This is a story from Sign on San Diego:
EAST COUNTY — The hundreds of Iraqis arriving in San Diego County each month face a frustrating problem as they try to create a future here.
They need to learn English to get a job and to keep their welfare benefits until they find work, but English classes have been overwhelmed and unable to provide spaces for many.
Full, full, full!
“All the classes are full,” he said. “Every school is full, full, full.”
The United States began allowing Iraqi refugees to resettle in this country in 2006, and the numbers exploded from 202 that year to 18,838 in 2009. San Diego County, with its established Iraqi community, has taken in more recent refugees than anywhere else in the United States.
About one in four Iraqi refugees arriving in the U.S. comes to San Diego County, according to a March study by San Diego State University demographer John Weeks.
No jobs! No job search, no English classes, no welfare.
Without jobs, the new arrivals apply for welfare, which offers $862 a month for a family of four and $359 a month for a single person. To keep receiving government money, they must spend 35 hours a week looking for work, taking English classes or doing other things to improve their job skills.
Only ten days ago we posted information about Iraqis suffering with no work in California, here.
A few minutes ago I posted a similar story from Idaho, here. And, before that it was Texas and before that it was Virginia and Colorado and North Carolina……