…..and more federal dollars to fund them (well, to fund the contractors).
There is nothing unusual about Wisconsin. Everyone is going to get more refugees and Washington will surely have the funds flowing to the contractors* now that the Obama Administration is free to go full steam ahead.
If you live in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh, here they come.
From AP at Fox 11:
MADISON (AP) – Agencies in six Wisconsin communities will receive a total of $1.5 million to help resettle new refugees.
The state Department of Children and Families says the latest refugees arriving in Wisconsin are mainly from Burma, East Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nepal. To receive refugee status, a person must have a well-founded fear of persecution and not be able to safely return to their home country. [LOL! Now they are saying East Africa so as not to say Somalis.—ed]
That definition of a refugee is important. It used to mean that the individual refugee had a fear of persecution, now one only needs to be from a certain region of the world and one is assumed to be persecuted. The refugee industry has long wanted that expanded definition and now they have just made it so. And, hey, didn’t Obama tell us that Iraq and Afghanistan are safe—after all, he says we don’t need our military there! Somalia has a new government and is encouraging its people to come home. And, who is persecuting in Nepal?
AP continues:
The state has funded refugee programs using federal money, beginning with the Hmong resettlement in Wisconsin. Local agencies provide a host of services to the refugees, including language and literacy classes, school enrollment, job information and mental health services. [You pay for all of this!—ed]
The funding has been targeted for agencies in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh. About 1,000 new refugees are expected to settle in Wisconsin this year.
For Wisconsin readers, you can learn more about refugees in Wisconsin here at your state agency website. Five of nine federal contractors appear to have divvied up Wisconsin.
An afterthought: Just as I hit publish I remembered that I wanted to mention that one of the bits of information for you to note at the Wisconsin website might answer an oft-asked question, namely, do refugees who come as senior citizens get social security? The answer is yes—for up to nine years. SSI will continue past that time if they become US citizens:
A refugee senior must naturalize within nine years of arrival or lose eligibility for SSI.
* The ORR website is down, but for new readers the big nine contractors who hold a monopoly on federal contracts are:
The so-called “religious ” contractors receiving tax dollars:
US Conference of Catholic Bishops (we just mentioned them yesterday, here)
Church World Service
Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services
World Relief
Episcopal Migration Ministries
Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society
The secular contractors:
US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants
International Rescue Committee
Ethiopian Community Development Council