They are changing America by changing the people
Your chances of being granted refugee status are minuscule according to this report (Iceland Review Online):
Roughly 6.5 percent of applications for asylum in Iceland have been accepted so far this year. A total of 128 of the 137 applications processed by the end of September were rejected,
Maybe Malta, another tiny EU country, should take a lesson.
No mention however of deportation.
Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be beaten up in the western media for refusing to condemn her co-religionists in the on-going conflict between Rohingya Muslims and Buddhists in Burma (aka Myanmar).
And, why should you, living in American cities and towns, care what is going on in Burma?
Because we have been resettling tens of thousands of Burmese, largely Christian refugees for years. In FY2013 we resettled 16,299 refugees from Burma (how many were Burmese Muslims?).
Increasingly there will be Muslim Rohingya among them especially if the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has its way.
I don’t have the time or energy to go back through the controversy, but I can assure you there is blame to be shared and the Rohingya are not pure as the driven snow as this Rohingya author (at the Huffington Post) would have you believe. In my view, Aung San Suu Kyi is correct when she gave an interview to the BBC and did this:
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s interview with the BBC during her visit to the UK, has shocked many of her admirers. Despite being repeatedly pressed to do so, she repeatedly avoided giving a clear unequivocal condemnation of the anti-Muslim violence that is engulfing Burma.
Author Tun Khin can barely contain himself. If it quacks like a duck!
Daw Aung San Suu Kyi also started talking about global Muslim power, as if this is some kind of threat to Burma? To hear a Nobel Peace Prize winner talking in the same way about Islam as bigots and racists is very disappointing. There are conspiracy theories about a global Muslim conspiracy to take over Burma, but these kind of things are spread by crazy people on Facebook. It is not what you expect from a University educated leader of a democracy movement. Instead of dismissing these claims as the dangerous nonsense they are, she gave them credibility in the eyes of many Burmese.
Count me among the crazy people!
We have 157 previous posts in our Rohingya Reports category, here, for anyone who wants to get the full picture going back 6 years on the growing conflict. You will note that we have begun resettling Rohingya to American cities despite earlier reluctance by the State Department to do so.
We’ve written about so-called “climate refugees” 31 previous times (see our archive here) and noted that there is an on-going kerfuffle between the environmentalists who want to use the term “climate refugee” and humanitarians who don’t want to sully the word “refugee,” or more precisely don’t want to go too far astray from the definition of a refugee as a person who is persecuted under the Geneva Convention.
So, here is an interview with a woman who works for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) which is also basically a federal contractor that processes refugees overseas before they come to the US. In the interview Ms. Ionesco dances around the “climate refugee” term and in the end makes clear that they must find a jazzy term for “environmental migrants” to build public relations around.
From Deutsche Welle:
Dina Ionesco has been working at the International Organization for Migration (IOM) since 2011 in the field of climate change and the environment. She coordinates IOM’s participation at international climate negotiations, establishes partnerships with other institutions or training programs and writes for IOM’s publications.
The Geneva-based IOM fights for the rights of migrants around the world. The organization’s predecessor was founded in 1951 to address migration issues following World War II. Today, the IOM includes 151 member states.
Global Ideas: Ms. Ionesco, a man named Ioane Teitota from the island of Kiribati has sparked a global debate because he’s the first person ever to seek asylum for his family as climate refugees. He says his family has no future in their country because of rising water levels. Now, New Zealand has to decide whether to grant him asylum in a landmark case. You work for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), one of the most important global aid groups for migrants. Would the IOM recognize Ioane Teitota as a climate refugee? [We discussed the New Zealand case here.—ed]
Dina Ionesco: New Zealand will have to decide based on the case. It’s the prerogative of the state to decide what is considered a reason to grant asylum. Our organization is only there to offer a platform for countries to discuss issues and also to work together to innovative solutions and bring things to the agenda.
We, at the IOM don’t use the ‘climate refugee’ terminology because it’s not directly in the Geneva Convention which officially lays down when somebody is recognized as a refugee. It would be an interpretation and we can’t do that. What matters for us is that in a case like this, the rights of a person are recognized, that the best solution is found for the rights of the migrant. Refugee is a term from the Geneva Convention that has to show persecution for gender, for religion, for conflict, war – it’s very specific.
[…..]
[Global ideas] Still, the IOM does make clear that climate change can be a driver of migration. Your member states agreed back in 2007 to use the term ‘environmental migrant’ right?
[Ionesco] Yes, this definition is the result of 20 years of hard work. It’s now used often in the international debate but it’s also criticized a lot.
