The article did not get published in the end because his interviewee refused a photograph. The article is now published as a post in Jianyue’s blog.
Just as most Americans in Missouri are preparing for bed, Mr Kamal Mohammedali, a 51-year-old Iraqi refugee from Baghdad, heads to work at midnight, delivering the Columbia Daily Tribune to the newsstands across Columbia.
Even before the sun rises, Mohammedali starts his second job at 4 a.m., doing maintenance at public schools here.
Both Mohammedali and his wife, 49-year-old Bushra Faris, are overeducated for the jobs they currently hold – Muhammadali holds a degree in civil engineering and had helped the Iraqi government construct dams for many years. Faris holds a doctorate in Obstetrics and Gynaecology but works as a medical interpreter in Columbia.
“Our degree certificates are not recognized in America,” he said. “We are expected to start from zero.”
Mohammedali is among hundreds of Iraqi refugees in Missouri who are underemployed, working in low-skilled jobs as their academic qualifications are not recognized.
In order to get it recognized, they have to go through a lengthy process called recertification, which involves submitting academic certificates for evaluation, and taking tests on their professional knowledge and English proficiency.
While the recertification process can vary from each occupation and state, being recertified in a regulated occupation “requires significant financial, emotional and time commitment,” according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement website. For example, medical degrees can cost up to $4,000 and several years of tests and revision to get recognized.
For refugees like Mohammadali, they face 2 big obstacles; saving enough to pay for recertification, and verifying their certificates with home universities in war-torn Iraq…. Read more here
Although the post goes on to repeat some of the resettlement agencies’ talking points, such as IRC’s unsupported yet widely reported claim that the refugee program is “dangerously under-funded”, and that the State Department’s aid is $900-$1100 per refugee (no, it’s $1800), the post is interesting in what it reveals about employment services that USCCB’s Refugee & Immigration Services offers to refugees. The agency is still not set up to help refugees with re-certification, and needs to take more time to find more funding and connections, even though Iraqi refugees began arriving a few years ago.
…”It takes a very long time and costs alot for many to get re-certified,” Anne Zellhoefer from the Refugee of Immigration Services said. “These individuals must take the jobs they can in the meantime to support their families which complicates the process considerably.”
“Our staff members are pursuing additional funding and connections in the community to assist with this.”
Zellhoefer is not sure if 1-2 years is enough to even get a good start with recertification much less complete the process.
Individuals must be self-sufficient, save enough for the courses and tests, take the TOEFL and pass, before investing more than 5 years in the process, she added…
…It is also too early to decide if re-certification will be successful. “We have only just begun receiving highly educated Iraqi refugees in the last 1-2 years,” Zellhoefer said. “This is not enough time to offer any type of definitive statements or statistics on the process or results.”…
Yet, resettlement agencies have dealt with earlier waves of refugees who had professional experience and credentials, such as those from former Soviet republics and those escaping the wars in the former Yugoslav republics. What explains the seemingly complete lack of know-how about proper employment services for refugees with professional credentials? When I was helping an Iraqi engineer figure out how to find a job in his field I quickly located Upwardly Global’s website, which is a goldmine of information for immigrant professionals in the U.S., as is the ORR’s Recertification/Re-credentialing of Refugee Professionals page.
Do we really have to pay resettlement agencies to bureaucratize the process? Much of what they would do would probably be reinventing the wheel of what Upwardly Global has already done. It’s interesting to me how much a couple of volunteers with a phone and an internet search engine can do to help refugees that the resettlement agencies claim they would need government grants and years to do. I’m not saying that its easy for these refugees to get recertified, but resettlement agencies should at least be giving the refugees all the information they need about how to move forward on the process.
Posted in Catholic, Columbia, employment/jobs for refugees, Iraqi, ORR, professionals, Refugee & Immigration Services (Columbia, State Department | Tagged: Columbia Missouri, Iraqi refugees, Office of Refugee Resettlement, recertification, Refugee & Immigration Services, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, refugees with professional credentials, resettlement, State Department, TOEFL, Upwardly Global, US Conference of Catholic Bishops, USCCB | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 15, 2010
A 15-year-old Eritrean refugee boy was murdered on June 11th at the apartment complex that the International Institute in St. Louis (a USCRI affiliate) resettled his family and other refugees to. The neighborhood the apartments are in is known as unsafe, yet the International Institute continued to place refugees there do to the apartments’ size and cost.
