Recently we received complaints from two Iraqi SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) immigrants in Sacramento, California about the resettlement services they received. Both of them registered with the State Department’s refugee admissions program and both received services via the ORR’s refugee services. One of the men was working as an interpreter/translator for U.S. armed forces in Iraq when terrorists killed his brother with a silent pistol four kilometers from the U.S. Army base he was working at, and with everything indicating that he would be the next victim. The other man worked for U.S.-led contractors. Both were civil engineers in Iraq.

In eight months in Sacramento neither one of them was able to find a job. One man has now been here over ten months and remains unemployed. The men say that their resettlement agency placed them in an apartment complex area contaminated with an industrial chemical, and with all sorts of tenants wearing ankle bracelets who had police checking up on them on a daily basis (refugee families there stayed no longer than a month before fleeing). They also say the refugee resettlement agency did not give them clothes, placed one of them in a dirty apartment that had not been cleaned after the previous tenant moved out, didn’t give one of the men any pocket-money or any kitchen supplies.

In addition, they claim that their refugee employment services agency asked them to sign a pile of papers that they would not let them take home and read first, and when one of the men hesitated, they threatened to not help him find a job if he didn’t sign the papers, sight unseen. He then reminded them that they hadn’t found him a job in 10 months so their threat didn’t have much weight, and he walked out. He no longer feels safe going back to such unscrupulous people, and now isn’t getting any employment services at all. The other guy took a quick scan through the papers he was asked to sign and noticed that they were full of blank spaces that could be filled-in later, as well as all sorts of lies about him refusing jobs — jobs he was never referred to! That’s your tax money at work.

After one of the men had been here three-month they took him to a job fair at a hotel. After five months the agency took him to a gas station. They made him wait outside while they let one of the agency employee’s relatives in for an interview first. He was then told, sorry, there would be no more interviews. Later he heard the relative got the job.

Then two months later the agency took him to a little food store stocking job with hours beginning at 6am (the first bus wouldn’t even get there until after 7:15am). What sense does it make to take an immigrant to such interviews? Does it help pad the case file and make it seem like they tried to help the SIV immigrants become employed?

So, are we getting our money’s worth for these employment services we are paying for? Does this really sound like the way to help professional SIV immigrants and refugees become economically self-sufficient? Government agencies are taking the VOLAG’s position that the solution to this type of thing is for the government to give the resettlement agencies more funds, so that they don’t have to concentrate on early employment. But do they HAVE to focus just on early employment without trying to help the refugees become economically self-sufficient?

Here is a statement from the March 2010 GAO report, Iraqi Refugees and Special Immigrant Visa Holders Face Challenges Resettling in the United States and Obtaining U.S. Government Employment (here), which tries to explain why so many resettlement agencies make so little effort to place professional Iraqi refugees and SIV immigrants in jobs that match their skill levels.

“According to an ORR official and resettlement agency officials, the U.S. resettlement program does not take into account refugees’ prior work experience and education in job placements. Rather, the focus of the program is on securing early employment for refugees.”

Yet, that isn’t really true. The federal regulations governing the refugee resettlement program focus both on early employment AND on achieving economic self-sufficiency. What sense would it make to try to place a highly skilled and experienced Iraqi civil engineer in a minimum wage job if there are civil engineering jobs that are going begging? Which position would offer a better chance for becoming self-sufficient, e.g. getting off of food stamps, section 8, etc.? Which type of job would allow the refugee or SIV immigrant to more quickly pay off their U.S. government-funded travel loan?

(See the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 45, Public Welfare, Chapter IV Office of Refugee Resettlement, Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services, Part 400 Refugee Resettlement Program, Sub-part F_Requirements for Employability Services and Employment, Sec. 400.79 Development of an employability plan, here).

Also in the GAO report they write:

“We interviewed three Iraqi refugees about their experience searching for employment in the United States. Two had worked for the U.S. government in Iraq, and one was unable to find an entry-level position requiring no formal education. This individual estimated that he had applied for more than 30 low-skill jobs, such as for a busboy and cleaner, before his former U.S. supervisor in Iraq helped him find a job.”

That’s because competition for low-level, entry positions is often greater than that for high-skill positions that fewer people qualify for. I don’t think that the professionals in our government oversight agencies seem to get that. After all, how many of them have ever applied for no-skill or low-skill, entry-level jobs? If you have skills or experience then why would anyone pursue hard-to-get, low-wage jobs unless there were no available job positions in their profession?

It seems like we have a certain percentage of refugee resettlement agencies that are simply determined not to help refugee and SIV professionals find jobs that would allow for true economic self-sufficiency (I know there are some good agencies that do). Maybe they think it’s too much work or they don’t want to just Google the process and see how to do it. Certainly they face no government oversight pressure to get these people into the right jobs, jobs that not enough people in our society have the skills for.

As long as they can find them jobs flipping burgers (shouldn’t we leave those jobs to teenagers who need part-time jobs?) then they can claim they have fulfilled their contractual obligations for employment services. Is this a program we can be proud of?