Refugee resettlement is driven by a desire for cheap compliant labor, not humanitarianism

“….these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say ‘yes’ when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival.”

(Lavinia Limon, CEO USCRI)

 

Ten years ago, when I first started writing this blog, NO ONE ever said a word publicly about refugee admissions being desirable for big business, especially for BIG MEAT, so it is gratifying to see stories like this one at the LA Times (even if it’s spun to sound like a good thing for the struggling refugees) that tells us the truth.

(See Bloomberg earlier, here. And, the NYT here.)

It is past time for the truth!

If we need laborers willing to work cheap, just say so!

I want to say to the refugee resettlement contractors—cut the c***! Stop propagandizing that refugees, like these Muslims in the story, are here out of the goodness of your hearts (and America’s heart!).

This is about money and the reason that there is no real effort by the Republican establishment to reform the US Refugee Admissions Program is because BIG MEAT (BIG CHICKEN AND TURKEY TOO!) is lobbying and surely contributing to the campaign coffers of RINOs (and Democrats!).

It is also about reliable Democrat (Union!) voters.

An aside: I wish him only the best, but surely you noticed that one of those injured on the baseball field that day with Rep. Steve Scalise was a lobbyist for Tyson Foods (huge consumer of refugee labor).  Do average Americans who are concerned about disruption to their hometowns and their security, and taxpayers concerned about the US Treasury have that kind of access to members of Congress—NO!

Here is the LA Times (hat tip: Richard @highblueridge):

Al Souki [Syrian refugee star of the story makes $10.50 and hour—ed] needs the work—and employers in the meatpacking industry say they need workers like him. Refugees have increasingly become vital workers in an industry with high turnover. And the growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere have readily supplied them in places like the Central Valley. [So for those of you wondering if we are purposefully creating refugees through our aggressive foreign policy, maybe so!—ed]

The refugee and immigrant populations ”certainly have been a significant part, an integral part of our workforce for decades,” said Tom Super, a spokesman for the National Chicken Council.

It’s difficult to know exactly how many refugees work in this occupation but roughly one-third of workers in the industry in 2010 were foreign-born, according to a peer-reviewed article in Choices, a publication of the Agricultural and Applied Economics Assn., a nonprofit that serves those who work in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics.

Mark Lauritsen, director of the food-processing division at the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, estimates that nationwide tens of thousands of refugees are part of the roughly 250,000 unionized meat and poultry plant workers.

Holy cow! Here we have the International Rescue Committee (one of nine federally funded NGOs***) admitting they are finding laborers for a chicken plant.

In 2010, Foster Farms in Turlock began hiring refugees placed by the International Rescue Committee, a refugee resettlement agency, said Christine Lemonda, deputy director of the IRC’s Northern California offices. Since then, the agency has placed more than 150 refugees at the poultry plant. In the last six months, 15 have been hired—an uptick—at Foster Farms, Lemonda said.

[….]

Immigrants have long been integral to the meatpacking industry, but refugees surfaced as a key labor force starting in 2006, according to experts who study the phenomenon.

That year the George W. Bush administration directed immigration enforcement agents to raid meat processing plants in six states. Operation Wagon Train—the largest single work-enforcement action in U.S. history—led to the arrest of an estimated 1,300 people working in the country illegally.

Though it did not stop the industry from completely cutting off the hiring of unauthorized workers, the raids had a chilling effect.

The growing unrest and bloodshed in the Middle East and elsewhere provided a refugee population from which to fill the labor vacuum, said Lavinia Limon, chief executive officer and president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, a resettlement organization.

“What the meatpacking industry knows is that these are really good workers. They show up on time. They say ‘yes’ when they are told what to do. They do what is necessary for their survival,” Limon said.”It works really well for employers.”

[….]

The meatpacking industry has become so reliant on refugees that the North American Meat Institute, an industry lobby group, released a statement stating their concerns after President Trump issued an executive action restricting citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries and all refugees from entry into the United States. [If Trump, the businessman, squishes-out on the refugee issue, you know that globalists wanting the free flow of cheap labor got to him!—ed]

And, here (below) we have an answer to a question I have had for a long time—Do resettlement contractors have formal relationships with BIG MEAT and BIG CHICKEN?  Will the IRC make money supplying the slave refugee laborers? (BTW, we know  the meat industry paid great wages decades ago before they found the cheap immigrant labor!)

There is no formal arrangement between IRC and Foster Farms, but that may change soon.

The resettlement agency and Foster Farms are looking at possibly extending their relationship and formalizing a partnership in the next few months, Foster Farms spokesman Ira Brill said. He declined to talk more about the issue.

Continue here, there is much more!

Again, if we want to debate low-skilled labor needs, let’s do it, and cut the ‘humanitarian’ sob stories.

I have a huge archive on ‘meatpackers’ changing America, click here, and last summer I traveled over 6,000 miles around America to see some of those changed towns.

 

***The Federal contractors/middlemen/employment agencies/propagandists/lobbyists/community organizers? paid by you to place refugees in your towns and cities are below.  Under the nine major contractors are hundreds of subcontractors.

The contractors income is largely dependent on taxpayer dollars based on the number of refugees admitted to the US, but they also receive myriad grants to service their “New Americans.”

If you are a good-hearted soul and think refugee resettlement is all about humanitarianism, think again!

These federal contractors act as employment agencies for big companies in need of low-skilled workers and that is why the Republican establishment is loathe to abolish or reform the UN/US Refugee Admissions Program.

The only way for real reform of how the US admits refugees is to remove these contractors/globalist head hunters from the process.