Sahele Wodede
[Sahele Wodede] and his family were in search of a stable life, a place to rebuild. After Sahele’s father was killed in their home country of Eritrea, the rest of the family fled to a refugee camp in neighboring Ethiopia. When the family relocated to St. Louis in 2007, safety was foremost. So much so that the family picked up and moved when Sahele’s mother felt their apartment on Hodiamont Avenue was too dangerous.
But it wasn’t enough.
On June 11, one week after finishing his sophomore year, Sahele was gunned down at the same apartment complex his family had abandoned.
The 15-year-old had returned to the apartments often to visit one of his good friends and soccer mates, Jujuba, who came to the U.S. 10 months after Sahele. The boys were from the same refugee camp. They loved their new American life but talked fondly about their homeland.
Sahele and four other teens were dropping off Jujuba at his home June 11, after a day of soccer practice at Tower Grove Park. As the teens walked to the front door, a white car drove by. Several shots were fired from an automatic rifle. An 18-year-old took a bullet to the chest. Sahele was shot twice in the head, with the second bullet traveling down his back. He collapsed in Jujuba’s apartment, where eight family members were at home, terrified but unharmed after bullets came through a front window. Sahele died at a hospital a short time later. The 18-year-old is recovering.
The shootings have set the small Eritrean community in St. Louis on edge. here
The International Institute’s chief executive officer claims that the problem lies, not with her agency for placing the refugees in a dangerous area, but with the refugees who just don’t understand how dangerous the city is. Plus, they trained the refugees to be streetwise.
Anna Crosslin, chief executive officer of the International Institute of St. Louis, said that the agency worked with police and neighborhood groups and that refugees were trained to be streetwise.
“We struggle with the whole perception of what is safe and what isn’t,” Crosslin said.
Refugees think of the city as safe harbor from the atrocities they faced in their home country.
“They say: ‘I’m safe, I’m safe. I’m free.’ Until something like this happens, they don’t realize (crime) is real,” she said.
Yet, the refugees do indeed seem to have understood the dangers facing them in the neighborhood, contrary to Anna Crosslin’s claims.
When the family came to St. Louis, they moved in next to refugees from Somalia, Nepal, Iraq and Cuba. All sought the roomy and cheap accommodations of the apartment complex on Hodiamont Avenue.
Sahele’s family felt uneasy there, in a neighborhood that did not always welcome outsiders and is known for its violence. One of Sahele’s brothers was beaten. So the family moved to another part of town after only a few months.
Teachers who work with refugees in the St. Louis Public Schools say the students have complained about the Hodiamont apartments. The neighborhood is not walkable to the schools refugees attend or to most of the services they need.
“The kids are constantly harassed, their bikes get stolen. Car windows get broken out,” said teacher Sarah Natwick, also with the English language program at Roosevelt.
Ms. Crosslin goes on to claim that her organization just can’t find large enough apartments with landlords who are willing to take refugees with no credit or work history.
An ongoing challenge, Crosslin said, is finding large apartments with cheap rent. The agency must abide by city occupancy permits, which restrict how many people can live in a residence. Most refugee families are large.
“The ability to find three- and four-bedroom apartments is a woeful problem,” Crosslin said.
Most landlords require credit ratings and work history — two things refugees don’t have.
“We work with landlords who will take them on faith,” said Crosslin.
Yet, do landlords really ask for work histories as Ms. Crosslin claims? I asked a few people in our group and none of us have ever been asked for this when applying for an apartment or helping refugees to apply. They do ask for one’s current employer in order to verify income, although any source of income is usually acceptable. As to credit histories, many landlords do not ask for this as so many people on the market for inexpensive apartments have poor credit histories. Most landlords are more interested in whether or not someone has an eviction on their record or not.
