They want to know how many, and why, Somalis previously resettled in the US (MOST Somalis in the US came through refugee resettlement***) are returning to their ‘home’ in Africa. Researchers say they will have the results soon.
I want to know why if American Somalis are traveling back and forth to Somalia (as this article reports), then why are we still taking thousands of new Somali refugees fleeing to America?
From Twin Cities Daily Planet:
Though the number of people returning is “impossible to quantify,” signals such as airlines flying daily to the capital of Mogadishu or “chatter in the community about returning” can’t be ignored, said Ryan Allen, principal researcher and assistant community and economic development professor.
Humphrey research consultant Kadra Abdi said other research has looked at the financial side of people returning, but they wanted to focus on the social aspect.
Allen and his research team have so far completed about 60 oral interviews with Twin Cities residents who have returned to Somalia, most of whom were men in their late 20s or 60s.
The researchers presented their findings last month in Washington, D.C., to the National Security Council and the State Department, among other stakeholders. Since the study is ongoing, the findings are currently preliminary. But Allen said he hopes to finish the data collection by the end of May.
There is more, read it all yourself.
I hate that “stakeholder” word because, you the taxpayers, are never included as a stakeholder!
***For new readers: We have admitted well over 100,000 Somali refugees to the US. To check out the numbers visit this post, one of our most widely read posts over the last few years. It is a little out of date, but you get the idea.
In the first six months of this fiscal year we have admitted 3,708 additional Somalis.
Also, after being closed for years, the US State Department has resumed the Somali family reunification program that admitted tens of thousands of Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008 before a moratorium halted the program. The frauds were not found and deported!