Archive for the ‘North Carolina’ Category
Posted by Christopher Coen on March 23, 2012
It turns out that the year-long near stoppage in security clearances for Special Immigrant Visa applicants (now beginning to wane) and Iraqi refugees was due in part to a software snafu at the US Department of Homeland Security. The other part of the problem that we knew about was the huge backlog of security clearance reviews caused when new requirements mandated older security clearances being redone, including those for the 58,000 Iraqi refugees already in the US. A newspaper column in the Greensboro News-Record by the founding director of the Center for New North Carolinians mentions the software issue:
“Freedom.” “Security.” “Education.”
The first three volunteers wrote on the board. Our interpreter explained that they were listing the advantages of living in America. The list grew.
Then they listed the disadvantages. “Separated from family members,” “loss of culture,” “learning the language,” “loss of job skills certifications.” Then these Iraqi refugees who fled to Jordan discussed their answers.
The lesson was taught by a teacher working for the International Organization for Migration. IOM contracts with the U.S. State Department to provide cultural orientation for Iraqi refugees accepted for resettlement in America. The objective was to develop realistic expectations about America and develop analytical and networking skills in decision-making. The class was conducted in Arabic because the U.S. no longer pays for English language training.
I was leading a dozen U.S. refugee professionals and researchers from half a dozen states for the Association of Refugee Service Professionals. We were studying refugee issues. My daughter, who works with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees, had arranged meetings for us. The refugees were stuck. Though approved for resettlement, they can’t get security clearances because new software designed for the Department of Homeland Security has problems… Read more here
Posted in Dept of Homeland Security, Greensboro, IOM, Iraqi, security/terrorism, SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants | Tagged: Center for New North Carolinians, Department of Homeland Security, International Organization for Migration, IOM, Iraqi, refugees, resettlement, security clearance, SIV, Special Immigrant Visa | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on February 6, 2012
Karen refugees from Myanmar resettled to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro area in North Carolina got a chance at a local community planning meeting to discuss challenges they face in the community. For those who are illiterate in their own language, learning English is a major barrier, which in turn leads to problems with integration. Large families and the Karen refugees’ need for a place to grow food has made finding affordable housing difficult. An article in the Chapel Hill News discusses the Karen refugees’ resettlement challenges:
CARRBORO – The volunteers…have taken the community planning process to…Carrboro to speak with the community’s newest immigrants, refugees from Myanmar, formerly Burma…
…The…volunteers asked the group what they liked about living here and what problems they have…
…the immigrants said some people look down on them because they don’t speak English.
“They integrate to the degree they know English,” [Mayor Mark Chilton] said. “Some do, some don’t. It’s hard. Many of them are illiterate in their own language. To go to school and even hold a pencil is hard for them.”
Several men said it’s hard to get a job if they don’t speak English and, even if they do, it’s hard to get a permanent position or move up…
The buses are not always available when they need them, especially on weekends…
Many said housing was a problem.
“When we apply for a government house they tell us our income is too high,” Lei Say, 25, said through an interpreter. “When we go to rent, they say your income is too low because you have a big family and only one person is working.”
Sometimes rules require more than a family can afford, he continued. “If you have five people, you have to live in a two-bedroom,” he said…
And those who can afford a home sometimes run into cultural differences, she said. Some immigrants can afford a subsidized townhome, for example, but most want a yard because they come from an agricultural tradition and want to grow their own food… Read more here
Posted in Chapel Hill-Carborro, housing, Karen, language | Tagged: Burma, Carborro, Chapel Hill, Karen, Myanmar, refugees, resettlement | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 29, 2012
The World Relief office in Greensboro has been coordinating with a Perdue Farms chicken processing plant in Rockingham that has been recruiting Myanmar and Nepali-Bhutanese refugees. An article in the Richmond County Daily Journal has more:
Employment assistants from the organization World Relief drove eight Burmese and Nepalese refugees from Greensboro on Thursday morning to apply for jobs at Perdue Farms in Rockingham.