Of course even if landlords in St Louis are asking for work and credit histories as Ms. Crosslin claims, does that mean that refugees must be resettled to dangerous apartment complexes? It is the International Institute in St. Louis, in partnership with the State Refugee Coordinator, Sandra Nelson, who is recommending St. Louis as an appropriate resettlement site for international refugees. If we are to believe that the only place to resettle these refugees is to Hodiamont Avenue apartments in which their property and lives are in danger, then is St. Louis really a good site for them?
I think that if refugee resettlement officials also risked paying with their lives for these decisions, just like the refugees do, that we would quickly see a sudden change in how they conduct refugee resettlement in this country.
Posted in children, Cuban, dangerous neighborhoods, Eritrean, housing, International Institute in St. Louis, Iraqi, Missouri, Nepali Bhutanese, safety, Somali, St. Louis | Tagged: Anna Crosslin, Eritrea, Eritrean, Ethiopia, Hodiamont Avenue, International Institute in St. Louis, refugees, resettlement, Sahele Wodede, Sandra Nelson, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | 11 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 16, 2010
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June 16, 2010
Mr. Eskinder Negash, Director Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Re: ORR State letter #10-09
Sir,
Since I doubt that you’ll answer my correspondence I chose to ask you a couple of questions in open format to be published in a web site for you and other stakeholders.
1) Let me correct you regarding the refugee population that are survivors of torture, challenged, and/or victims of sexual assault. Out of the total US refugee admissions numbers it is a low percentage of the total that make up this category. An adequate service is important for this vulnerable group of people and I know in my heart sincerely as a person who faced the same horror of trauma some 36 years ago, the importance of good service for this group of refugees. When you write that the numbers are “many” it is my opinion that you are looking for sympathy to ask Congress for more money, which these sufferers may not see the services or a dime intended to go to their treatment. Whether you believe it or not I have worked with traumatized people, although in less number per year for the last 20 years while ORR and SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) are channeling funds to large organizations, mainly for CEO and key staff salaries.
2) You have asked for a re-igniting of the enthusiasm of refugee resettlement service providers and the public, and the establishment of good will. The American spirit is generous and giving. In order to re-ignite our faith in ORR do the RIGHT THING! a) Although your general funding is less than many federal agencies, do not give grants 99.99% of the time for the same agencies in the name of responsible proposals. Examine the number of clients served and whether those projects are ever implemented. Include acceptable CEO proposal pay relative to the economic conditions. b) Although it is difficult to be independent for you, do not cover the million lies of outside proposal reviewers. There are pitfalls in refugee service if outside evaluators are allowed. One person can hire an expert and can win millions. You also have to have on-site evaluations and visits for the benefit of refugees. c) Stop VOLAG rip-off funds for capacity building and healthy marriage which are just for sophisticated enrichment. d) Call for a genuine reform, which will teach American values to refugees by example. e) Work for a law that gives severe penalties for agencies who abuse refugees and enrich themselves.
3) Newly Arriving Refugees: Let us say you place refugees, find a house and a job. What are you going to do after the first 8 months and the first year? Since social adjustment is an ongoing process it is inevitable that they come to organizations such as ours, AMAAM (African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri), which has now become a volunteer agency – 8 volunteers plus two of our staff making only $400 per month each.
4) What prevents you from acknowledging the contribution of refugee/immigrant anchor communities and existing non-ORR funded refugee infrastructures? Many refugees, when resettlement does not work for them, go to their ethnic shops, restaurants and clubs. There they get the knowledge of survival and skills equal to a thousand encyclopedias. These are not brochures of translated materials and endless job fairs or orientations which you fund via your affiliates for millions of dollars. These are practical and down to earth sets of knowledge that are transmitted free. You have not mentioned the issue of anchor community coordination. If you had done that I would have been very happy.
5) The reform of ORR has to be done in a mufti-pronged approach. It also must be done in a transparent method. It has to balance refugee service cost with reasonable CEO pay. The voluntary agencies and the State Department must be partners to improve human rights all over the world. The interests of voluntary agencies and the State Department must focus on stopping conflicts and displacements so that durable solutions are found for refugees, especially in Africa. Resettlement and migration should also look at the issue of brain drain. The less educated people a poor country has the more exposure it has to extremism. Such a case may not be true all the time but brain drain is related to the national security of the US. This does not mean that learned people should be left alone to be persecuted, but there has to be coordination between refugee resettlement and the danger of further brain drain from vulnerable countries.
