I can hardly believe it! I have been on the road for 3 weeks today, have made stops in 8 states and have put over 4,000 miles on my car! In nine more days I’ll be home in Maryland.
The trip to see some refugee overloaded towns (and some proposed resettlement sites) has been beyond my wildest expectations in terms of confirming things I already suspected and for learning some new things as well.
I haven’t figured out yet how best to report, but here are a few impressions (broad generalizations!):
- Refugee resettlement is largely being driven by money! In most places where refugees are deeply entrenched they were directed to a particular site by some industry looking for cheap legal labor.
- Very often local elected officials are in on it because they too are looking for financial rewards.
- Those local officials who object are left pretty much in the dark (they don’t know about R & P Abstracts or stakeholder meetings).
- We have some great activists investigating, comparing notes and becoming ‘community organizers.’
- Those promoting refugee resettlement have basically two weapons: the first is secrecy in the way they operate. The other weapon they have is that they hide under the white hat of humanitarianism and blast any opposition as racist, haters and just plain mean-spirited.
- There is fear among people in some of these communities (besides fear of being called racists)—fear for their safety and fear for their children and grandchildren.
- And, finally one other common thread in many places I visited is that neighborhoods are being changed as Muslims buy up property and put mosques in suburban neighborhoods.
Now to the top three most-read posts of the last week:
Lowell, Massachusetts: Alleged sexual assault by Syrian refugee puts refugee program in the spotlight
Calls for Angela Merkel to step down at huge demonstrations across Germany yesterday
Lobbying arm for refugee resettlement contractors wants US to take 200,000 refugees in FY2017
By the way, top daily posts (those trending are in the right hand side bar).
For new readers!
I had planned to list some resources here at RRW for those of you visiting for the first time, but I am now out of time because I will be hitting the road again this morning.
If you are new here, visit my FAQs (frequently asked questions) above on the header. Click here. There are important links there to help you figure out what is happening near you. See especially ‘Ten things your town needs to know’ here.
Also, be sure to use the search window! Type in a few key words (start with the name of your state) to see if we’ve previously reported on things where you live. For past weekly and monthly reports go here.
Apologies as always! I don’t want you to think I am rude, but I can’t answer all the e-mails I receive!