Nothing new here. Ninety refugees from West Africa are arriving in this Iowa town of about 23,000 with the help of Lutheran Services of Iowa. According to the Muscatine Journal, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services interviewed the refugees in Africa and invited them to come to the US. In Muscatine they work in various local industries and I’ll bet there is food processing involved somewhere nearby. The article also says many more are coming.
Month: January 2008
So why the silence on the Saudis?
Yesterday the Washington Post Outlook section ran an opinion piece by our buddy Ken Bacon at Refugees International—the lobbying organization hollering the loudest for us to open our gates to Iraqi refugees. Come to think of it, Ken Bacon was also the guy testifying to Congress this past year about saving those poor Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, you know those refugees who will turn into terrorists if we don’t get them over here and on welfare ASAP. Mr. Bacon is everywhere these days including feting the former Asst. Secretary of State; could he be angling for something big in a possible Clinton Administration? Maybe we should have a blog called Kenneth Bacon Watch!
Sorry, I was getting off track. There is nothing new in this blast at the Bush Administration, which I am sorry to say I can’t link because I can’t find it on line at the Post (very strange). You will have to trust me that he said, “The Administration isn’t doing its part to resettle Iraqis, either—not even former translators for the U.S. Military whose lives are at risk.” See Judy’s post to see why it is so amusing (shocking really) that they are still using the Iraqi translator sob story, don’t they know that some translators have been found to be spies.
What interested me in his Post opinion were the graphics that accompanied it, maps, graphs, charts, that showed who is, and by omission, who is not helping with Iraqi refugees in some way. All of the humanitarian aid comes from the U.S., Europe and Japan. All the countries bordering Iraq have displaced Iraqis, however, glaringly absent and apparently doing NOTHING is Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s oil RICH neighbor. We hear so much about how the Koran calls for Muslims to be charitable (to fellow Muslims) so where is Saudi Arabia? And where is the criticism from groups like Mr. Bacon’s?
Michigan’s economy, refugees, and special deals
I was searching for something else when I happened to look at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) State profiles. Mind you, this was during all the Presidential campaign hoopla last week about the terrible economic situation Michigan is in. Check out these stats on refugee cases in Michigan.
| EMPLOYMENT | ||||
|
2005 |
2006 |
|||
| Caseload | 1,799 | 1,766 | ||
| Entered Employment | 995 | 55% | 700 | 40% |
| Terminations | 242 | 69% | 156 | 47% |
| Reductions | 59 | 17% | 115 | 34% |
| Average Wage | $ 7.92 | $ 7.72 | ||
| Retentions | 833 | 76% | 842 | 53% |
| Health Benefits | 460 | 59% | 236 | 49% |
The refugee caseload for Michigan in 2006 was 1766 but only 700 (40%) of those found employment at the average hourly rate of $7.72 an hour. That is down 20 cents an hour from the previous year. Also, note that those receiving health benefits had declined by 10 %. Yet we continue to resettle refugees in Michigan.
You will notice too that the state of Michigan received almost $8 million in federal grants (2006) for additional welfare assistance (that is in addition to other government services such as food stamps). Michigan has been the resettlement site of over 44,000 (as of 2005) refugees since the Refugee Act of 1980 went into effect.
But, here is a little nugget at the bottom of this State page at ORR. In 2007 an organization called the Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services in Dearborn received a $475,000 federal grant. So, I went to Guidestar to see just what this is all about, and discovered that grant is a drop in the bucket. The taxpayers are funding this specialized Arab-American group to the tune of nearly $8 million a year in a $14 million dollar budget! This group does “Advocacy” on immigration and civil rights issues, has assets of $25 million, and employees 200. It’s just a wild guess but I bet those employees make more than $7.72 an hour.
No wonder the taxpayer hasn’t a prayer.
Shelbyville reporter hits the nail on the head
Brian Mosely, the reporter who wrote the controversial series of articles on the Somali refugee migration to Shelbyville, TN and who was vilified by multiculturalists for daring to expose the problems has today published an opinion piece that gets to the heart of the problem. If you recall, Mr. Mosely and his editor had a visit this week from the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition prompting this editorial.
No advocacy group has given these folks a helping hand since they’ve been here. When I first contacted Catholic Charities, the organization that is resettling Somalis and other groups throughout the nation, they had “no idea” that the refugees were living in Shelbyville in such large numbers.
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Instead, their current policy apparently just brings the hapless refugees into the country, gives them extremely limited orientation on how to properly function in western society, and then sets them loose to fend for themselves.
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This is a very bad idea. To simply relocate members of a totally alien culture into a community without the needed support, services or training to help them adjust to 21st Century America is immoral and wrong.
Volags (voluntary agencies) like Catholic Charities have been contracted by the US State Department and resettled over 70,000 Somali refugees from 1991 to the present. Nomadic Somalis are moving from city to city in the US, so expect more clashes because contracted agencies send them out on their own after only 4 months in America.
We advocate the return of the old system of refugee resettlement where individual churches and groups take one family each under their wing to care for them and help them assimilate to America, and do that for as long as it takes. That would be true charity in the spirit of the Good Samaritan.
A Harbinger of what is to come?
A pair of articles published in Great Britain this past week should serve as a wake-up call to America about what rapid uncontrolled immigration could do to us (or is already doing to us). (Hat tip: Infinicat).
The first from the Sunday Mail begins:
Almost 2 million new homes will have to be built just to cope with the immigrant influx, peers will be told tomorrow.
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It means 263 houses must be constructed every day for almost 20 years – the equivalent of five cities the size of Birmingham during the next 18 years.
If you are thinking, well great, that helps the economy because all those workers will contribute and keep the housing industry booming, the second article from the Daily Mail tells you why you would be wrong.
Many choose the cheapest possible rented accommodation so they can send more of their wages home, according to the report.
Months ago we wrote about this practice —sending money back home and out of the economy—called remittances.
Another thing I wonder about when I read articles like these is where are the environmentalists? Why are they silent? Imagine 5 more cities the size of Birmingham! My guess is they are chicken to speak up for fear of being called racists by their multicultural buddies.