Albany TV station, WNYT, reports that Iraqi refugees are unemployed in that city. Ann reported in February that the refugee agency there, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, was “maxed out” and was asking for volunteers. She also mentioned that Albany is a preferred community for refugee resettlement. Somebody has stepped up to help them.
The Iraqi refugees are being helped by several local groups, including Women Against War and the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace.
One of the men in the story is an English speaking electrical engineer; the other is in IT. They can’t find any work.
Now here’s a question for reporters. We’ve read dozens of stories about unemployed Iraqi refugees. Almost all are just human interest stories. Some give some information about the refugee program, but very few look at their local problem as part of a national phenomenon. I just googled “unemployed Iraqi refugees” and came up with 141,000 hits. Many of these are about refugees abroad, but it looks like just as many are about refugees in the United States. In this era of shrinking media and job losses, wouldn’t you think that some enterprising reporters could do the small amount of research it would take to put their local story into a larger context? Maybe someone higher up would notice.