Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
The African Community Center and the State Department are continuing to resettle refugees to Las Vegas despite the city’s official unemployment rate of 14.2% (some estimate the “real” unemploymaent rate is closer to 25%). An article in the Vegas Seven publication extolls African Community Center’s virtues, while not asking any questions, here.
Since 2003, the ECDC African Community Center has helped hundreds of legally admitted refugees resettle in Las Vegas, often working with Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada and Nevada Partners to provide much-needed resources such as health insurance, language classes, job training and cash.
“One of the missions of the ECDC is to resettle and to help refugees, to integrate them fully in their new community and to help them find their way around in the new community, and to organize all the resources available, public and private, toward that end,” says Berihun Teferra, managing director of the African Community Center.
The center obtains funding from federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which offers a variety of assistance programs. The programs’ qualifications vary, and the center sifts through the details to find funding sources for every refugee. The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also provides $1,100 of direct assistance for each refugee, which the African Community Center manages on their behalf.
Prior to the recession, the African Community Center saw 80 percent of its refugee clients placed in jobs within three months of arrival, which limited the amount of monetary assistance they needed. Now it usually takes six to nine months for refugees with training and knowledge of English to find work.
“Times are tough,” Teferra says. “Nevada is leading the nation in unemployment. That makes our task more difficult, but we’re not giving up. We have to do everything possible, and we are optimistic that the public is still generous.”
Private donations help bridge the gap when federal funding runs out, Teferra says. The African Community Center also relies on its partnerships with local hotel-casinos to find jobs for new refugees.
Yet, why is the State Department, the African Community Center, and ECDC (Ethiopian Community Development Council) continuing to resettle refugees to a state and city with such a high unemployment rates? Does it make any sense to do so? The ECDC and the African Community Center would no doubt protest that they would have to shut down operations in Nevada if the State Department were to cut the flow of refugees and federal funding, but at what price does this come to refugees to continue to resettle them to a place with such low employment prospects? What is more important, jobs for refugees or jobs for refugee resettlement workers? I guess we know th answer.
I also notice that the African Community Center’s managing director Berihun Teferra refers to private funding that her organization supposedly gathers for refugees, yet doesn’t give any details. This always seems to be the way it is with the private refugee resettlement agencies. They claim their involvement in the US refugee program is critically important as a “private sector” contribution, but give no information about what funds they actually give.
We know that these groups’ participation comes at a price to the refugees and the public, e.g. some of the agencies discriminate in hiring against the public and the refugees based on their religions. Also, the private resettlement contractors don’t have to answer to the public. They use layers of contractors and subcontractors, and the public is not able to look at their books the way we can with government agencies. So again, what are we getting for having to give up so much? How much do they actually give in real private funding?
Finally, a quick look at the State Department’s inspection report for the African Community Center indicates that they did not always bother to deliver the minimum-required items and services they contract to give, here.
Health screenings are often not done until well after the required first thirty-days. The African Community Center doesn’t give ready-made, culturally appropriate meals to the refugees upon their arrival after long intercontinental flights (refugees often haven’t eaten for two days because they are not familiar with food served on airlines). The agency jammed one refugee family into a small apartment that required seven children to sleep in one bedroom and violated local occupancy codes. Refugee families did not have minimum furnishings for their apartments — missing lamps, shower curtains, dresses. Refugees did not know that they had to report new addresses to Homeland Security. Case files were spotty (missing written records means possible missing services to refugees).