When Townsend, Inc. chicken processing plants closed around the Triad area last summer, over 400 workers were left without jobs. According to Susie Jordan, English instructor for Perdue Farms, Perdue welcomes anyone with experience processing chicken…
…“We are employment assistance,” said World Relief Employment Assistant Sylvia Bikusa. “We help with training, learning how to fill out applications, everything they need to help them become self-sufficient…
…While in town, getting settled at their new jobs, the refugees will likely stay with friends and relatives, said Jordan. She is hoping to set up a temporary apartment for commuters to stay in during the week while they prepare to have their families relocate to Rockingham…
…“The [World Relief] office in Durham called and said they are looking for workers, too,” said Jordan… Read more here
Another WordPress blog mentions that in April 2010 there were also about 100 Myanmar refugees working at the Perdue Farms plant in Lumber Bridge — not far from Rockingham.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, faith-based, Greensboro, Nepali Bhutanese, poultry production, Raleigh-Durham, secondary migration, refugee, World Relief | Tagged: chicken processing, nepalese, Perdue Farms, refugees, resettlement, Rockingham | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 30, 2011
The U.S. Department of State has decided to guarantee funding to the private resettlement agencies this year as if 60,000 refugees had arrived, although the federal government expects less than 55,000 to enter the country this fiscal year. The State Department and their friends in private industry at the agencies are justifying the temporary change in policy by claiming that the agencies rely on per-refugee grants to pay staff, and they would otherwise be unable to keep staff due to the new security screenings that have drastically lowered the number of arriving refugees. (The State Department instituted a similar change in policy in 2001 after the cutoff of refugee arrivals following the terrorist attacks on September 11th.) An article in Christianity Today has more about the issue:
More than 77,000 refugees were expected to come to the United States in 2011. Instead, fewer than 55,000 will arrive, because of new security screening implemented abruptly this winter.
The U.S. State Department works with 11 agencies—including five Christian organizations—to help refugees start their new lives in America. The average number admitted annually since 1980 is 98,000, according to the Refugee Council USA.
Like many other resettlement offices, the World Relief branch in Durham, North Carolina, relies on per-refugee grants to pay staff. When no refugees arrived in Durham between late February and April, the office cut employee pay by 8 hours a week. Nationally, World Relief and Church World Service offices have experienced significant layoffs because of a new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) policy.
In February, World Relief Durham was preparing for new refugees when the arrival flights were suddenly deleted from the tracking system. Resettlement director Andrew Castle says he called headquarters and heard that there were hundreds of unexpectedly canceled flights, attributed to a new DHS policy that requires a pre-departure check to make sure refugees are still eligible to come to the U.S.
“It seems … that even the State Department was somewhat caught off guard,” said Dan Kosten, chair of the Refugee Council USA…
…The State Department responded to resettlement agencies’ concerns about the low number of arrivals by guaranteeing funding for 60,000 refugee admissions. This ensures that agencies will be able to retain staff, no matter how few refugees actually arrive on U.S. soil… Read more here
I guess my question is why the agencies are unable to pay overhead and keep staff during a slowdown in arriving refugees if they are still allowed to use $700 of the State Department’s $1800 per refugee grant. In addition to that, they are supposedly required to give significant private resources of their own toward refugee resettlement. Couldn’t those private resources be diverted from the money they will not need to spend on refugees who will not arrive this year? We will have to continue to speculate until the State Department decides to open up and show the real numbers.
Posted in ceiling limit, refugee annual, Dept of Homeland Security, funding, NGO's (Non-governmental organizations), openess and transparency in government, public/private partnership, Raleigh-Durham, State Department, World Relief | Tagged: Andrew Castle, Dan Kosten, Durham, federal grant, government grant, RCUSA, Refugee Council USA, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, security procedures, security screening, State Department, terrorism, World Relief | 5 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on May 24, 2011
A State Department official and the Catholic Courier report that the arrival of new refugees to the US slowed to a trickle due to new security measures put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. The USCCB volag in the first eight months of the fiscal year indicated it has only resettled 38% of refugees scheduled for resettlement this fiscal year.
The number of refugees taking shelter in the United States has slowed to a trickle following new security measures put in place by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.Meanwhile, Catholic refugee resettlement offices across the country are left waiting, uncertain when the flow of refugees will begin again — and when it does, how many refugees may be allowed to enter the country.
Last year, the United States welcomed 75,417 refugees — people escaping religious or political persecution, poverty, natural disasters and more.
