I’m posting this whole short article from the Ft. Wayne Journal Gazette about a second refugee agency horning in on Catholic Charities territory in Ft. Wayne, IN. The article is revealing in several ways. First, it confirms what we have written about in the past that the top ten volags (not really voluntary agencies because they get paid) are competing with each other for customers (refugees).
The article also helps answer a question I had from a reader just this morning. The reader (who learned about us because I wrote a letter to VDARE) asked how are cities picked to be resettlement cities? This article confirms another thing we have written about, that the volags (and not the federal government) choose the cities. Volags are non-governmental organizations! They have no power over local community governments!
And, pay attention! This is really important! Once a city is deemed “welcoming” and doesn’t squawk it will receive more refugees through family reunification. The volags take applications for family members from the refugees they have previously placed and the refugee population increases while the volags get the per head government payment.
Here is the whole article:
An international humanitarian aid organization will visit Fort Wayne next week to discuss opening a refugee resettlement office in the city.
Five staff members of World Relief Corp., one of the voluntary agencies used by the U.S. State Department to place refugees in American communities, will conduct meetings with churches, business leaders and other support agencies, said Tanya Thomas, World Relief’s north regional director.
Currently, Catholic Charities, in cooperation with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, has been responsible for resettling refugees in this area – including more than 600 Burmese last year, according to the agency.
National representatives of the 10 voluntary agencies responsible for resettling refugees meet weekly to discuss incoming cases. Based on criteria such as community resources, refugees’ geographic preferences or reunifications of families, the federal government assigns each case to a local resettlement office. [Editor: and whether they have deemed the city “welcoming”]
Because Fort Wayne has one of the largest concentrations of Burmese in the U.S. – estimated at more than 3,000 – refugees in camps in Thailand often request to come to the Fort Wayne area.
The frequency of requests for placement in Fort Wayne drew World Relief’s attention, Thomas said.
World Relief’s national staff spoke with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and Indiana’s state refugee coordinator about opening an office in Fort Wayne, and both expressed support, Thomas said.
The office would primarily resettle Burmese of the Karen and Chin ethnic minorities and refugees from a few African and Asian countries.
Local resettlement offices receive less than $500 per refugee from the federal government. [Editor: this is deceptive because the volags receive all sorts of other government grants from other agencies in addition to this fee from the US State Department.]
If the agency decides to open a local office, the timing of its opening would depend on funding, Thomas said.
Debbie Schmidt, executive director of Catholic Charities for the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, said she is uncertain whether there is a need for a second refugee resettlement office in the city. [Editor: Hissssss]
She expressed concern that having two offices might cause confusion among the schools, medical offices and other community agencies that work with refugees.
We have written extensively about the huge refugee community in Ft. Wayne and the problems it has created for taxpayers, especially with the health department of Allen County (the cost of TB treatment alone has been burdonsome).
I discussed the squawk factor the other day in my post on Aurora here. That is World Relief involved there too.