Late last month the State Department announced the suspension of the restriction on Iraqi refugee resettlement to Detroit, here.

Although “free-case” refugees (refugees without local ties to family or friends) will still not be able to resettle to Detroit, Iraqi refugees with any ties to family or friends are now free to resettle directly to the Detroit-area. For two years beginning in June 2008 the State Department only allowe Iraqi refugees with family ties specifically to a spouse, father, mother , siblings, children, grandparents, or children under the age of 18 with no other relatives in the U.S. to resettle directly to the Detroit-area.

The U.S. State Department has decided to relax a two-year-old policy that limited refugee resettlement to the Detroit area because of Michigan’s struggling economy.

An influx of Iraqi refugees have come to the area in recent years, many of whom were attracted to the Detroit area because of its large Middle Eastern population. But authorities said two years ago only those with close relatives could resettle there, in part out of fear that they would be unable to find work.

Now, the State Department says anyone with family and friends can come to the area, Lawrence Bartlett, the department’s deputy director of refugee admissions, told The Associated Press.

Most refugees with immediate family had been resettled and there was room to accept more, Bartlett said. He said the decision was made after consulting with the state refugee services office, resettlement agencies and other community leaders.

…One big reason for the change was the State Department’s decision in January to double the payments to resettlement agencies on behalf of each refugee to $1,800. That money is designed to help refugees with their expenses, such asfood and housing, for up to 90 days.

With the increase, “we were able to take a new look at this restriction,” Bartlett said.

The government also sought to prevent secondary migration, when refugees come on their own to Michigan after first being settled somewhere else. Though no precise figures exist, hundreds of Iraqis independently made their way to the Detroit area since June 2008 to connect with the community’s culture despite Michigan’s soaring unemployment rate, which was 13.6 percent in May. It was the first time in four years the state escaped the distinction of having the nation’s highest jobless rate, ceding the top spot to Nevada.

…The original restriction came as the U.S. government began increasing the overall number of Iraqis granted refugee status. The government resettled 2,744 people — mainly Iraqis — to the Detroit area from June 25, 2008, to June 24, 2009. During the same period a year earlier, 1,643 refugees were resettled in the area. From June 25, 2009, through Friday, 1,887 were resettled.

According to a letter to Sec. of State Hillary Clinton from Ramsay F. Dass, MD, Director, Iraqi American Endowment Center, and President, American Middle East Christian Congress, the State Department failed to communicate with his organizations during their May trip to Detroit.

The State Department’s personnel has failed to communicate and propagate these ideas to the Iraqi American community, especially in Michigan during the last two visits by Mr. Michael Corbin and others, which we believe ended in a fiasco. Both the State Department personnel and the Iraqi community lost a golden opportunity to have a better dialogue and a better understanding of the State Department’s programs, policies and procedures.

The Iraqi American Endowment Center’s committees and I were very disappointed that for the second time at the unannounced (?) announced trip to Michigan by Mr. Michael Corbin, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, and Mr. Lawrence Bartlett, Deputy Director Office of Refugee Admissions. We tried very hard to have a meeting with them during their two day visit to Michigan. Apart from a couple of phone calls from Mr. Bartlett, no such meeting or dialogue took place while Mr. Corbin and his visiting team had prior planned meetings with other groups including a visit to the Arab American museum and organizations that are not related directly to the Iraqi community. If this trip was meant primarily to inform and educate the Iraqi American Community at large in Michigan, then this trip was a failure. …Mr. Corbin and Mr. Bartlett had ample time to discuss issues with the agencies that are supposed to have managed the transition of the Iraqi refugees into American life. In our belief, as we have raised concerns and misgivings with the State Department on the 26th of March, these issues were not taken into consideration or acknowledged nor was an effort was made for a follow-up to my visit or acknowledgement that such issues exist. Many Iraqi Americans and Iraqi activists believe that the actions of some of those agencies knowingly or unknowingly were part of the problem in servicing the Iraqi refugees in matters related to corruption, poor services, and lack of follow-up that led Iraqi refugees to be morally, socially, economically, frustrated, disoriented, and poor.

According to Barbara Lewis, the director of communications for Lutheran Social Services of Michigan, the problems at one of the State Department’s meetings with Iraqi refugees were caused by Iraqi immigrants, not Iraqi refugee immigrants – “…the people at this meeting who were unhappy were Iraqi immigrants who took issue with recent deportations of illegal Iraqi immigrants”, wrote Ms. Lewis.

So then why did the State Department not meet with or communicate adequately with the Iraqi refugee groups?