The Daily Northwestern tells us about the plight of Sudanese refugees and laments the fact that we aren’t bringing so many these days from Africa, but then goes on to report that volag, World Relief, can’t handle the refugees that are coming. Nevertheless, the US State Department is still sending refugees to Chicago.
“Chicago as a city is really overloaded,” says Christine Deyerler, a Communication senior who interns at World Relief-Chicago, an immigration and refugee aid association that helped Liduba. “Right now they’re taking a lot of Burmese and Iraqi refugees, but not a lot of African ones.”
For those who reach the United States, the first person a new arrival might see is someone such as Deyerler, who often meets refugees up at the airport by prearrangement. The U.S. State Department disseminates highly specific set of services refugees must receive within their first 90 days in the United States, down to the smallest details, such as the number of dishes and mattresses per occupant. The case worker will ferry them to their apartment, the Social Security card office and the grocery store. Within the first week, their children are administered vaccines so they can enroll in school. However, these ready-made accommodations cannot negate the emotional shock of the move.
Chicago is running out of jobs, donations, and furniture even.
“Your status has been ripped,” says Keri Lucas, director of educational services at World Relief. “You are nothing. What’s valuable is handed to you, and you have no concept of the future.”
However, the State Department does not mandate any additional assistance after the first 90 days. More personalized services such as job training, English classes and psychological counseling are often “referred out” to community-based organizations, Lucas said. [Like the American Civic Association in Binghamton]
“The first thing my boss said to me was that Chicago is really exhausted,” Deyerler says. “(World Relief) is running out of donations and jobs slowly. Right now they have no furniture and are trying really hard to get more donations. A lot (of refugees) have to keep going off and on public aid to get by.”
It’s the same old story everywhere these days—-refugees piling into American cities and the agencies contracted to care for them are not fulfilling their contracts with the government. And, it’s not just the economy, these stories could be found all over the US before our economic downturn began, it’s just they weren’t being reported!
I wonder how the State Department is getting around this—their requirement that their contractors supply refugees with the bare minimum to survive and that, in some cases, isn’t being done.
Here for your review is the US State Department’s Operational Guidance for Resettlement Agencies. If you should see this is not being followed by a resettlement agency in your community, please contact the US State Department, Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration to report neglect of basic requirements for refugees.
You will note at the contact page there is no place for anyone to complain. We have advocated for a Complaint Hotline for the refugee program so citizens and refugees could have one place to lodge complaints. I see that hasn’t happened. In the meantime, contact Barbara Day ( daybj@state.gov ) who heads up the portion of the program that manages the resettlement.