A week ago today, reader George Benedict said I wasn’t being truthful when I commented that resettlement agencies are required to find jobs for refugees and I suggested they would somehow be hurt financially if they did not. Mr. Benedict said that was not true, he said there was no obligation on the part of agencies to find jobs for refugees.
I asked Mr. Benedict to write a guest post to explain how I was wrong and I am still looking for it. Here is what I said in response to Mr. Benedict’s criticism at this post about Everett, WA.
Dear Mr. Benedict, It sounds like you work for a resettlement office and since the main reason we began writing this blog in the first place was to get information out to the public on how the program works—it strikes us that its inner workings are a closely held secret. Would you write a guest post for us with the focus on your statement:
“IN FACT – the USA volags and resettlement agencies get NO MONEY for finding people jobs!! As a matter of fact, they have no obligation or legal responsibility to find any type of jobs for refugees. IN FACT the resettlement agencies get all of their money upfront from the USA government and their pay and reputation has NOTHING to do with finding the refugees jobs!”
In your guest post, please explain especially how the Match Grant program works and its connection to finding jobs within a certain time frame in addition to explaining, as you say, that there is no legal obligation to find refugees jobs. I wonder how that can be when the agencies we hear are so hell-bent on finding employment for the refugees—why hurry if there is no obligation to find them work. And, if an agency doesn’t find work for a large number of its refugees will they be alotted more refugees in the future?
Please help clarify. You can write your guest essay as a comment here and I will post it prominantly as a post linked to this post on Everett, WA.
Thanks and look forward to your explanation about how I have made misleading statements.