Day: August 27, 2008

Somali women workers at Sky Harbor get to wear special attire

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update August 28th:  See my post today on CAIR and the EEOC here.

Immediate update thanks to Jim:  When you check out the CAIR link below be sure to first read this latest information from the Investigative Project on Terrorism showing how CAIR is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Here is another of those stories about our accommodation of the cultural/religious wishes of immigrants.  Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix has a Muslim cleaning staff and 30 women refused to wear new uniforms.  So, political activists got involved and the company caved.   Or did it?   Could this have been a set-up?

The Muslim women balked at a planned policy change by their employer, GCA Services, (that’s GCA’s logo pictured here), that would have forced them to wear pants and a tucked-in shirt as they did their janitorial duties.

After discussions between GCA managers, aiport officials, the Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the Somali Association of Arizona, it was agreed the 30 women could wear black skirts and aprons in addition to a white shirt. Their right to wear the Muslim headscarves known as hijabs was never in question, says Hakim Osman of the Somali Association of Arizona.

I would like to know more about GCA Services, does anyone know who owns this company?  Oh, and be sure to read the CAIR link for a laugh!

Here is a previous post about accommodating Somali women in the workplace.

For new readers of RRW, we have resettled over 82,000 Somali refugees to the United States in the last 20 years.

Xenophobia, Xenophobia, Xenophobia! That is all you hear in South Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an update from the so-called Rainbow Nation of South Africa.   You know the country that got rid of Apartheid, ushered in a new (Black) government and opened wide its borders.   After poor black South Africans attacked black immigrants in rioting that spread throughout the country last May, everyone is scratching their heads (bottoms too?) and blaming everything on xenophobia (fear and hatred of strangers).

Here is an article from a week or so ago about a conference of “experts” on refugees and immigration that called for NOT tightening South Africa’s borders.

Experts on refugees and resettlement have warned the government against tightening the country’s borders or making immigration policy restrictive, as this will encourage more xenophobic attacks.

Dr Loren Landau, director of the Forced Migration Studies Programme at The University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) urged the government to transform its migration policy, warning that “making the policy more restrictive would create the perception that migrants or migration are negative”. 

Landau was addressing a conference on curbing xenophobia in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Then read this sidebar article entitled “Digging up the roots of xenophobia.”    I don’t know why this is so complicated.   There are too many people in Africa, the economy stinks, everyone is worried about feeding themselves and their families, they are going to flood any country that offers asylum and a way out (refugee resettlement), consequently,  the citizens of the invaded country fear for their livelihood so they attack those who they think will take it away from them. 

This is not some psychological malady that can be cured by discussing and trying to exorcise “xenophobia,” or suggesting it’s racism (remember these were black on black riots).    What is happening in South Africa is a straightline progression from opening the borders wide, allowing the poor to flood the country and ultimately sinking the country.   Take heed America.

See our archive of posts on the South African immigration crisis here.