Readers please visit Friends of Refugees blog here daily to find out all the latest on what the federal refugee contractors are up to. Here is a good post by Christopher Coen on Saturday about refugees continuing to be brought to Las Vegas inspite of Nevada’s extremely high unemployment rate.
The African Community Center and the State Department are continuing to resettle refugees to Las Vegas despite the city’s official unemployment rate of 14.2% (some estimate the “real” unemployment rate is closer to 25%). An article in the Vegas Seven publication extolls African Community Center’s virtues, while not asking any questions….
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Yet, why is the State Department, the African Community Center, and ECDC (Ethiopian Community Development Council) continuing to resettle refugees to a state and city with such a high unemployment rates? Does it make any sense to do so? The ECDC and the African Community Center would no doubt protest that they would have to shut down operations in Nevada if the State Department were to cut the flow of refugees and federal funding, but at what price does this come to refugees to continue to resettle them to a place with such low employment prospects? What is more important, jobs for refugees or jobs for refugee resettlement workers? I guess we know the answer.
The director of the Las Vegas African resettlement agency is Berihun Teferra I wonder if she is any relation to the President of the Ethiopian Community Development Council, Tsehaye Teferra, here.