Sir, I will continue to advocate for the most vulnerable. That is my vocation without fear or favor. I called your office and emailed you personally to work with you. I cannot write untrue things in this letter which I cannot defend. I cannot tell you how sad I had been each time your office rejected my application to help refugees who are in our area more than one year and refugees who are secondary migrants. I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when ORR and ECDC created conflicting MAAs in St. Louis in 2000. Stop some VOLAGS using unsuspecting new arrivals to scheme funds. That is un-American and it is gambling on compassion. The more I saw and examined ORR’s inner workings and policies I realized it is inevitable that Congress is going to examine most of ORR policies and reform it. Before that I ask you for your reflection on changing the old ways of doing things. You might have been in refugee camp before you came to the US, I am guessing, therefore my strong advice to you is to travel the US and listen to as many different opinions as you can. Be independent of the established voluntary agencies and hear the real complaints of refugees. Every voluntary agency is established for a good cause, yet as the money pot increased many people diverted their path chasing the grant trail. Come also visit us in St. Louis, and if I do not have much as an unemployed volunteer director, I still have enough change to treat you at Burger King.
Refugees are the best capacity builders. They can feed seven people for five dollars. They contribute for the cost of funerals. They come together in time of weddings and holidays. They only need a little local free help to organize. Asking refugees to help is like asking help from the American people during the time of local disasters. They do not need a 1 million dollar grant for building the capacity of their communities.
By the way, get rid of that healthy marriage and capacity building contract. You cannot make marriage among refugees by counseling through modern psychology only. There are many factors among newcomers. Do you know there is a high percentage of wife killing and violence against women among the North African refugee population?
Sir, you have to listen to your critics. Of course you are new to the post, but ORR has a strong tradition, via your predecessors, of suppressing ideas with a BIG FOOT. It punishes and rewards grantees based on compliance. Let me give you an example. Many years ago I was nominated to advise ORR. Your agency picked three people, among them was Nikki Tesfai, who defrauded your agency and other state agencies in California. The organization she founded and ran was an ECDC affiliate that was heavily promoted by ORR bureaucrats. ORR had funded her for years through ECDC. ORR never posted a public apology or its own investigation. She was among ORR’s favorite people who wrote expert proposals and defrauded tax payers’ money. You can see her story by Google search. I have attached two articles with this comment. ORR has a lot of explaining to do regarding Nikki as we celebrate the Refugee Act of 1980. When ORR was promoting and funding Nikki through the Africa refugee network of ECDC I was struggling to keep up with the salaries of just four people. You must find a better way of judging proposals and addressing funding disparities. When I ask why do the same people always win ORR grants I think of elections in dictatorial regimes like Zimbabwe and Iraq from where refugees flee.
Thank you for reading this comment.
Gedlu Metaferia AMAAM (314) 732-3350
Is the Saint of South LA for real?, LA Weekly
Refugee agency founder held, Los Angeles Times
Posted in ECDC, Ethiopian, HHS, Missouri, Mutual Assistance Associations (“MAAs”)/Ethnic Community-Based Organizations (“ECBOs”), ORR, St. Louis | Tagged: 1980, africa, african, African Mutual Assistance Association of Missouri, AMAAM, CEO pay, ECDC, Eskinder Negash, Ethiopian Community Development Council, healthy marriage, MAA, Missouri, mutual assistance association, Nigiistiazeb Tesfai, Nigisti Tesfai, Niki Tesfai, Nikki Tesfai, North African, Office of Refugee Resettlement, ORR, refugee, Refugee Act, refugees, resettlement, SAMSHA, St. Louis, State Department, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, volag, volags | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Melissa Sogard on February 27, 2010
A friend of Jewish Vocational Services (JVS) in Kansas City, the editor of the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle, came to the defense of the organization last year (article). No surprise there.
