Iraqi refugees overwhelm Detroit-area nonprofits — and are they Christian?

01/16/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The headline of the Assyrian International News Agency article is actually Thousands of Iraqi Refugees Overwhelm Service Agencies in Detroit. But I knew you would think that meant government welfare agencies, while it really means private self-help groups. It begins:

Prior to 2006, strict immigration policies didn’t allow refugees fleeing the violence in Iraq to enter the United States. In 2007, a more lenient “open door” policy was implemented, allowing thousands of Iraqis –15,000 in 2009 alone– to settle in the Detroit area. Now, local Arab community groups that stepped up to help the refugees say they are overwhelmed by the burden of taking care of the new arrivals.

In a recent interview on WDET’s Detroit Today, Joseph Kassab, executive director of the Chaldean Federation of America, and Abdallah Boumediene, from the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services [ACCESS], acknowledged that the Arab community in Michigan can’t deal with the crisis by itself.

With little to no support from the local, state or federal governments, Detroit’s Middle Eastern community has to deal with providing thousands of displaced Iraqis with housing, health care, education, transportation and jobs.

Assyrians are Christian, though the website never seems to mention the word. And of the two groups mentioned, Chaldeans are Christian, and have been settling in Michigan for many decades. I can’t tell about the other group, ACCESS. Abdallah must be a Muslim name. The site itself doesn’t mention either “Muslim” or “Christian,” but its calendar shows events for Caldeans and Maronites, who are Christian, and also a celebration of Iftar, a Muslim holiday.

I started to post just on the original article, but got sidetracked on this Christian-Muslim question because it intrigued me. At first I thought the groups mentioned must be Christian, because Muslims generally aren’t shy about proclaiming their religion, whereas Christians might be, having been persecuted in the Middle East for so long. Usually inter-faith groups like to give that fact prominence: it’s so heartwarming, especially to entities that hand out money. But perhaps Christian and Muslim Arabs in Michigan, or some among them, work together amicably in ACCESS, and don’t wish to trumpet this cooperation to the world. Muslims, especially, would catch hell from some of their co-religionists for working closely with Christians, while the Christians might have their sanity questioned. Maybe somebody who knows more can let us know.

Now, to get on with the report:

Local non-profits are not only dealing with resettling the newly arrived, they’re also trying to cope with serious mental health issues suffered by many refugees. Iraqis often have had family members kidnapped, tortured or killed. Families experience depression, loneliness and the post-traumatic stress caused by living in a war-torn country.

“We deal with tragic situations and stories of people who have gone through horrendous experiences,” Boumediene said.

The agencies say they are committed to fully supporting the newly arrived, despite what they say is a lack of support from the government.

“We don’t want to re-victimize these people,” Kassab said. “These people are victims of torture, victims of persecution, victims of failed policies and therefore they should be helped.”

This does sound more Christian than Muslim, but who knows? At any rate, praise to these groups, whatever religion they are, who are trying to do what should be done, without much government help.

Ann previously posted on the Chaldeans in Michigan in 2008, here, and pointed out that the community was helping the refugees, not the government. And a later post pointed out that although the State Department had stopped settling refugees in Detroit, Iraqis settled in other areas of the country went there on their own. And why not? It sounds as if the Chaldeans and perhaps other groups there have the best resettlement program in the country.

UN releases odd report on Iraqi refugees

01/15/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The UN this week released its “Regional Response Plan for Iraqi Refugees 2010.” The link is to the executive summary, where there is a link to the entire 99-page report (which I have not read). Why do I call it odd? A few things:

1) The numbers given are an order of magnitude below the actual figures:

The number of registered refugees and asylum seekers has been roughly constant, with a slight decrease to 294,148 as of October 2009.

The usual number given is 2 million or so. The disparity is explained by the word “registered.” So the UN doesn’t deal with those who haven’t registered? That’s not the impression normally given. So the other numbers are also way off. But the report, or at least the executive summary, doesn’t mention this disparity.