The number is determined every year by the president in consultation with Congress; the slots are divided among different regions of the world. In October, President Barack Obama authorized 80,000 refugees be accepted during fiscal year 2011, which runs from October 2010 to September 2011.
Each year, the U.S. bishops’ Migration and Refugee Services and its diocesan affiliates resettle between 27 percent and 28 percent of the total number authorized to come to the United States, with other aid organizations helping the rest.
An MRS staffer in Washington told Catholic News Service May 16 that of 80,000 authorized for entry this year, the agency and its diocesan affiliates expected to resettle 23,358 refugees. But because of the slow down, only 38 percent of the number authorized by Obama have entered the United States.
Delays in the refugee resettlement process are being caused by a backlog of security clearances and additional security “holds,” according to Larry Bartlett, acting director of the Office of Refugee Admissions for the State Department. The additional security measures are part of a larger series of security enhancements by the Homeland Security Department… Read more here
Posted in Catholic, ceiling limit, refugee annual, Charlotte, funding, North Carolina, Office of Admissions, PRM, security/terrorism, USCCB | Tagged: ae Office of Refugee Admissions, Catholic Social Services Charlotte, Charlotte, Department of Homeland Security, Diocese of Charlotte, FISCAL YEAR 2011, human rights, Larry Bartlett, Migration and Refugee Services, North Carolina, Obama, refugee, resettlement, security clearance, security measure, State Department, U.S. Conference on Catholic Bishops, USCCB, volag | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on January 26, 2011
Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFS Carolinas) will be getting a new CEO according to the Salisbury Post. Ted Goins will be replacing the infamous Suzanne Gibson Wise, who oversaw the scandal-plagued agency as it lost its State Department refugee resettlement contract last year.
The Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFS Carolinas) Board of Trustees named Ted Goins president and chief executive officer of the agency and its subsidiaries as of Dec. 9.
Current president, Suzanne Gibson Wise, will serve as vice president until her retirement on Dec. 31.
Goins will continue to serve as president and CEO of Lutheran Services for the Aging (LSA) and see both agencies through steps towards affiliation…
…[Wise said] “I am confident Ted will continue to uphold the values of LFS as he has done for LSA.”… Read more here
I was about to write that I can’t believe Ms. Gibson-Wise would have the unmitigated gall to make such a statement, but actually I’m not surprised at all. While Gibson-Wise’s refugee clients went without cold-weather clothing and furniture and lived in apartments without heat, with doors that didn’t close, and with leaking toilets, Gibson-Wise spent the agency’s funds on company paid vehicles, wireless internet in her home, endless Blackberries, a personal commode, and a new $4000 office conference table because she didn’t like the old one. The agency had also been long non-compliant with its State Department refugee resettlement contract.
Posted in clothes, furnishings, lack of, Greensboro, Iraqi, Lutheran, Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (2), neglect | Tagged: Greensboro, LFS Carolinas, lutheran family services in the carolinas, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Suzanne Gibson-Wise, Ted Goins | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Melissa Sogard on November 9, 2010
We received the following letter today from a concerned citizen regarding the Church World Service of North Carolina office in Durham, NC:
Hello,
CWS Refugee and Immigration Program in Durham, NC has been established since January of 2009 and starting resettling refugees in April of 2009. The office has never been monitored by PRM; the clients and the local community suffer because of their inadequacy. The director at CWS Durham actually commissioned her husband to build bed frames which were nothing more than 2x4s slapped together! If PRM cannot ensure that all the resettlement offices follow their set procedures, then I dare say there should be less refugees and less resettlement offices.
a concerned citizen
Posted in beds, Church World Service of North Carolina, North Carolina, PRM, Raleigh-Durham | Tagged: Church World Service, Church World Service of North Carolina, Durham, refugee resettlement, refugee resettlement agencies, refugee resettlement program, refugees, resettlement | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on August 16, 2010
Karenni refugee children are attending Baptist vacation Bible school as part of their resettlement services in Winston-Salem, NC. The US State Department has allowed a former Baptist missionary couple to bring the Karenni refugees to the area – described as the “the promised land” – in conjunction with World Relief.
“North Carolina has become the promised land,” said Tim Cross, who co-founded Open Arms Refugee Ministry with his wife, Jody Cross, in 2009.
