Month: February 2011

Refugees leaving Chicago looking for work…

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

……or looking to escape crime? Or, both?

This is your basic refugee warm and fuzzy story about refugees finding new lives in the suburbs of Chicago.  It is also a prime example of why RRW exists.  The media penchant to gloss over problems in refugee resettlement that do not fit the political Leftwing world-view must be balanced.

Census figures have come out recently to show the flow outward from Chicago’s slums, where the refugees were first resettled by federal contractors, to surrounding suburbs.

From Medill Reports:

New waves of refugees are branching outwards from Chicago to surrounding suburbs adding to growing diversity in adjacent counties.

Job opportunities [?], increasing numbers of refugee organizations [federal contractors increasing in number?], desire for better education for their children and a semblance of their homeland contribute to this trend, according to refugee experts.

The U.S. Census Bureau Wednesday released 2010 census data confirming a 10-year exodus from Chicago to the suburbs. Refugees who continue to be part of that wave face intimidating lifestyle changes. Lack of easy access to public transportation and less ethnic and religious diversity can pose challenges for refugees living in suburbs.

[…..]

It is estimated that there are currently 136,000 refugees in Illinois with 40 percent, or 54,400, residing in the suburbs.

Silverman (below) says they are moving out for jobs, but then says refugees are unemployed. Which is it?

And, no where in this article does it mention Silverman* coming under fire here for earlier resettling refugees in crime-ridden slums in Chicago.  I’ll bet the US State Department told Silverman and the contractors to get them the h*** out of Chicago.

Edwin Silverman, chief of the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services, said approximately 136,000 refugees live in Illinois. Up until five years ago, 85 percent of refugees lived in Chicago. But that has decreased to about 60 percent now, Silverman said.

“Part of the reason is that one organization, World Relief, has offices in Wheaton and Aurora and they have had greater access to jobs,” Silverman said. “So it’s mainly been a jobs issue – because of the recession, refugees have remained unemployed.”   [readers, I believe this is why no legally mandated annual reports are coming out of ORR.  They don’t want to show the unemployment numbers for refugees.]

Affordable housing in short supply in the suburbs (not surprising) and I am skeptical about whether the resettlement contractors are working with local government.  They weren’t doing that two years ago.

Wouldn’t you think the reporter for Medill would do a little googling?  Here, Friends of Refugees reports on the living conditions World Relief has provided for refugees in Aurora.

Suburban organizations also have to work with local government and schools to make sure their towns can handle more refugees each year.  [In 2008 I reported that Aurora was having a difficult time with too many refugees, here].

Finding affordable housing for refugees is another issue for organizations to consider. [In competition with low income Americans—ed]

Meanwhile, the refugee defender outfit, Illinois Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (funded largely by taxpayers), is busy helping to “organize” in Egypt, here.

* Learn more about Edwin Silverman here and how he and representatives of the State Department treated a critic of their Chicago resettlement policies.

Afghan refugee sentenced to life for murder of fellow refugee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Since I’m on the subject of Australia this morning (see my previous post) this is an update of a story I thought I posted when the arrest was made, but maybe not.   Osman Ahmadyar was sentenced to life for the brutal torture and murder of fellow Afghan asylum seeker (they came to Australia as boat people).

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

An Afghan refugee has been sentenced to life in prison, with a minimum of 17 years to be served, for murdering another refugee in Perth.

Osman Ahmadyar, 38, pleaded guilty to murdering Abed Ahymad Shah, 29, at his unit in the southern Perth suburb of Victoria Park in February 2009.

The WA Supreme Court heard on Friday that the pair came to Australia on the same asylum seeker boat in 2001.

Read on about the awful details.

And here is another story from Australia last year where an Afghan refugee honor-killed his wife.

To learn more about refugee issues in Australia, visit our Australia category here.

Comment worth noting: Australia’s failed experiment with multiculturalism worse than Europe’s

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is Australian reader B.L.’s response to the post in which we reported that a petition had been filed in Australia to halt Muslim immigration for ten years.   B.L. is referencing recent reports from Europe, here, about the failure of multiculturalism in the UK, France and Germany.