Glad they admit that. A couple of years ago some reports gave the impression that all the Iraqi refugees needed to be resettled, preferably in the United States because it was our fault they were refugees.

2) The terrible problems previously reported in the countries where the refugees had gone seem to have disappeared, not only from the present but also from the past:

Governments in the region continue their generous tradition of hospitality, despite strains on national resources and infrastructure.

Maybe that’s Arab-speak. Arabs are said to be ultra-polite and roundabout in their way of speaking (unless they’re speaking about Jews, of course). Maybe it really means “Governments in the region have tried to get rid of these refugees but haven’t been able to so they’re accepting aid to help support them.” Actually, it has been a burden, and the refugees have remained, so they have been hospitable in their way. I’ve always wondered, though, why Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Arab countries don’t help support these poor people. However, there have been real changes:

Comparing the situation to that of two years ago, many gains are evident: Iraqis continue to have access to asylum and protection in their neighbouring countries; their risk of detention or deportation for illegal entry has been reduced; and the temporary residency of the majority is condoned in practice if not in law. In most though not all countries, Iraqi refugees have access to public services including education and health care. With donor support, targeted assistance – in the form of food, financial assistance, non-food items, school fees and payment for some medical care and psychological treatment – has provided an essential safety net for the most vulnerable individuals.

What about the future? As I said, the UN has given up on resettlement in third countries as the solution. But it doesn’t see them going home anytime soon.

Though substantial numbers have been resettled – nearly 18,000 in 2008 and an equal number in the first nine months of 2009 – resettlement will, by its nature, be a solution only for a minority of refugees. At the same time, conditions are not yet ripe for a voluntary and sustainable return to Iraq in large numbers. While security inside Iraq has been on a gradual path of improvement, it remains precarious and volatile. Because of this, as well as a deficit in public services and employment opportunities, fewer Iraqi refugees than expected have chosen voluntary repatriation in 2009: approximately 2,400 Iraqi refugees have returned with the assistance of UNHCR, including more than 1,000 who returned from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

But there are more.

Many Iraqis who return to Iraq prefer not to seek assistance from UNHCR for their return (and deregister in their respective countries of asylum), in case they later need to again revive their asylum status. According to the UNHCR Representation and government sources inside Iraq, a total of 32,500 Iraqi refugees had returned in 2009, as of October

Actually we have no idea how many have returned. I’m sure many have gone home on their own and haven’t been tracked by the UN or the Iraqi government.

And conditions are not good in the countries where the refugees live, despite all the improvements the report notes.

As the majority remain in legal limbo in their countries of asylum, more and more have depleted their private resources and are dependent upon UN and NGO partners to meet their basic needs. What is more, protection risks due to this destitution are evident: school drop-outs, child labour and even early marriages as coping mechanisms, along with exploitation in the informal labour market and increases in domestic and sexual or gender-based violence.

So would it actually be worse to go back to Iraq? I’ve thought all along that there is pressure among some to keep the refugees out of Iraq just to show the world what terrible human damage President Bush caused. We don’t hear about that now; in fact, that’s no doubt the reason there’s been so little in the media about the Iraq refugees in the past year compared to previous years. It would be good for someone in our government to state unequivocally that our policy is to work with the Iraqi government to help all the refugees to return to decent conditions. That would be Hillary Clinton’s place, I believe, if President Obama thinks the issue beneath his notice.

And that’s the third thing I find odd about the report. Okay, it’s not that odd considering it’s a UN report, but it’s odd if you’re an ordinary person reading it. It doesn’t emphasize returning the refugees home. And shouldn’t that be the goal?

See our category “Iraqi refugees” for all our posts on the subject.

Two more comments worth noting: Iraqis write from Sacramento looking for answers and for help

01/14/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 17th: For unhappy Iraqi refugees, here are links for where you can send complaints and appeals for help.

