I chuckled when I saw this piece in the Emporia Gazette today. It sounded just like us in Hagerstown, MD this past spring. When no one could answer our questions about how Refugee Resettlement worked we set out to find the answers ourselves and this blog was born!
Although they have no name and only informal leadership, a group of more than 25 people came together Thursday night and vowed to work together to fight a move to make Emporia a refugee resettlement point.
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Their first step — gather answers to key questions.
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“We’ve got a data void,” said City Commissioner Bobbie Agler, “a serious data void.”
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It was a theme that ran through the 90-minute meeting as Agler and others attempted to answer as many questions as they could without documentation.
Citizens of Emporia are wondering why they did not know that plans were in the works to make Emporia a refugee center for Somalis coming to work at meat packing plants. Read the whole story! The Gazette has an on-line poll in which 89% of the citizens of Emporia say NO to the whole proposition. Uh oh, is Hagerstown going to get a challenger for the title of most “unwelcome” city in America? We will fight you for it!
I’ll try to get some stuff up soon on Kansas in “Your state” above. Update (11/12): See this post for information on refugees in Kansas. Our contact information is at the right and we are happy to help you with your research if you need us.
Further update for readers not familiar with what is happening in Emporia. There is an earlier Gazette article here that gives additional background information about the growing controversy.