The Crosses worked with World Relief’s High Point office and Calvary Baptist Church, where they have been members since 1996, to bring the Karenni here last year. The Karenni are political refugees from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.
There are now 45 Karenni families living in the area, with a total of about 100 children, the Crosses said.
The ministry also works with Iraqi and Bhutan families. The couple spent eight years living overseas and working for the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention before getting involved in resettlement efforts with the Karenni.
Last week the Karenni children participated in vacation Bible school at Calvary Baptist Church. They did arts and crafts, played soccer and learned to read music and play musical instruments. here
Something tells me there is a bit more going on at this Bible school than just arts and crafts, soccer and music.
What the article doesn’t mention is that the Karenni had their own traditional Kay Tyoboe religion before Baptist missionaries began arriving in their lands in the 1860′s following Britain’s colonial conquest of Burma. Many Karenni have never converted to Christianity and are still attempting to practice their indigenous religion.
Posted in Baptist, Burma/Myanmar, faith-based, Karenni, North Carolina, religion, State Department, Winston-Salem, World Relief | Tagged: Baptist, Baptist missionaries, Bible school, Burmese refugees, karenni, Kay Tyoboe, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, Southern Baptist Convention, State Department, Winston-Salem | 2 Comments »
Posted by Christopher Coen on July 28, 2010
A sudden increase in refugee resettlement in Wilmington, North Carolina is taxing local medical providers. The Wilmington affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, based in New Bern, just began resettling refugees to Wilmington earlier this year.
A program to relocate political refugees in Wilmington has expanded faster than initially expected since it started earlier this year, leaving some medical providers pushed to fulfill the required health screenings.
As of mid-July, 43 refugees had moved to Wilmington since the beginning of the year. Resettlement officials expect that number to grow in the coming years.
The New Hanover County Health Department is in charge of the refugees’ initial health screenings soon after they arrive.
Betty Jo Bennett, a personal health nurse supervisor at the health department, described the services as an unfunded mandate, though she added the health department was fine with doing the tests.
“It’s growing faster than we anticipated,” she said during a presentation on refugee health to the county health board this month.
The health department so far has shifted job responsibilities to handle the screenings. But if the number of refugees double as expected next year, the health department will have to hire another full-time position, officials said.
Because the health department is responsible for public health, they are required to handle the communicable disease screenings and prevention.
Two licensed practical nurses and an administrative support staffer handle the screenings. The refugees undergo lab work and testing for tuberculosis or other communicable diseases and receive immunizations if necessary.
“Some come without an immunization record,” Bennett said. “We’re just doing infectious disease control like we always do.”
Many of the individuals who have come to Wilmington this year are ethnic Karen who fled from Myanmar, said Jamie Mills, director of the Interfaith Refugee Ministry Wilmington group that opened offices in January at St. James Episcopal Church on Third Street. here
Although New Hanover County Health Department is screening the refugees for communicable diseases, as required of all health departments, they decided that they could not do physical exams for refugees. As a result, Interfaith Refugee Ministry must find medical providers to do the exams – medical providers who also accept Medicaid.
As part of the refugee resettlement program, those coming into the country are eligible for Medicaid for up to eight months.
The refugees also are required to undergo physical exams as part of their entrance process. The health department has the option to conduct those physicals, as is done at New Bern’s health department, but New Hanover health officials decided they could not take on the extra work since they do not handle primary care.
Mills said that when he got to Wilmington, he received a page of area primary care doctors’ offices that stated they accepted Medicaid.
When he started making appointments for the refugees’ physical exams, he ran into the same problem other Medicaid recipients face.
“Only three accepted new patients,” Mills said. “At this point, we’re managing.”
My question about this, therefore, is why the State Department, EMM, and Interfaith Refugee Ministry are resettling refugees faster than initially expected? Regulations mandate that the state refugee coordinator hold quarterly meetings with state and local officials, resettlement agencies and other service providers. Were these meetings ever held? Was any plan set up for how refugees would receive both health screenings (for communicable diseases) as well as physical exams? It seems a bit late in the process to suddenly find out that the public health office won’t do the physical exams, and that there are only three medical providers who both accept Medicaid and are able to accept new patients.
