So, as I just said in my previous post, North Dakota is looking for more refugees this fiscal year, while Ohio isn’t. Seems a downturn in the economy, and a reduction in state spending for welfare is making Ohio less attractive as a refugee magnet. (But, don’t ask me what North Dakota has to offer in the way of jobs!).
Educated Iraqis are among those going to Ohio, but as we have pointed out on many previous occasions they are not finding jobs that are commensurate with their training. See our Iraqi category for the many posts on unhappy Iraqis. From the Columbus Dispatch:
The flow of refugees being resettled in central Ohio seems to be slowing, and the newest arrivals will include some who are well-educated and speak fluent English.
The class of 2009 includes Iraqis who became political targets in their homelands after helping U.S. forces, perhaps as translators.
One thing remains unchanged: In Ohio, “Franklin County is, by far, the largest county for handling refugees,” said Douglas E. Lumpkin, the county’s human-services director.
But, he noted, “We are seeing a slowdown.”
The U.S. State Department has told Franklin County Job and Family Services to expect 515 refugees between now and September 2009.
That’s less than half of the 1,215 refugees the county was told to expect this year, or the 1,110 anticipated in 2007. Not all those refugees actually showed up, shaping a more-realistic federal estimate for 2009 resettlements.
Ohio didn’t get all the anticipated Africans last year because of the rampant fraud found in the Refugee Resettlement program in Africa.
Paul Fraunholtz, deputy director of the Ohio Job and Family Services family-stability office, keeps an eye on trends in the urban counties that absorb refugees.
Last year at this time, Franklin County was told to expect 1,095 African refugees. With a quarter of the year yet to go, he found that 182 actually showed up.
“What played out was that U.S. government officials started scrutinizing Africans who were being resettled claiming family reunification,” he said. “They’re actually doing DNA testing now” to determine whether they’re really part of the same family.
The new policy slowed the flow that, since 1999, has brought more than 5,200 Somali refugees from Africa to Ohio. Other Somalis have moved here to join friends or relatives after arriving in other parts of the United States.
Yup, and I bet all those Somalis who slipped in before the DNA testing got underway are now registered to vote for Obama!