Iraqis top the list of refugees admitted to the US in FY2013

Iraqi refugees in Springfield, Mass. disappointed in America. Photo: Dave Roback The Republican

As you know, the fiscal year ended on September 30th and the numbers are in.  Go here (Refugee Admissions Report as of Sep 30, 2013) and see for yourself.

For fiscal year 2013 the Obama Administration wanted 70,000 refugees (the same number they are shooting for in 2014***) and came awfully close with 69,930.  The contractors, who are used to coming in way under the goal, are probably jumping for joy since they are paid by the head to bring refugees to your towns and cities.

Iraqis top the list with 19,491 resettled!

Burma comes in at number two with 16,299.

Bhutan (Nepal): 9,134

Somalia:  7,608  (a very high number compared to recent years)

Cuba:  4,205

Iran:  2,579

DR Congo:  2,563  (that is just a starter, we are expected to take 50,000 in the next few years).

Of note:  we admitted 164 Palestinians, a small number, but as you know Palestinians are not usually resettled around the world.

*** We are waiting anxiously for the report to Congress that accompanies the Presidential Determination. Let us know if you see it!

The photo is from a story I didn’t have time to post from The Republican in Springfield, Mass.   It’s the first story I’ve seen in awhile where Iraqis complain about their lives here.  For awhile, a few years ago, it seemed there were weekly reports of unhappy Iraqis.  See our Iraqi refugee category (590 posts!), here, for more.

Lampedusa: Refugees breed ill will

Lampedusa is closer to Africa than it is to Italy

Life is harsh for Italians on Lampedusa and it has been made even more challenging with the arrival (or the sinking) of each new boat filled with African and Middle Eastern migrants that ends up on its shores.

See the latest news that has European immigration officials in distress.

Here is an article (from AFP), spawned by the mass drowning, well worth reading (hat tip: pungentpeppers) about the resentment the local residents have to refugees who, in life or in death, get more government benefits than they do.  Lampedusa’s lament….

Lampedusa — Islanders on Europe’s southern edge have become used to tragedy and trauma, they see it every day in the thousands of asylum seekers who land on their shores — and they say they have had enough.

The locals of the remote fishing community on Lampedusa island rush to help every time but their patience is wearing thin as they see government funds allocated to migrants and not to them.

“Here it’s the dead that keep the economy going,” said Silvana Martelli, a waitress, as divers fished out bodies after a shipwreck in which over 300 African refugees are feared to have died.

“It doesn’t feel like our island anymore. There’s money to take care of the immigrants while the schools fall apart and rubbish piles up,” she said.

As European ministers discuss the refugee crisis at talks in Luxembourg on Tuesday, this type of local resentment is a concern for governments that see the problem before them but do not want to risk being seen as a soft touch on immigration.

With a resident population of just a few thousand people, Lampedusans are sometimes outnumbered by the new arrivals before they are transferred to asylum centres on the Italian mainland.

In a corner of the harbour, the blue and red fishing boats daubed in Arabic script that are used for the landings lie discarded —

Read on about problems such as burying this many people on a tiny island, here.