I suspect this opinion writer () from Ypsilanti, Michigan writing in The Eastern Echo is connected in some way to federal resettlement contractor US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, but there is no mention of his affiliation and we are thus expected to believe he is just a member of John Q. Public.
From The Eastern Echo (emphasis is mine):
Michigan is the best candidate to accept Iraqi and Syrian refugees, not because of its railroads and factories, forests and rivers, or even because of its system of government, but because of Michiganders themselves. Of the many chapters of the American immigration success story, two of its finest – Polish immigration in the early 20th Century and Lebanese immigration half a century later – were written in Michigan. Michigan may yet write a third.
The situation is this: Iraqis and Syrians are fleeing in the tens of thousands, and Michigan is in need of people. Michigan accepting these refugees would not only be generous but practical.
Mr. Peters then goes on with a lot of the mumbo-jumbo about Polish and Italian immigrants as if they are the same as Middle Eastern Muslims in their world view. Then he talks about the Christian Middle Easterners as if that is all they will get from Iraq and Syria. In fact, they will get mostly Muslim refugees from Syria.
The U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a non-profit refugee aid organization, reported that of the more than 120,000 Chaldeans (Iraqi Christians) who made their way to Detroit almost half a century ago, more than half of them are now business-owners, now helping new Iraqi refugees get on their feet in their new state.
Peters: Michigan ought to “welcome” hundreds of thousands!
The crisis in Iraq and Syria is known well enough. Hundreds of thousands are fleeing. And Michigan, a state that has welcomed Middle Eastern refugees before, ought to welcome these hundreds of thousands who are feeling [fleeing?–ed] the region today, and encourage one generation of Middle Eastern Michiganders in preparing the next.
Michiganders need to bombard The Eastern Echo with another point of view!
Michigan is this year in the top five resettlement states, see here. A few years ago the US State Department, fearing Michigan was in overload, slowed the flow (Detroit News 2008) but it looks like that limited moratorium is off now!