North Carolina: Refugee magnet in sour economy

The headline for this story from the News & Observer from Raleigh, NC, “Despite economy, refugees still flock here” implies that refugees look at a map of the US from some dismal camp half a world away and pick North Carolina.  They don’t, in fact until they get on a plane most have no clue where they will be deposited.   North Carolina is one of the states suffering the most from unemployment, yet volags (supposedly voluntary agencies) such as Church World Service just keep bringing them in.  The volags choose!

One of the main points that attracted my attention in this story is that the volag public relations machine tells reporters that all the refugees come from god-forsaken camps and so any living conditions in America are better than what they had.  Well, it isn’t true.  Yes, the Burmese and Bhutanese were in camps, but the Iraqis (the largest group arriving in the US) were not in camps, nor were the Meshketian Turks (Russian Muslims) that Church World Service ‘s subcontractor Virginia Council of Churches was bringing to the county where I live.   We were told some of them had homes to sell before coming to the US.

Refugee agencies say that most refugees find ways to manage, no matter how tight their finances. After months or years of living in refugee camps, sometimes without such basics as running water, they don’t expect luxuries.

Actually that last part is not true.  We have reported about 20 times that Iraqis do “expect luxuries” and maybe that is why they aren’t very popular with the resettlement agencies—-they aren’t grateful enough!

In the opening lines of this News & Observer article, longtime critic of the Refugee Resettlement Program, Don Barnett, had this to say.

Refugees get cash assistance from the government for up to eight months. After that, they are eligible for the same government welfare programs that other U.S. residents may receive. Many also get support from churches and community organizations.

Don Barnett, a former State Department employee, has become a well-known critic of the U.S. refugee program. He says the government has started bringing in refugees who struggle to assimilate. He cites a 2005 report from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which surveyed refugees who arrived in the previous five years. It showed that more than half were receiving food stamps and 39 percent were using Medicaid.

Those who find jobs hurt the labor market for native workers, especially now, said Barnett, a software developer who lives in Nashville, Tenn.

“They are taking some pretty lousy jobs,” he said. “It’s allowed corporate America to keep some abusive models, and it’s had a significant impact on keeping wages down.” [See Center for Immigration Studies report here on immigrant labor depressing wages.]

The state report says refugees who found employment recently earn an average of $8.50 an hour.

These North Carolina refugees are now so fortunate, thanks to the employment services of the humanitarians at Church World Service and any other volags operating in North Carolina,  that they get to work in a chicken processing plant.   So what else is new!

Several dozen refugees from Myanmar recently started commuting two hours each way to a Perdue chicken processing plant in Rockingham. Some are paying a transportation service to take them to and from work each day.

I would like to know, but no one ever asks, does Perdue (or Swift & Co. or Tysons Food) give charitable contributions to Church World Service for the employment services it provides?

Endnote:  We have written about North Carolina many times, use our search function at the left to find more posts.  However, please be sure to return to this one in February where I discussed the inter-volag competition for territory in NC.

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