Two days ago I posted a ‘comment worth noting’ from Houston about how Iraqi refugees are having a tough time in that city with a resettlement agency that had been assigned to help them get settled. I recommend readers visit that post which has generated an informative discussion about how the refugee program works (or doesn’t work) and that it must be reformed.

For first time readers, the gist of the problem we are writing about here and discussing at the Houston post is that the US Refugee Resettlement program is obviously bringing in more refugees than some agencies and cities can manage and refugees are being left high and dry with no jobs and a fear of being evicted, some even without enough food. A few of those refugees have expressed a wish to go back to their home country.

Today we received two comments, obviously from Iraqis who know each other in Sacramento. They are very long comments, but I’m posting them in their entirety below. I have also forwarded them to The List Project, an organization (with lawyers) that advocates for the resettlement to the US of Iraqis who have helped our efforts in Iraq. Maybe they can help these men.

A long time ago I suggested that the State Department establish a “complaints” hotline of some sort, so that refugees having difficulties could bypass their resettlement agency(and its parent volag) and voice their concerns directly to the State Department.

Until there is such a mechanism in place, we will just post refugees’ complaints right here for the world to see. Maybe someone can help them. If they are Iraqis (especially those with Special Immigrant Visas) we will forward to The List Project. We will also find a newspaper in the refugee’s city and send the information to a reporter.

Here is the first one:

To Whom It May Concern;

Happy New Year

I’m Furat AL-Daagh, I came to United States on May 19, 2009 as a Special Immigrant (SIV Visa)

A part of my application to acquire the SIV Visa, I filled the resettlement benefits election form to get the Department of State placement and resettlement program. The Church World Services (CWS) was picked by the Refugee Processing Center (RPC) to be my resettling agency. The CWS and its affiliate agency the Opening Doors Inc. accepted to resettling me in Sacramento, CA

I didn’t have friend or family member (sponsor), so the Opening Doors Inc. supposed to guide me after my arrival to my final destination in Sacramento, CA which is I don’t know how they picked it for me.

My new residency in America wasn’t like what I expected, my expectation for the new home of a refugee came from a war zone to be healthy and safe no more no less.

The affiliate agency (Opening Doors Inc.) enrolled me in ESL school (English as a Second Language) and vocation in same time by the name The Bach Viet Association, and this is non profit and non human organization, the duties for this school is to learn English language and law and rules and the main goal is to Learn about and be referred to employment services and help to increase our opportunity to find a job.

After eight months of my benefits, they didn’t increase my opportunity to find a job, they keep telling me this is a bad time for us, according to the global economy crisis, the job markets is not good as to it is used to be. But why this school keeps finding jobs for the other nationalities other than my nationality? Since the date I first attended that school until lately, no body was getting hired unless he or she has relationships as to be a friend or a relative or boy or girlfriend or even you came from the same country that job placement employee originally came from.
Lately when I started to complain to everybody here and there and specially for the organization that brought me here, the head of the school started to play a tricks with us to keep our mouths shut, such us taking us to a false job interviews and after that letting us sign some papers stated that they spent time with me, training me and getting me over to that interview location. I have a lot of examples:

On December 16, 2009, they took me to an interview after almost SEVEN AND HALF MONTHS of my arrival to Sacramento, CA. A small grocery store needed two new employees (A & K Fresh Produce Inc. – fresh fruits and vegetables store) located in 5800 Madison Ave. Sacramento, CA 95841, which is lies far from my apartment location. During this play in that grocery store, the boss asked me and my colleague some questions concerning job history for each one of us, after that he asked us about how long distance from our accommodation to the store, and about if you have car or not, and which type of driving license do you have, and when he knew, we have no car, we are a hundred percent dependable of the public transportation. He said to us, ok come tomorrow at 6:00 am, and he knew better the first bus will be there at 7:14 am near this store.
In someday of October 2009, one of school staff was called me earlier in the morning, and he asked me about one of the Iranian guy that he speak Russian as another language to his native one Persian, and he is new in our complex, about job interview in one of gas stations in Stockton Blvd, Sacramento, CA, in that time the Iranian guy didn’t receive any of his official documents (Employment Authorization Card, ID etc….), and I told the school employee, I don’t know anything about this guy, maybe he have something to do and he left early, after that he said to me, are you interested to work in gas station? I said yes, he said ok, I will pick you up now to this interview, I went with him and the manager of school Olga to this interview with one of Bhutanese colleague, when we reached to gas station, we found Asian female waiting Olga outside the gas station and she is a non refugee and never attended our school before, we entered to the gas station, and we shake the manager hands, the manager said for us, I will start with interview with Asian female, and for others please wait me outside, and we did, during female interview, the other female school staff came and enter to the gas station, after that the school manager Olga went out and she said for us, I’m so sorry the gas station manager have no time to make interview, and we will do the interview next week on Monday, but this is not real, because the manager of the gas station and according to my information, hire the Asian girl, after that I discovered the Asian girl is relative to female school employee that entered during interview.

The question is why the school manager asked us to come to the interview?
The reply is to make an action that the school looking to find jobs for us and we are not eligible.

Also on November 2009, we went through school to one of employment agency, and we did the test, typing, Word, Excel, and the required scores for typing is 30 wpm, and I got a 31 wpm without mistakes, 80% scores for Word and 83% for Excel, and from this time there are no one called me from this employment agency, although I got a best scores in this test, I know what’s the reason, this is similar to what I claimed above.

After that, I went to Opening Doors Inc., and I met Mr. David Blicker (The Director of Opening Doors Inc.), to discuss with him about my purpose and existence in this city. A city with no future for refugee came overseas and already run out of his cash and food stamps fruitless and what should I do from now on? And why they enrolled me in that school? And why they helping others finding jobs but me?
Mr. Davis Blicker told me and told the other refugees who the Opening Doors Inc. their affiliate agency to play the GAMES the one who want to increase his opportunity to find job should play it.
Is this the words came from an agency director who is its job is to get a refugee resettling in your country and to get him feeling to be safe and none threatened anymore??????????????????????????

For two months the study in this school for advanced class was stopped because the teacher was inherited money, and she took a long-term leave of absence to complete the documents concerning her inheritance.

I applied for more jobs by me even housekeeping, but I failed to find a job, most jobs required a job history and referrals, and I have no history here or referrals.

I know my welfare is discontinued and I have no right to talk with school about find job, but why the International Rescue Committee (IRC) agency help the refugees to find jobs without any kind of cheat and relationships and friendships.

For future, I hope to watch the performance of refugee agencies

In the end, I live now with frustration and I asked my God to pick me up from this impasse.

I know that the economy crisis is effecting everybody lives in the United States and I really appreciate the Department of state cash and food stamps for the past eight months.

Regards

Furat AL-Daagh

And here is the second one:

To Whom It May Concern

My name is Yasir A.T. and I’m Iraqi immigrant came to United States in July 7th, 2009 with the
SIV program as an Iraqi translator who worked for the U.S. Army in Iraq.It is not my choice to come to the states ,it was an urgent matter to leave that place after several threatenning upon my life and my family and after my brother killed by a silent pisstols 4 kilometers from the U.S. Army base he was working for and everything was indicating that I’m going to be the next.

I beleived that I’m going to have the assistant I’ve been promissed by who ever greated this program ,to start a new life in your countrey .That beleife came to me from all the forms and instructions that I downloaded from the U.S.Embassy (Baghdad-Iraq) regarding this program.Truelly this what makes me made my decision to leave my countrey after I spent five years in the U.S. millitary bases and camps , after I lost two members of my family due to the last war and after my life ruined over there .

I did’t have any sponsor,family member or a friend in the United States , the RPC choosed Sacramento -California as my resettling place.