We first reported about this USCRI-affiliate agency back on January 25, 2010 (see post here).
The editor claims that JVS Executive Director Joy Foster and board President Callan Cohen believe that a series of internal changes last year, “in both policy and personnel”, have improved the situation.
Yet, how does that explain the revelation of yet more ongoing neglect of refugee clients this year, revealed in articles in both the Kansas City Star as well as the Pitch? Well, JVS’s Foster explains that weaknesses “surface” during a time when the organization is ”stretched”. Has the organization been more stretched this year than it was last year? We learn that nearly 500 refugees were resettled last year, but that Foster expects JVS to resettle just 450 refugees in 2010. Therefore a reduction in refugee clients this year would not be the cause of the stretching. No further explanation is given.
Foster claims that JVS has had a “structural” budget deficit, and that this has left many refugee families, “in dire straits even BEFORE they arrive in Kansas City”! Foster blames the federal government for this, saying, “it almost always costs more to rent and outfit an apartment for a newly arrived refugee family than JVS receives from the federal government.”
Yet why should that be a surprise. The State Department keeps repeating over and over that they offer “seed” money as part of the public/private partnership. The government’s contribution to this humanitarian program to resettle refugees has never be meant to cover ALL costs, as resettlement agencies like JVS well know. Charities such as JVS, in the government refugee contracts they sign, promise to add “significant” amounts of their own private funding. That’s the “private” half of the public/private partnership, or at least its supposed to be.
“The good news is,” Foster said, “that the U.S. Department of State informed us on Jan. 22 that money for reception and placement will double for the calendar year.”
Yippeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!
Does that mean that JVS’s responsibilities to the refugees will also double? No. There has been no announcement of any additions to the fairly measly list of minimum standards contained in the Operational Guidance refugee contract document.
How about requiring resettlement agencies to provide used telephones and basic phone service so that refugees can call about job openings? Nope. Could we just have a requirement that refugees be given a little dictionary ($5 at Wal-Mart) to help them learn English. No. How about requiring resettlement agencies to take each refugee to just 1-3 potential, realistic job leads each week. No way. Resettlement agencies defend their failures to help refugees find jobs by saying, “we are NOT required to find them jobs.” How about requiring some minimum efforts at least? Would that be too much to ask?
Oh well.
Posted in Kansas City, Missouri, Operational Guidance, USCRI | Tagged: Callan Cohen, DOS, doubling in funding, jewish vocational services, Joy Foster, jvs, kansas city, kansas city jewish chronicle, minimum required, minimum standards, Missouri, Operational Guidance, R&P, refugee, refugees, seed money, State Department, USCRI | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Melissa Sogard on January 25, 2010
We’ve been reading articles and posts around the internet regarding problems at this refugee resettlement agency – JVS (Jewish Vocational Services). There are two recent artcles in the Pitch, here and here. (Christopher wrote a comment for the first Jan. 7th article regarding how the U.S. Department of State conducts investigations of refugee resettlement agencies – see Comment #8; also see Comment #1).
There articles tell the story of what our group has seen at refugee resettlement agencies in other parts of the U.S.; refugees being placed in apartments that do not meet the requirements of the State Department’s guidelines, refugees not been given rides to crucial doctor appointments, refugees who have no idea who to call when their refugee resettlement agency is not there to assist them.
JVS is an affiliate of the USCRI (U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants). The USCRI’s affiliates have been in dozens of newspaper articles during the past several years that have documented neglect of refugees.
I guess my question is why hasn’t JVS responded to the reports of neglect? The silence almost reads as a confirmation of the reporter’s information and the stories told by JVS’ refugee clients. Does it really all come down to funding issues? If the private contributions added to the public money contributions were too little, why were the refugees accepted by JVS for resettlement? Did a grant or two fall through? How is the public to understand what has happened with so few details provided by JVS?
Posted in Burundian, housing, housing, substandard, insufficient assistance with daily tasks, Jewish, Jewish Vocational Services, Kansas City, State Department, USCRI | Tagged: Burundian, federal contractors, jewish vocational services, jvs, R&P, refugees, resettlement, substandard housing, US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, USCRI | 1 Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
