This story is no surprise and I expect there will be many more like it in the coming days and weeks.
Refugees work at menial labor—cleaning hotel and dorm rooms, working in restaurant kitchens, etc. all no longer essential services—and they are increasingly unemployed (however $$$ is on the way from the feds).
I guess we can say it sure is a good thing that the Trump administration cut the flow of refugees to America starting last October or we would have even more unhappy, struggling people as those described here.
Refugees in Orange County struggle to make ends meet amid COVID-19 economic hardships
All those North Carolinians who have been ‘welcoming’ refugees to the state for the last decade need to get out there now and pay the rent, tutor the kids and feed/clothe the impoverished people they invited to their towns and cities.
Coronavirus has forced many families to alter their ways of life. Although COVID-19 has impacted almost every Orange County resident, a group that has been especially devastated is the local refugee community.
Refugees can already be a vulnerable population without something like the coronavirus, said Flicka Bateman, director of the Refugee Support Center, a volunteer-based organization that helps transition refugees in Orange County to their new lives.
“I know people who’ve been here less than three weeks, I can’t imagine what in the world for them it must be like,” she said. “They’re totally uprooted, they’ve left situations that were full of violence and uncertainty, and then they come here and instead of being able to learn English and get all these services, suddenly they’re told to stay where they are and people will do the best they can remotely. It’s just very tough.”
Orange County has about 1,200 refugees, primarily from Burma, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Syria. [It would be many more if Trump had not cut the flow this year—ed]. Bateman said a lot of refugees in the area have lost their jobs or seen reduced hours, especially those who work in restaurants or hotels, or in food service and housekeeping at UNC, where dorms have been closed and dining services have been severely reduced.
Adam Clark, office director of World Relief Durham, a refugee resettlement agency based in Durham that serves refugees across the Triangle area, said programs that help refugees with employment have seen a spike in applications due to a greater amount of people needing sudden job assistance.
He said they’ve seen about 20-30 unemployment applications among refugees just in the last week, and a long list of people are already waiting.
“There are a lot of refugees worried about their rent, obviously the same things that are affecting everyone,” he said. “But I think it just affects them even more because of the sectors they work in.”
Hannah Olmstead, a junior at UNC who is a part-time caseworker at World Relief Durham, said as local school districts transition to online instruction, many refugee parents don’t have the English ability or understanding of American education to homeschool their children.
One thought on “North Carolina: Refugees out of Work and Struggling”
The Obama poster is especially egregious: they pay taxes? Are you kidding: if they make enough to pay taxes when they arrive, they’re taking a good job away from an American, and they’ll consume far more than they’ll contribute. And what “local spending”? Food, rent–if they pay any–and drugs? And “Community Leadership”?? So, they just got here, and we already want them to LEAD us?? And I notice “Cultural Diversity” is there, as if its value needs no explanation. Of course it does, only if the “Culture” already present is inadequate and inferior, which is precisely its assumption.
The Obama poster is especially egregious: they pay taxes? Are you kidding: if they make enough to pay taxes when they arrive, they’re taking a good job away from an American, and they’ll consume far more than they’ll contribute. And what “local spending”? Food, rent–if they pay any–and drugs? And “Community Leadership”?? So, they just got here, and we already want them to LEAD us?? And I notice “Cultural Diversity” is there, as if its value needs no explanation. Of course it does, only if the “Culture” already present is inadequate and inferior, which is precisely its assumption.