As a part of my application to accuire the SIV Visa ,I submited a form called – refugee resetlement ellection form- to make use of the department of satates resettleing and placement program.The CWS organiztion or the other one here in Sacramento ,CA (The Openning Doors INC) is the one who suppose to help me or guide me after my arrival to this city as coperative agreement of the U.S. Dept of State and the Affiliate agency (The Opening Doors INC) in Sacramento.

I had found this after six months from the date I arrived to my final destination which I don’t know
how or who was decided by :

1.The cash assistant is $320 ,my rent is $575 , the electricity bill is about ($20 to $35)and the landline
phone bill was 47$ a month for the first 3 months.To make the life easier for the Openning Doors INC
,we were lucky to have roomates from the same countrey and we speeking the same language and
of course to make the rent and the bills payable.But even so with a simple math you can see the money
is not enogh and if there is a cash left,it is not enough to buy a toothpast or aliquid cleaner to clean with it or anything the human beings daily needed and canot buy it by the the food stamps.

2.My first and new residency in the States after I arrived is as follows:It is unhealthly as you can see
in the attached picture ,It is not safe so that everyday the police arresting someone in our apartments comlex and with more than one having a house arrest bracelet arround his ankle,all the refugee families
leaving theses apartments after a maximum period of a month.To moving we all needed the apartment
diposite to pay it to who ever lease me an apartment here ,but I can’t have it.It’s the Opening Doors INC decision to give the diposite to some people and not to other ones .How they choose? I don’t know.

3.This program says I’m going to receive a teaching and useful information about America which is cool because when I came here I didn’t know how to mail a letter to someone here or there
.Where I came from we don’t have that kind of services.
Instead the Opennig Doors INC enrolled me in some Engish school for bigginners and most
of it are lessons of haw can you play a stupid game called HangMan,but gues what I’m an English-
Arabic translator and originaly I have a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering science ,ok it’s from Iraq ,but still I can read and write enogh to get hired or apply for a job required the English language

4.Everybody said the maine goal for you to do in the USA is to find a job ….but how ? As the first moment my feet touched the ground in Sacramento Airport till now everybody keep telling me this : there are no jobs , nobody hiring anyone , starts with the one who was waiting for me in the airport and everybody I had met in sacramento especially those who called themselves a job developers.

5.They enrolled me , well it’s the same English school but with other thing too called Job Fair,
or something else,the only thing these guys know is there are no jobs and especially for you cause
we get tired from finding jobs for a specific Iraqis starts attending this school lately ,Iraqis I don’t know them but I don’t know how it comes to be my problem.The only thing in the past five months they taught people was how to buttone their shirts and how to wear a neck tie.They are funny guys cause for the past five months I never noticed a single employee among the school staff wearing a nick tie.

6.There are some issue with the Sacramento ,CA computer systems that stops giving an answer why a refugee like me elligible for health care don’t have a health plan and can’t get to visit a doctor after six months of re submitting the paper work ,the same paperwork the one choosing a health plan and a primary doctor with it for FIVE times in SIX months. I have a health issue that discovered by the refugee health clinic here in Sac ,after a full body examination and vaccination required from everybody new in this city.It starts with a small symptom finally developed to an emergency forced
me to admit an emergency department in the closest hospital to my location and for two times.Till now don’t know how to deal with it or who can help me and this is what makes me write you this letter.

7.I had met the Openning Doors INC director Mr.David Blicker after I couldn’t have the answers to my
questions from his employees or the the Sacramento County DHA ,to complaining to him about what
do I do here and whay his organization accepted to resetle me in this city? Is it true that I have to
buy a car to increase my chance finding a job ? Why they enrolled me in that school(The Bach Viet Association) which is getting paid helping me but they are not unless I’m a Russian or an Asian or a spanish ? Everybody getting hired by that school and they are not even a refugees and not a single Iraqi got hired unless he or she is involving with an intimate relationship with one of that school staff?