Posted in Burma/Myanmar, EMM, Episcopal, faith-based, health, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Karen, North Carolina, State Department, Wilmington | Tagged: Burma/Myanmar, EMM, Episcopal Migration Ministries, Health Department, Interfaith Refugee Ministry, Karen, Medicaid, Myanmar, New Hanover County, North Carolina, physical exams, refugee health screenings, refugee resettlement, refugees, resettlement, State Department, Wilmington | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Christopher Coen on June 16, 2010
We just received a State Department inspection report from April 2007 which shows that Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (LFSC) in Greensboro was already neglecting their refugee clients a year-and-a-half before they got caught by the local media (here). Previous coverage is here, here and here.
As usual the State Department’s Office of Admissions enacted no penalties whatsoever. They advised the resettlement agency’s national partners (Church World Service, and Lutheran Immigration & Refugee Service) to do their own monitoring instead. This wolf-guarding-the-chicken-coop “self-monitoring”, which has proved so disastrous in the financial and oil industries as well, then led to the situation we had at the end of 2009 and early 2010 with refugees in Greensboro still being placed in dilapidated apartments, scrounging dumpsters for furniture, and wearing shorts and flip-flops in December, three months after they arrived.
According to the report LFSC Greensboro was in “partial compliance” with their State Department refugee contract documents (yes, they are federal contractors, not non-contractor “partners”). Refugees were found in poor quality housing, lacked necessary furnishings, had incomplete resettlement orientation, and there was poor case file documentation. Three of four refugee families visited were found in poor quality housing and lacked furnishings (that’s 75% of the sample). All four families did not seem to have undergone a complete orientation (100%), and three of the four could not name their case worker (75%).
A Burundian refugee man had furniture in his apartment that was in such extremely poor condition that State Department inspectors had to ask him about it. He indicated most of it came from dumpsters. He said he asked LFSC for a mattress several times, but they ignored his request, and after two weeks he found himself a mattress in the trash and brought it home (think bed-bugs). His window was cracked, he had no idea who his LFSC case worker was, and had not received any immigration information (the requirement to tell the Department of Homeland Security when he got a new address, how to get a green card, etc.). He said he wanted to go to Georgia because LFSC wasn’t helping him (this is what is known as “secondary-migration” and resettlement agencies and stated refugee coordinators are quick to complain to the federal government that they need more money to deal with it, but look at this case for why it so often occurs).
A Liberian refugee and his son also did not know who their case worker was, and did not receive any information on immigration issues.
A Montagnard (Degar – indiginous Vietnamese) minor female refugee who arrived to join her parents was found in a poor condition two-bedroom apartment (occupied by the family prior to the minor’s arrival) which was crowded with seven family. She had to sleep on a mattress on the floor in the living-room with her parents.
Another Montagnard refugee woman with four children who arrived to join her husband did not have any heat because of dismantled baseboard heating units which emitted a bad smell (gas leak?). The family did not have adequate clothing storage and had only three chairs for six people. She also had not received any orientation from LFSC.
Is it really a surprise that this agency then continued on in its ways for another year-and-a-half before things got so out of hand that community members started complaining, and a newspaper started covering what was happening? They got caught neglecting refugees in April 2007 but there were no significant consequences. The agency would not have shut down if it had not been caught, and would probably still be abusing refugees. Suzanne Gibson-Wise, the negligent CEO of LFSC, probably just went on about her arrogant ways — buying blackberries, getting wireless internet installed at her home, sitting on her personal commode. Where are the teeth in the State Department’s inspection process? No serious consequences means nobody cares. Isn’t that obvious?
The problem is that nobody learns from these incidents. The system trashes refugees’ new lives in America, the volags continue on in their negligent ways, all the while doing little other than advocating for more public money with inadequate accountability requirements, and the government agencies continue to keep up secrecy so the American public won’t understand what the problems are.
We need change we can believe in.
Posted in beds, Burundian, Christian, clothes, community/cultural orientation, Cooperative Agreement, CWS, employment services, faith-based, funding, furnishings, lack of, Greensboro, housing, overcrowding, housing, substandard, immigration services, Liberian, Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas (2), Lutheran Family Services of the Carolinas, Montagnard/Degar (indigenous mountain people), North Carolina, State Department | Tagged: Burundian, Church World Service, CWS, Liberian, lutheran family services in the carolinas, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Montagnard, volag, volags | Leave a Comment »
Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
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