The director of Utah Refugee Services spoke to KCPW radio earlier this week about the problems he sees with the large number of refugees being resettled in Utah from cultures that are very differant than refugees of the past.
(KCPW News) Utah’s refugee services are not well-equipped to handle the large number of refugees being resettled in the state, says Gerald Brown of the new State Office of Refugee Services. But he remains confident the problems will be fixed.
The biggest challenge to the system is tracking refugees after their social service benefits end, Brown says. While the number of refugees has declined since the 80s and 90s, they now require more services, Brown says. Twenty years ago, refugees were mostly Russian or Bosnians. While different cultures, they were still based in Western philosophy. Now, many are from Africa, Asia and the Middle East and their cultural differences are greater. Integrating into the social fabric of Utah is more difficult for them, Brown says. But it is vitally important for the community that they do, he says.
Unfortunately I can’t get the radio program to play, but maybe some of you will be luckier. I would love to have heard what else he said.
Indeed Utah is having a lot of problems with refugees with certainly the saddest case being the one of the 7-year-old Burmese Karen girl’s rape and murder a few months ago. She was killed by another refugee in the apartment building in which she lived. Only now are those refugees venturing forth from their apartments. See the latest at the Salt Lake City Tribune here.
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