Month: October 2007

Bring Iraqis here or they will turn into killers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Oh brother!  Every day there are mainstream media articles throwing out arguments about why we have to bring tens of thousands (hundreds of thousands, millions) of Iraqis to America this instant.  Quick, get them here, get them on the good old American welfare system and save them from the inevitable consequences of becoming religious Islamic fanatic killers.  One gets the feeling that the refugee industry just throws out theories in hopes that one will stick.   Here is today’s from Reuters (who else!):

Islamist militancy could also take root if the crisis is allowed to spawn an underclass of poorly educated, poorly integrated Iraqi youths.

We aren’t falling for the bull poopy anymore.  I know a lot of you leftwingers fell for it with the Palestinians but all the evidence points to the fact that militant Islamists are educated middle and upper class people often with professional careers (remember the UK doctors?) and nice families.    Jihad Watch just addressed this a couple of days ago in a post entitled, “Wealthy Syrians Head to Iraq for Jihad.”   Check it out here.

“Unwelcoming”—Hagerstown join the crowd

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Last week the good folks of Hagerstown and Washington County took a whoopin’ in the mainstream media, accused of being “unwelcoming” to more refugee resettlement.  Both the Hagerstown Herald-Mail and the Baltimore Sun made it appear that we alone were saying NO to the “persecuted” of the world.   All this occured at the very same time a report was being delivered in Geneva, Switzerland at the 58th Session of the Executive Committee of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.  This from the Washington Times this morning:

Asylum seekers are finding an ever-colder reception, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees found, with nearly 99 percent of them detained or turned away each year.

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Erika Feller, head of the refugee agency’s protection unit, expressed mounting concern to UNHCR board members last week about “untouchables” seeking resettlement.

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“Increasingly, some groups of refugees are becoming simply unwanted by resettlement countries. Neither their refugee status nor their protection needs are in question, but their desirability is,” she said.

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Governments are increasingly wary of politically sensitive ethnic groups as well as the elderly, who may become public charges, she said. Others having trouble with resettlement include large families, single men who might become a threat to public order, or refugees with low educational levels.

So, instead of the perception that we are neanderthals in the dark ages, could us Hagerstown Hicks actually be in the vanguard of a worldwide movement?  Immigration industry (volags and other government employees) beware you might want to start thinking about your paycheck.

How do refugees get businesses?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Your tax dollars:

One hears over and over from the proponents of more refugee resettlement how refugees are industrious and start businesses that help revitalize cities.  Surely some do—-with a little help from the Feds.   A few days ago we addressed the issue of how refugees get cars.  In that post we mentioned Individual Development Accounts as a way of saving to get a car, or start a business.  But, there is yet another way you subsidize refugee businesses with your tax dollars.  It’s called the Microenterprise Development Program.

The federal government (Office of Refugee Resettlement) gives grants to volags who in turn use the money to give refugees a leg-up in business.  I’m just wondering if the average poor American schmo in Hagerstown could get in on this, or do you have to have been persecuted somewhere else in the world  for this sweet deal?   The answer:    No schmos accepted; persecution is a prerequisite. 

The microenterprise development projects are intended for recently arrived refugees on public assistance, refugees who possess few personal assets, and refugees who lack a credit history that meets commercial lending standards. The projects are also intended for refugees who have been in the U.S. for several years and wish to supplement salaried income.

The grants are administered by the volags which of course must endear them to their refugee clients.  I’m not a business person but these numbers don’t sound so great to me.

Excluding loan funds, the total amount of ORR operational funding expended for these microenterprise projects was $26,846,726 over the fourteen-year period. For 5,275 businesses assisted, this represents an average cost-per-business start or expansion of $5,089.

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The total number of jobs created by new and expanding/strengthening businesses (including the business owner) was 5,218 which translates to $5,145 per job created.

So, let me get this straight?   Almost $27,000,000 was expended just to administer the program, and that doesn’t include the loan itself?  And, these grants given out by the likes of Jewish Family Services, Church World Service and Catholic Charities to name a few cost us over $5000 per job created.    Hey, ACLU where’s the separation of church and state?  Nevermind that, where is Grover Norquist and the Americans for Tax Reform?   Oh, yeh, I forgot Mr. Norquist is lobbying for more refugees.  

Australia to halt African Refugee Resettlement

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is a brouhaha down under as the Australian government announces a temporary halt to African refugee resettlement.   The Howard government says the reason is twofold:  the Africans are not assimilating and they say they want to focus their attention on helping Iraqi and Burmese refugees.    Critics say this is an election year ploy.

Mr Andrews [Immigration Minister] said Africans, particularly Sudanese, had experienced serious problems settling in Australia.

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“They tend to have more problems and challenges associated with them. Their level of education, for example, is a lot lower than for any other group of refugees,” he said.

The Adelaide News went on to report that refugees would soon be sitting a test to help determine their capacity to assimilate. 

In August the Federal Government announced that all new refugees will have to sit an “integration test”.

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The new gateway test – which was developed with African refugees in mind – will assess their ability to adapt to the Australian way of life.

Last weekend, at the Immigration meetings I attended in Washington, I met an Australian immigration activist who confirmed over dinner that indeed this is a hot topic in Australia, but he didn’t have any confidence that the Howard government was actually going to accomplish very much.

Go here, here and here for more discussion of this latest initiative in Australia.  I got a kick out of the BBC coverage.  They managed to work into a very short report “xenophobic voters” and “nativist streak”, I wondered why they didn’t add “unwelcoming” when describing the rural citizens’ objections:

Only last year the town of Tamworth in New South Wales voted against hosting a trial refugee resettlement programme after the Sudanese were branded as criminals by the local mayor.

Note that the total number of refugees going to Australia is in the 12,000-15,000 range.  By contrast the US is seeking to resettle 70,000-80,000 this fiscal year.  

Baltimore Sun Bombs – Part III

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Actually this shouldn’t be titled as I have it above, it should be “Baltimore Sun Pimps for Business”.   I asked these questions a few days ago when I posted about Louisville, KY and its huge immigrant population:  is refugee resettlement being driven by the need for business to import immigrant labor?  Is this about depressing wages of low income workers?   Is this about having a captive work force partially supported by the taxpayer?  Are these humanitarian groups making themselves feel good while knowingly or unknowingly abetting big business interests?  It sure looks like it.

Here is just one of several quotes from The Sun about how happy employers of low-skilled labor are about refugees:

“To be honest with you, we’ve had a hard time finding people who want to work here from the Hagerstown area,” said Cheryl Eyler of Parker Plastics, who has hired about eight refugees. “The refugees have a great work ethic. They’re here every day, they don’t call in sick and they work hard. … They’re extremely thankful for having a job.”

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Eyler currently has a few openings for $10- to $11-an-hour packing jobs. She would like to hire more refugees, she said, but now that is unlikely.

Of course, now I’m wondering who encouraged all these factory, warehouse, distribution employers to come to Hagerstown without first asking where the labor force was going to come from?  Do we change the way we live to oil the machinery of big business? 

Refugee Resettlement needs to be reformed and as a first step the Refugee Act of 1980 needs to be updated with an amendment requiring a social and economic impact study of a city or town PRIOR to the arrival of refugees.