Here is a rare comment—someone who supports refugee resettlement and thanks us for raising the issues we raise here.  That is refreshing.  Usually we are told we are racists and xenophobes for even talking about it.  Thank you Olive Branch for being willing to discuss what really is a difference in how we view the US government’s role in bringing more people to the US and then expecting citizens to pay for their resettlement through their tax dollars.  Ms. Branch was responding to this post.

Here is Olive Branch (my comments are in red, and I could have gone on and on, but I have more posts to write and one is about Church World Service):

Thanks for writing this blog – I think it’s really healthy to have this debate. [Thank you! for not going on the you-are- a-racist attack!—ed] I spent the last 2 years living in a Burmese refugee camp preparing Burmese for resettlement or integration into Thai society. Before that, I spent about 5 years working for 2 VOLAGS (LIRS and CWS*). Because of that experience, I do not think it is fair to place all the blame for what you see as poor living conditions or lack of integration of refugees in US cities on the resettlement agencies.

The majority of VOLAG employees DO have good intentions and most of the individual agencies are faith-based. [I am all for private good intentions, but since when do faith-based agencies get to use other peoples money against their wills to do their good works?—ed]  They really do believe they are doing the work of “welcoming the stranger.” However, they become yet another cog in the wheel of our inept and inefficient government [Then I say do the work without the government, you can’t have it both ways—taking government money then complaining about government inefficiency–ed], and many staff members are too over-worked and under-paid to do everything they would like to do to help new arrivals [then get more volunteers, if you can’t find enough, slow the flow of refugees–ed]. For example, in my first month as a Case Manager, I was assigned 76 individual new arrivals. That means that in a month, there were 76 people that needed to be picked up at the airport, moved into their apartments, given cultural and agency orientations, taken to get shots, health screenings, dental screenings, and eye check-ups, as well as taken to the clothing bank for clothes, to the welfare office for food stamps and medical benefits, to the food bank for boxes of food, to the SSA for their social security cards. About 50 of them were children who had to be enrolled in school and taken to get backpacks, underwear, shoes, and all the other things they were lacking. The 20+ adults had to be taken for enrollment in our jobs program and Match Grant. These cases were my responsibility alone – racing around town in my agency minivan like a mad woman.

However, I soon realized that I was doing more than was required of me. You see, if you read the Reception & Placement contract that VOLAGS sign with ORR, they are not contracted to “take care” of refugees. They are contracted ONLY to connect refugees to resources in the communities [This means to find the social welfare and education programs provided by taxpayers.–ed]  Of course, there are VOLAG employees who care and do more, and there are additional ORR grants for Healthy Families, Preferred Communities, etc. But R&P, as well as MG, only exist to connect refugees to resources that move them toward self-sufficiency. The resettlement program was set up to place all the responsibility of resettlement ON THE REFUGEES. If you think about it, this is the way immigrants have been arriving in the US since the beginning – with the responsibility for success or failure on their own shoulders. [Yes, and the original immigrants, our ancestors, had no social welfare like food stamps, health care, job training and subsidized housing, they had to make it on their own.  Some did and some didn’t, those who didn’t returned to their home countries.  We also realized we were taking too many early in the century and had a moratorium on immigration.  You simply can’t have high numbers AND welfare, our system will crash (and it is!)—ed] I think this is the way it should be. However, the inefficiencies of the big bureaucracy, combined with public perception (and some refugees’ mistaken expectations) that resettlement is more like a baby sitting job, make for a lot of disappointment for both refugees and the host communities.

I recommend that all of you who think you want to help the world get to the US should do it with your own private funding and take FULL RESPONSIBILITY for anyone you bring until they are completely on their feet and can provide for themselves and their families.  It is not the responsibility of some middle class family which is barely able to raise their own children to be taxed to help others feel good about themselves.

Thanks Olive Branch for your comments, they were very illuminating.

* Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service and Church World Service.