Day: February 2, 2009

AP says bailed-out banks continue to hire foreign workers

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

Although this particular program doesn’t involve refugees, I wanted to mention it because it continues on the theme we have been writing about regarding refugee labor.   The AP story, hat tip Whuptdue, begins:

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The major banks, which have received $150 billion in bailout funds, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.

The numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP’s analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.

The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. Such visas are most often associated with high-tech workers.

Although no doubt there are many do-gooders involved in the open borders and refugee movements, there is also a business component that this AP story confirms.

Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.

Now in the old pre-bailout days, businesses were certainly within their rights to hire whomever they wanted assuming the employees were here legally.  Everything has changed since some businesses have signed a pact with the devil (the federal government!).   Every business that is now wholly or partially owned by the taxpayers will be scrutinized constantly,  by people with all sorts of axes to grind, on such issues as CEO bonuses, what sort of planes they are flying, whether they are redecorating offices and whether they are hiring Americans or not.

Do you think American businesses will be doing much business under the circumstances?

By the way, I meant to mention that last week British workers were protesting the hiring of  foreign workers in the UK.

Role-play a refugee in Davos

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

National Review’s Jay Nordlinger is at the World Economic Forum meeting at Davos and is in the midst of a series of informative and entertaining reports.  Here’s one of his items today:

Here is something different: a “refugee run.” The following has arrived in my inbox: 

Invitation to an event you will never forget: EXPERIENCE LIFE AS A REFUGEE IN DAVOS!

During this year’s Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum, we would like to invite you to an experience unlike any other on the agenda: an opportunity to step into the world of conflict and experience life as a refugee.

Just five minutes’ walk from the Congress Centre [the main building in town], you can enter a simulated environment that will thrust you into a war zone. You will meet a rebel attack, navigate a mine field and battle life in a refugee camp. (Spoiler alert: No harm will come to you!)

A debrief will follow in which you will discuss your experience. . . .

How bizarre. Maybe we should put on a couple of different role-playing opportunities. One could be as a refugee who comes to America thinking he is coming to the Promised Land, only to find himself abandoned by his resettlement agency, not understanding English, living in a bug-ridden, unfurnished apartment and forced to take a job far below his capacities.

Another could be role-playing the citizens of communities suddenly beset without warning by large numbers of strangers who have never lived in a civilized country, make disruptive religious demands in the workplace, wreck apartments, and crash into local drivers.

Or, to keep it to actual refugees before resettlement, what about making role-players stay in one place with nothing to do except listen to radical Muslims teach them about jihad?

There is just no limit to the frivolousness and condescension of elites, is there?

One North Carolina refugee agency cuts back due to economy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..but another vows to keep bringing refugees!

I reported the other day that the Wall Street Journal puts North Carolina at the top of the list of states with rapidly increasing unemployment.  So, when I saw that Lutheran Family Services was wising-up and slowing down the refugees it is bringing to NC, I thought finally they are getting some sense.   From the News & Record:

GREENSBORO – The dismal economy isn’t just having an effect on those who live here. It’s also affecting the lives of those who might have lived here.

Once a hotbed of refugee resettlement activity, Greensboro might be seeing a decline in the number of refugees coming into the area.

With job opportunities and financial support on the wane, one of the area’s largest resettlement agencies is slashing the number of refugees it plans to bring here this year.

Lutheran Family Services in the Carolinas, which brought in 282 refugees in the 12-month span that ended in September 2008, plans to bring in just 185 this year .

“We want to make sure that we’re providing the best services possible,” said Sarah Ivory , the group’s interim director for refugee services.

Criticism mounts.

The move comes as some refugee advocates have criticized resettlement agencies, as well as the federal government, for bringing in more refugees than an ailing economy can handle.

Long-established workers are being laid off or seeing their hours cut. In that environment, finding work for someone who might not speak English and might not have certain skills can be difficult.

The local mosque, which apparently has been taking up the slack in helping refugees, becomes a leading critic!

“This is a crisis. To me, the federal government should just not bring any more refugees here,” said Imam Badi Ali, president of the Islamic Center of the Triad , which assists area refugees. “If we can’t find jobs for American citizens, how are we going to find jobs for the newcomers?”

Sister Amal Sayed , who works closely with refugee families, said when the Islamic Center got involved, they expected to work with a few families.

That has since turned into a flood – some brought by Lutheran Family Services, some by other agencies – with some in desperate straits. One Burmese family with children went without food for two days recently because they didn’t know how to use the bus system to get around the city, she said.

[…..] 

“They need to stop bringing people,” Sayed said. “And they need to take responsibility for the people that are here.”

As Lutheran Family Services gets sensible,  Church World Service says they will move into Greensboro and bring more refugees.  (These volags are always competing with each other for refugee bodies!)

Church World Service , which has maintained an office in Durham, is looking at expanding there and in Greensboro, said Erol Kekic , national director of the agency’s refugee program.

Liar, liar, pants on fire!

Then the Church World Service rep tells a half truth.   He says he has never heard of any refugee being so unhappy they want to return to where they came from.   Church World Service had a Congolese man in our county who could not (or would not) hold a job and was finally evicted from his apartment.   He told authorities that he just wanted to return to Africa.    We hear this all the time.  We hear it especially with the Iraqis who cannot find work.    We propose that these agencies resettling refugees be required to pay the airfare (out of their pocket, not the taxpayers pocket) for anyone not happily resettled and wishing to return to their homeland.

“They’re definitely better off than any situation they came from. There’s no question about that at all,” he said. “I haven’t heard a situation, across the nation, where people are saying, ‘I’m going to just turn around and go back because I was better off in a refugee camp.'”

Note that Mr. Kevic says “refugee camp” and that may be true, maybe none want to return to camps, but many many refugees entering the US were not in camps to begin with!

An afterthought:  Maybe I shouldn’t suggest Mr. Kevic isn’t being truthful, it is possible his big bosses at Church World Service have never told him about the refugees who want to return to their native lands.

Editorial calls for Obama to halt military operations with Thailand over Rohingya incident

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A major international incident is developing over the alleged inhumane treatment by the Thai military of Burmese Rohingya Muslims attempting to enter Thailand illegally.  It is a terribly long story now, so if you are a new reader, see our Rohingya Reports category to catch up.

An extremely critical editorial in The Economist last week, suggests the Obama Administration cancel military war games long planned and desired by Thailand to punish the Thai military for the alleged abuse of the illegal aliens.   This regular military exercise was a reward to Thailand for its staunch support of the US in the cold war.

…..next month America is due to hold annual war games with regional allies in Thailand, a source of prestige for Thai generals. But the cold war is long over. President Barack Obama should threaten to move the games elsewhere until the Thai army is tamed. That would hurt the generals in their soft spot—their self-esteem—while doing little damage to America’s interests or Thailand’s people.

Yes, but Thailand could come back and say, ‘well, US, you take the Rohingyas then!’  And, that is just what lobbying groups like Refugees International want!

Afterall, thanks to the work of Ambassador Malta Molly in turning illegals into refugees, we have been taking Malta’s Muslim illegal alien boat people, so what’s a few more from Thailand.