Day: June 18, 2008

More evidence we have already brought Rohingya to US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

According to this article, Malaysia is dealing with illegal immigrants too (join the crowd) and although this is a bit confusing it appears that the Burmese Muslim Rohingyas are entering Malaysia illegally.    We’ve been wondering if we are already admitting Rohingya refugees to the US and here is a line from this news letter for a Rohingya human rights group that would suggest we are:

“Previously we discussed with the United States who accepted a few thousand Rohingya to their country,” he said, adding that Malaysia hoped to discuss with other countries to help take in the stateless people.

See our whole category called Rohingya Reports here.

Assertive Somalis not assimilating in Minnesota, so what else is new

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is a story I missed while I was in the wilderness this week with no computer, it is entitled ‘Some Muslims face cultural clash in workplace.’    The article discusses the recent lawsuit filed by Muslim workers at a Tortilla factory who were told they must wear the company’s uniform, see our post here for more on that.

Here are some interesting bits from this article: 

Over nearly 20 years, thousands of Somali refugees have come to the Twin Cities to escape a violent civil war in their homeland. Yet they are not assimilating as fast as some other immigrant populations.

Many who maintain Muslim prayer times during the workday and wear modest clothing have been fired from manufacturers across the state. And Minnesota courts have seen an increase in religious discrimination complaints.

“For the average Minnesotan, this is entirely new,” said Bruce Corrie, an economist at Concordia University who specializes in immigration research. “The Somali community is highly assertive and politically engaged. … It’s part of who they are as a people.”

“We have a saying in Somalia that ‘he who approaches the lion does not know what a lion is,'” said Abdi Sheikhosman, an Islamic law professor at the University of Minnesota. “Many Somalis arrive here not knowing the history of racial divide in this country. They don’t know the lion they are up against.”

Excuse me Mr. Sheikhosman, this is not about race, it is about culture and a refusal by some immigrants to be a part of our culture.  Our so-called “lion”, the race issue, has effectively been killed by the nomination of a black man as a candidate for President.  The race issue is only kept alive by people like Mr.S. keeping it alive and this reporter throwing it in in the middle of an article about culture.   Oh, and I will remind readers that it is black Americans who have been clashing with African immigrants in some of our cities.

Back to the article at hand: 

Nationally, religious discrimination complaints have nearly doubled since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In Minnesota, Muslims filed 45 such cases with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2007, up from eight in 2004.

For Abdisalam Adam, director of the Dar Al-Hijrah Cultural Center in Minneapolis and an imam at an area mosque, the issue comes down to cultural differences.

“You would think this would have been more of an issue in 1993 or 1994,” when Somalis started arriving in the Twin Cities in large numbers, he said. “But now, Somalis and employers have gotten to know each other, and the situation is only getting worse.”

So, things are getting worse as more and more Somalis arrive and refuse to assimilate.

Mr. S. then makes an interesting admission. 

Sheikhosman says Somalis are also different from other immigrants because many hope to return to their home after the civil war, so they see assimilation as less of a priority.

What!   We are spending all this taxpayer money to bring Somalis here, so that employers can have cheap laborers who refuse to assimilate and who are planning to go home to Africa anyway?