Mr. David Blicker told me and advised me to do the following

A.I have to play games with the job placement school (Bach Viet) to increase my chance finding a job.
B.Finding a job in America is all about a relationships and referals .
C.Nobody staying in Sacramento , everybody comes here soon will leave after maybe four months later.
indicating that this city is not the one for me and maybe should I go somewhere else.
D.I can contact the RPC,CWS,IOM,NVC and the Department of Satates to find out what I’m doing here.
Who sent me to such a city with obviously no futre for an Iraqi refugee.

I had tried to find a job and going to an interviews here and there in this city ,and I failed .I don’t know why .I don’t have any job history in the United States .I don’t have any referals .I don’t have a car and I don’t know how drive one.I don’t have money .I’m ignorant in your country.

I know there is the global economy crisis and it is effecting upon everybody here and I really apreciate
the efforts of the State Department and the cash and food stamps beeing giving to us by your government
I know the resetling and placement program says if your friend or family member receiving some benefit
in another state ,that doesn’t mean you’ll get the same where you are .But in Sacramento ,CA we don’t get the necesary help.

I’ll go back to Iraq and takeing my chances there.But please before that I wish if somebody can respond and answer these questions and if you can’t ,please tell me who does ?

Why I didn’t know the full information from your immigration and embassy websites ?
Why there are incompitant employees getting paid from your government or chairty organizations without
doing anything?
Why do someone like me has to play games to get a job ? Are we in a good mode to play games?
Why do the governement of CA gives cash and food stamps for several months to refugees like me with
no goal?
What the mystery behind my health plan application?

Regards

Note to resettlement agency workers: I don’t want to hear any comments about how Iraqis are difficult to work with, you chose the job of resettling refugees! If the program has problems, it’s time for you to stand up to the head honchos at the volags (and the State Department) and say so!

If you think you can help these men, contact me at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com and I will give you their contact information.

One more thing! Anyone with complaints should send them to Eric Schwartz, Asst. Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration at the US State Department. Contact info. is here.

Comment worth noting: the system is failing Iraqi refugees in Houston

01/12/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 17th: For unhappy Iraqi refugees, here is where you can send your complaints. Start with the Iraqi Embassy!

State Department! What are you thinking! The system is crashing. Whether in Pittsburgh, PA, or Bowling Green, KY or Greensboro, NC or Ft. Wayne, IN and now Houston, TX, it cannot be sustained in its present form. And, although they are contributing factors, it isn’t just about a lack of funds and scarce jobs—these volags appear to be completely unsupervised! They surely aren’t following any Operational Guidance from the State Department.

Here is a comment we received today (to this older post) and the comment needs to be brought front and center; it is that important. From Nicolinahawaii:

I work with Iraqi refugees in Houston, and one of our Houston refugees just had this awful experience.

The agency apparently didn’t have the money to pay his full rent, so they just kept telling him they were taking care of it, not to worry, until last Wednesday when they made it known that they hadn’t been and couldn’t pay the rent, so he was given a surprise eviction notice, three days to move out, and no leads on what to do next. All the agency would tell him is, “I’m sorry. We can’t help you.” Not, I’m sorry–we should have prepared you–or chosen for you an apartment that we could afford.

The Iraqi refugee in question told me that when he was in the agency office (Multicultural Alliance for Community Affairs), another refugee was in there. She arrived in the USA, and 16 days later, her husband died. The agency couldn’t pay her rent either, so now she is facing eviction.

And since the agency is not responsible for the refugees after 4 months, it’s not their problem if these refugees now have ruined credit histories because of these evictions, if they become homeless now, or if they succeed or return back to their war-torn countries.

It is truly appalling.

The same agency also apparently didn’t have the money to pay for the taxi ride from the airport to the apartments for one of our other new families, and so, in their first hour in America, the Iraqi family was asked to pay out of their meager personal cash supply just so they could get to their apartments. [Readers should know that this is a basic requirement of the volag—the refugees are to be met at the airport and taken to their apartment where food must be available.]

