Day: June 22, 2009

Romanians attacked in Northern Ireland, a rise in ethnic nationalism?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Attacks on about 100 families of Romanians in Belfast, No. Ireland appears to be motivated by anger at foreigners and frustration at a declining economic climate in a country that was booming in recent years.   But, I have to say, after scanning several articles I still don’t have a good handle on what is going on.  I wanted to know how the Romanians came to be in Ireland in the first place. 

Finally this article in the Irish Times last Thursday gave me a few useful bits of information.

The Roma people have been a feature of Belfast city life in the past two years. Many of them sell the Belfast Telegraph on the streets. Other are involved in car washing, some sell the Big Issues , others simply beg.

[….]

The attacks began last Wednesday, apparently spontaneously without any motivation apart from racism, and continued in the following days.

[…..]

The overwhelming majority of the families did not speak English, so Maria Fechete, who has made an effort to learn the language in recent months, was delegated to speak on their behalf.

The families “want to go home” to Romania, she said. “I haven’t slept in a week,” she added.

[…..]

He [a friend of the Romanians] said the family told him they came to Northern Ireland out of desperation because there was no work in Romania. He wondered whether they were having second thoughts about their decision.

If anger against foreigners (fellow Europeans no less) is building in Ireland I wonder how they are taking the African, Middle Eastern and Rohingya refugees settling there.

Here is a link to another article about the Romanians.

Uniting American Families Act sounds like more opportunity for fraud

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update later in the day:  It appears that this bill is a way to begin breaking the so-called comprehensive immigration reform bill that was defeated in the summer of 2007, into smaller pieces.  See SEIU website here.

This morning when I was visiting the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) website to prepare my earlier post,  I happened across their pitch for support of the United American Families Act (UAFA) which among other things extends immigration rights to anyone in a “permanent partnership” with someone already here in the US.

We learned that “Permanent partnership” is defined as:

The term “permanent partnership” means the relationship that exists between two permanent partners.

I kid you not!  And, by the way, LIRS (in that pitch linked above) never mentions to its supporters this “permanent partners” business.

Family Reunification is suspended.

We already know that the P-3 Family Reunification program has been suspended worldwide and as far as I know it still is due to widespread immigration fraud resulting from mostly Africans lying on their applications to re-join their supposed “family” in the US.    Now we are going to extend rights to this vague category of permanent partners, and mind you, this does not mean only married partners!

I still want to know how LIRS can spend time and money lobbying Congress.  On their site they tell people how to write to legislators on the UAFA.   Are they using our money, our taxpayer money?  And, shouldn’t they use every bit of time and money taking care of the refugees they are reportedly leaving in a lurch in New Hampshire and elsewhere.

Lutheran Social Services director tells people to ask for refugee bailout

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

Bob Kay, director of Public Policy for Lutheran Social Services of New England*, last Friday asked readers of the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire to write to their elected officials and ask for more money to bailout the refugee program.  

Well, that is reasonable you say, everyone else is asking for a bailout, but it’s his very resettlement agency that was the source of complaints from Iraqi refugees last fall who went so far as to protest in the streets about their treatment by this Lutheran volag.  They weren’t protesting about money, but their treatment!

Here is Kay on Friday:

To accomplish this challenging work, our government subcontracts with nonprofit agencies, like Lutheran Social Services. The vast majority of refugees are highly motivated to succeed in this country. Over time, most refugees adapt well to life in the United States and become productive employees, good neighbors and citizens. But the initial period of resettlement requires the provision of many essential and costly services.

In this area a crisis now exists brought on by years of under-funding. The reserves and fundraising abilities of the resettlement agencies are stretched to the limit. The capacity of local communities to cover these needs could be overwhelmed. Our federal government has resolved to continue resettling refugees and must now provide adequate funding.

As we continue to provide a safe haven for increasing numbers of refugees, please take a moment to make a phone call, send a letter, e-mail or fax to our two senators in Washington and your representative in the U.S. House and ask that the federal program for refugee resettlement be fully funded.  [Edit: it is fully funded they just want additional funding.]

Last fall I wrote a couple of posts on Lutheran Social Services and unhappy Iraqis in NH.  The first is here in September.   And, the second is a month later, here.  

The following is a portion of what I said in the later post.  Note the Iraqi complaints are not about money.

Then there is this curious comment. I say curious, because although I have heard of this before, volags shutting out other volunteer help (it happened in Waterbury, CT), frankly, it makes no sense. You would think these “church group” contractors would be looking for all the help they could get.

Each refugee interviewed for this story said he or she was told by Lutheran staff members not to take help from people outside the agency, a claim that some African refugees in Concord have echoed.

Lutheran Social Services say they just need more money and imply that the Iraqis are irrational due to war trauma.

She [Lutheran rep] said it is caused in part by a lack of funding by the federal government. And, she said, the Iraqis have experienced such trauma that adjusting to their lives here is particularly difficult.

Aleaa hits the nail on the head with this line:

“It’s like we’ve asked for millions of dollars or something,” she said. “They humiliate us. To treat a human with respect, does it require funds?”

Since Kay is asking that readers write to the New Hampshire Congressional delegation to ask for a bailout, maybe readers should also ask for a federal investigation into how Lutheran Social Services has been conducting itself there—-before bailing them out!

Or, instead of writing to Congress, how about lobbying the fat cats who are pushing more immigrants and refugees on us!

My suggestion:   Lobby the big moneybags George Soros, Wade Rathke and Drummond Pike and their fat cat buddies at the Tides Foundation to make up for all the shortfall, afterall it is they who are pushing for more immigrants, especially Iraqis, to flood the US. And, sadly, they have more money than the Federal government! 

* Lutheran Social Services of New England is a subcontractor of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, one of the Top Ten (volag) Government Contractors.