[Global ideas] The IOM maintains that its definition doesn’t carry any normative consequences, but rather describes what an environmental migrant is. If it doesn’t have any consequences, why do you need a term for it?
[Ionesco] We need it in order to sensitize people that environmental changes play a huge role in triggering human migration. And we need it as an advocacy tool so that environment matters and migration are given more importance on a political policy level.
It is incredible that throughout human history people have moved due to changing environmental conditions and it is only now we must figure out who is going to pay for this—-either financially or through a loss of sovereignty (the bottomline of the so-called advocacy)—otherwise, why does anyone care what terminology is used.
A few months ago we set a goal to attract 30 new followers in a month (an appropriate goal for a narrowly focused blog). I’m happy to report that for the month of October we added 67 followers as subscribers and facebook followers.
Just a reminder, we are on facebook (Refugee Info Resource) and much to my great surprise are reaching thousands with some of our posts. Many posts get 100 or 200 views but, here are some that must have gone around the world in the last few weeks (all posted in October):
4,794 viewed Somalis in South Africa
8,044 viewed UN wants to move 30,000 Syrians to the West
4,604 viewed First Congolese arrive in Lancaster, PA
and 6,504 viewed UK Mirror story about Turkish gangs moving Syrians into Europe.
‘Like’ us on Facebook here! And, send our posts to your facebook friends!
We are also on twitter! Here at AnnC@RefugeeWatcher.
If you don’t want to miss a post, you have three options to receive notification: in your e-mail inbox as a subscriber (see upper left corner of this page), on facebook, or on twitter!
What do you think the odds are that a paper like the Sacramento Bee would publish a press release from us verbatim as if its a news story? Zip, zero, nada! However, if what a refugee resettlement CONTRACTOR says (because they are good people) is published with nary a critical commentary.
Here is most of a press release from Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services (LIRS) published today in a paper near you! LIRS is one of nine major federal contractors resettling refugees, but note (LOL!) they still call them “voluntary agencies.”
Headline is: LIRS Helps U.S. Reach Refugee Admissions Target for First Time Since 1980 (emphasis is mine):
WASHINGTON, Oct. 31, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) resettled over 10,000 refugees in fiscal year 2013, thereby contributing, as America’s second-largest resettlement agency, to the United States reaching its refugee admissions target for the first time since 1980.
“LIRS has resettled 10,095 refugees in 2013, including many refugee kids who arrived without a parent or guardian and in desperate need of protection and human care,” said Terry Abeles, LIRS Director for Refugee Resettlement. “This achievement comes as we approach our 75th anniversary in 2014, and marks an important new milestone in a history in which we’ve helped nearly 400,000 refugees rebuild their lives.”
[Readers, up until 1980 they may have helped refugees out of Christian charity, today they receive millions of taxpayer dollars to bring immigrants to your towns and they hope to have even a larger clientele when (if!) Comprehensive Immigration Reform becomes law.—ed]
“LIRS is proud to have worked with our outstanding affiliates to play a key role in the nationwide effort that brought 69,930 refugees to safety and new lives in the United States in fiscal year 2013,” said Abeles. “That number is nearer to the authorized ceiling – 70,000 in 2013 – than in any year since 1980.”
“Reaching this threshold demonstrates this Administration’s efforts to create a refugee admissions program that meets the important security screening standards required by the American people and the growing humanitarian need,” added Abeles. “Research shows that refugees become successfully employed, tax-paying citizens and contribute in a relatively short period of time to the well-being of the United States.”
In fiscal year 2013, refugees were resettled in 186 communities in 49 states. For FY2014, President Barack Obama has authorized the admission of up to 70,000 refugees. Over 60 nationalities are expected to be admitted, with continued strong arrivals from Iraq, Burma, and Bhutan.
“Thousands of people overseas and across the United States make the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program possible each year,” added Abeles. “Their successes are a testament to the effective partnership between the public and private sectors, and express America’s commitment to being a country of refuge.”
LIRS welcomes refugees and migrants on behalf of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, and the Latvian Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, thereby following God’s call to welcome and lifting up the importance of congregations in the work of welcome.
In the next paragraph they say they are lobbying for “comprehensive immigration reform.”
Check out LIRS’s digs at “Don’t break our rice bowls!” (LIRS income $31 million and $30 million is from you, the taxpayer!)
CEO Linda Hartke says this year they are going to put a focus on bringing Banyamulenge Tutsis from the Democratic Republic of Congo to your towns!