I have two complaints about this story, ‘Would-be business owners move one step closer to dream.‘
First, the next time you hear some open borders advocates saying immigrants create more new businesses, please remember that the immigrants get special loan deals and government-funded training to become “entrepreneurs.” You can bet there is no program like this one for some poor American women living in a mobile home community who might like to set up a daycare for their kind of people.
Then secondly, if we expect refugees to become integrated (oops! assimilated) wouldn’t the kids be better off in daycare (if they needed daycare) where people speak English and do activities that most Americans do instead of in ethnically and culturally segregated daycare centers? Don’t get me wrong, if people want to stay segregated, I’m o.k. with that, it is a free country, I just don’t think federal taxpayer dollars should be used to facilitate segregation.
We have written about this topic before, but here is the latest story, this time from the Milwaukee Courier (hat tip: Joanne):
Refugees who have the dream of starting their own business are closer to making that a reality.
The participants of the Refugee Childcare Microenterprise Development Project are working to start their own home-based daycare businesses.
The program designed to help refugees is a project of the Social Development Commission (SDC) in partnership with the Pan African Community Association and the Multicultural Entrepreneurial Institute (MEI).
The participants have been taking classes to gain the knowledge and certification needed to start and successfully operate their own home-based childcare business.
[….]
The program participants said that it has been very challenging to reach this point in their efforts, pointing specifically to cultural and language barriers that have presented problems. [So, what language will they speak in their daycare centers?—ed]
Federal grant program at ORR funds this (well, actually you do!). Grant program expanded!
Here is information on the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement funding that was more than doubled in 2012 for Microenterprise/Home based child care:
In FY2012, ORR increased funding to the program, raising it from $2.225 million to $5,752 million, and offering grants to a total of 34 agencies.
And, get this! In order to qualify one cannot be a US citizen!
All low.income refugees who are not citizens are eligible for services under this program.
The Milwaukee Social Development Commission is one of the grant recipients.
I’ll betcha there are some potential lawsuit angles in this taxpayer-funded program. I wonder if there are any American citizen women in Wisconsin who are struggling to set up daycare centers and having problems doing so, either with paperwork/permits or lack of start-up money?