B.L.:

We all wish for the sake of a better and more peaceful world don’t we? Unfortunately, reality isn’t so nice and this petition won’t have any legs to stand on in this gutless and left driven parliament of ours.

Let me remind readers that my country of Australia has problems with Arab Muslims on a daily basis here. In this country they have a notorious reputation for crime and disregard for society at large. They strategically have outspoken community leaders that cry foul at the very onset of anything that remotely attacks their race, culture or religion, even though what is said is absolutely true. The very sad thing is these community and religious leaders succeed under the blanket of political correctness. Surely Australia’s present state is worse than Europe’s. The political correctness disease has spread so much here due to the government’s cowardliness and the Muslim communities constant protests that it wouldn’t be far fetched to imagine Sharia Law being implemented in the not so distant future here. Perceivably, one would swear that Arab Muslims can do absolutely what they please in our communities without fear of reprisal.

It is just an absolutely shocking state of affairs here but the saddest part maybe that the average Australian is too ignorant or has fallen prey to the government’s multiculturalism propaganda even though it slaps them in their face on a daily basis.

Has the exodus from Egypt begun?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It begins—Italy is reporting Egyptians have begun arriving in boats.  But wait!  This can’t be!  Egypt is free now.  Egypt had a peaceful revolution (I swear that is what the news media has told us).  The people got what they wanted, right?

From AP at the Washington Post:

GENEVA — Nearly 100 Egyptians have arrived in Italy in two boats, international migration officials said Wednesday, as fears rose about a wave of people trying to reach Europe because of turmoil in the Arab world.

This week, a large boat carrying 66 migrants, including 10 possible minors, was intercepted in Sicily, close to Pozzallo, the Geneva-based International Organization for Migration said Wednesday. Another boat carrying 30 migrants, all but four of them under the age of 18, landed nearby in Ragusa, the group said.

More than 5,330 Tunisians have already arrived the Italian island of Lampedusa, off the coast of Africa.

You watch, this will turn into the big excuse to bring an even larger number of refugees to the US.

Migration officials say it’s too early to conclude there will be an exodus from Egypt.

“(Still) any kind of change has always been the trigger for some kind of human movement and it seems to be a moment for people to seize the change around them,” IOM spokesperson Jemini Pandya said Wednesday.

Simply because people have overthrown a dictator does not mean they can suddenly find jobs or feed their families, Pandya said, noting that the collapse of the old regime can create greater opportunities for escape.

European governments are bracing for a large influx of migrants due to turmoil in the Middle East…

Read on.

If you are sitting in the United States and thinking this is Europe’s problem, forget it.   The precedent was set during the Bush Administration when the US State Department transformed Africans arriving illegally on the island of Malta into refugees and brought them to the US.   I began writing about it in 2007.  The Obama administration has continued the practice under Republicans-for-Obama and Catholic Ambassador Kmiec.  Here is one recent post on this terrible precedent.  Refugees are to seek asylum in the first country in which they land—not make it a way station to America!

Be on guard! If there was ever a time to protest refugee resettlement this will be it! American Leftist/Marxist/Islamist agitators helped precipitate the Egyptian revolution let them deal with the fallout there, not in our towns and cities.

House voting today on cuts to immigration programs and cuts for refugee funding

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Action Alert!

This is a day for any of you who are concerned about your tax dollars going to federal contractors like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops I told you about earlier this morning, here, to contact your Congressman and let him or her know what you think about spending for more immigration and more immigrants.

MicEvHill (for February 16th) has a whole list of items to possibly be cut and I am overjoyed to see that there is a move to stop all funding for the Diversity Visa Lottery.  I just mentioned this incredible program recently that allows tens of thousands of immigrants to simply enter a lottery to add more diversity to America.  Just look at the countries sending us DIVERSITY!

Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA) has proposed an amendment #225 to kill the funding for the Diversity Visa!  Tell your Congressman to vote for the Goodlatte Amendment to HR 1 (the continuing resolution for FY2011 funding).

See MicEvHill here for more possible amendments seeking to cut refugee program funding.

Numbers USA is urging action on these immigration funding issues today (green is good, red is bad).