Something is wrong if the agency can’t even afford to get refugees from the airport to their housing.

Out of the 40 Iraqi families at just our apartment complex, probably half are unemployed and the agencies (except YMCA and Interfaith) seem to not be able to find employment for their refugees.

The refugees have told me, “We are destroyed.”

Note to readers: I know we have readers with wildly varying views on the refugee program in general, but I am sure everyone reading this agrees, or I hope you all do! We should have an open and vigorous debate about this program, how many refugees are admitted and from what cultures, but once they are here it is imperative that they be cared for until they get on their feet. Afterall, they were encouraged to come to the US, and we can’t blame them for believing the promises.

I simply don’t get it! How can this be happening everywhere (at least it seems like everywhere!)? It is unconscionable!

Where is Matthew Lee—that is what I want to know! For new readers Lee is (was?) an Associated Press reporter who reported every month during the end of the Bush Administration—bashing Bush clearly at the behest of his buddies in the refugee industry and bemoaning the small numbers of Iraqis being admitted to the US. Well, the Iraqis are here and some of the same agencies that lobbied hard to get them here are now letting them down!

I’m reminded of the Iraqi boy wise beyond his years! I told you about him in September of 2008, here. He summed up his observations about the unhappy situation with Iraqi refugees in a letter to the editor to the Tucson Citizen with this line:

It is better to have 10 Iraqi refugees who are satisfied with their lives than having 100 angry ones with no life at all.

Frankly, the State Department should be readying airlifts home for any refugee profoundly angry or unhappy (paid for out of the funds of the volag that didn’t do its job)!

A chronology of desperation for refugees in North Carolina (Part 1)

01/10/2010 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update January 11th: Part II of desperation is here, Part III here.

The refugee resettlement agencies will blame it on the recession and no doubt it plays a role, but the stories we are hearing about refugees suffering in Bowling Green, KY, Fort Wayne, IN, Pittsburgh, PA and now Greensboro, NC all have a familiar ring. One would almost think that someone wanted to bring about a crisis of too many refugees and too few resources because the stories are so uniform. Not only are the refugees suffering, but people living in the refugee-saturated cities are exasperated.

We have been harping on the mismanagement of the refugee resettlement program ever since we started writing this blog in the summer of 2007 and I believe the economic decline has only served to expose a house of cards that was destined to fall sooner or later. It is falling now.

We first told you about how Lutheran Family Services of Greensboro, NC began cutting back the numbers of refugees it was resettling there in December, 2008, here. They and the city were overloaded and they knew it. Meanwhile Church World Service dashed into the vacuum and they brought more refugees.

Then in November of 2009, we reported on a homeless Burmese man who had been resettled by Lutheran Family Services and was now living in a Greensboro shelter.

In December the News-Record reported another desperate refugee story, this time it involves Iraqis living in substandard housing with no heat, running out of money with no job prospects, and wanting to go home.

GREENSBORO — Having sold her food stamps to pay the water and electric bill, uncertain of how to make December’s rent or feed her disabled husband and three children, Sahar al-Janabi, 38, had one request.

“We want to go back to Iraq,” she said last week on a cold evening in the family’s apartment at Hunters Glen near U.S. 29 and East Cone Boulevard. “Can you find someone who will help us get back?”

Unfortunately, there is no one to help them go back (except maybe the Iraqi Embassy in Washington) and besides they still owe their airfare loan from the State Department that got them to North Carolina in the first place. Adding insult to injury, a portion of that loan repayment goes to the resettlement agency (that put them in lousy housing in a dangerous neighborhood) as a bill collection fee!

Meanwhile, at the al-Janabi apartment, they fretted over the first bill they received in the U.S. — for $5,454.

“Welcome to America!” it said. “You will recall that before your departure from overseas, you agreed to repay the transportation expenses incurred by you and your family in coming to the United States. …”

Tomorrow Part II: Christian and Muslim volunteers are at their wits end and can’t cope with the numbers. (Here)