Everett, WA: More disillusioned Iraqi refugees, let Soros help them!

06/06/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You could take a story like this one and just change the location and names and place it in at least 20 newspapers in America. Once again, the same tired old story. Iraqis who had helped our military come to the US with high expectations (someone is lying to them somewhere along the way), they can’t find work and then the refugee resettlement industry folks say ‘too bad’ our hands are tied.

The story begins with the terrible circumstances that brought the adult Hassan family to America (the reporters always start out with the tragedy). Then we hear how they have arrived in America only to find they have no work and the government and their resettlement agency will be soon cutting them off, implying they could be set out on the street in just a few months.

They moved. [to America]

Now the family is desperate, said Ali Hasan, 30, one of five adult children who arrived in Everett with their mother this year.

“We can’t find jobs,” he said. “We’ve looked everywhere.”

Hasan was an English teacher in Baghdad. His brother and sisters also speak English. They thought they’d have an easier time than most who come to the U.S., but the global economic crisis has pushed them out of the hiring pool at places that once hired refugees.

Jobs cleaning buildings, stocking grocery store shelves and working in factory lines have either disappeared or been snatched up by local people who have been laid off.

The Hasan family must find work by October. That’s when their refugee cash assistance, just $359 per month per single adult, runs out. Families with children can apply for help through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, but single adults don’t have any other options.

“My heart goes out to them, but we’re tied by federal laws,” said Tom Medina, director of Washington state’s refugee resettlement program. “This economy is so tight that they’re competing with mainstream Americans for jobs.”

The economy has been tight for some time now, yet the US State Department and the volags (government contractors) are making no move to turn the spigot off or warn the refugees. Curious isn’t it. And, by the way, there is no law that says these agencies can’t find PRIVATE money to help the refugees beyond that magic date when they tell refugees they will be on the street.

Refugees are flooding into Washington State from everywhere.

The Hasans came to the U.S. as part of a federal program to resettle 12,000 Iraqis whose lives are at risk as long as they stay in the Middle East. It’s not clear how many Iraqi refugees will be resettled in Washington, but the state may be a prime destination because a large Iraqi community already exists here. Hundreds of Iraqis live in northeast Everett, many of whom came to the U.S. about 15 years ago after they protested against Saddam Hussein following Operation Desert Storm.

Nearly 100 Iraqis have arrived in Washington since the 2009 fiscal year began in October, Medina said. The state is likely to receive about 100 more before the end of the year. About 220 Iraqis arrived in 2008, he said.

The state is also receiving refugees from Bhutan, Burma, Ukraine, east Africa and other regions.

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) says, it’s not our fault that the refugees expectations are too high.

“Some have expectations that are pretty high,” said Bob Johnson, director of the International Rescue Committee’s Seattle office.

And, it’s not our fault, those pesky people who volunteer their time to help refugees are discouraging them from taking jobs like cleaning pet cages:

Local churches and other groups often volunteer to help “sponsor” refugees, offering furniture and other supplies and help getting accustomed to everyday life. Sponsors can complicate a job search if they think a refugee is entitled to a better job than is available.

The well-intentioned volunteer doesn’t know the agency doesn’t get paid, or doesn’t get a good rating, if they don’t get that refugee employed at something—-anything!—-as fast as possible.

I have an idea! Since we just learned that the Leftwing big moneybags at the Tides Foundation (George Soros et al) gave the IRC $3.5 million a year ago, why not go to them again and ask for more money FOR REFUGEES, not for staff or offices or lobbying for Amnesty. I know for a fact that Soros was pushing for the Iraqis to come here because, among other projects, he sits on the ‘International Crisis Group’ board that advocated for Iraqi resettlement. Also, another Soros pet project, the Center for American Progress says they want to airlift 100,000 Iraqis here this year. Well how about you rich hypocrits pay for them! You have more money then the US government has at this point.

Endnote: I wrote about potential problems with Iraqi refugees in Everett back in 2007, here. At that time, Washington State was the 4th largest refugee-receiving state in the nation, I didn’t check if that is still the case.

Iraqi refugees demonstrate in Syria, say they want resettlement now!

05/27/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

From the Associated Press:

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) – Some 200 Iraqi refugees in Syria staged a sit-in outside the UN refugee offices in Damascus Tuesday to protest perceived delays in measures to resettle them in a third country.

The protesters were trying to highlight the plight of the refugees, many of whom fled the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, and are still waiting for resettlement six years later.

The UN representative told AP:

……more than 200,000 refugees have registered with the agency in the past few years, adding that only 10,500 of them have already been resettled.

I wonder does AP ever do any google searches to follow what is happening to unhappy Iraqis resettled in the US, some of whom want to return to the Middle East because of lousy living conditions and unemployment here.

It was only two months ago that we learned that two Iraqi families who had been resettled in Fredericksburg, VA, borrowed money and RETURNED to Syria! Does anyone mention that to those protesters? NO!

I know it’s a cliche, but the deeper I get into this issue the more it becomes apparent that the major media outlets are downright disgusting with their politically correct bias.

Fjordman comments on Swedish “lynch mob” story

05/26/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

On Saturday, Gates of Vienna (GOV) blog gave us more details about the Swedish “lynch mob” story we told you about the same day—you know, where an angry mob of Swedes scared Iraqi refugees from their little town, here. Well, Baron at GOV has contacts in Sweden who sent him more details on the incident, here, which prompted lots of reader discussion.

One commenter, the famous blogger Fjordman, calling it the re-tribalization of society, had this to say in response to the news:

This is the price you pay for destroying the cultural and social fabric of a nation through mass immigration. Similar problems are now rapidly emerging throughout the Western world for roughly the same reasons. The state can no longer uphold law and order and frequently doesn’t even try. The only option left to ordinary citizens is vigilante justice and the formation of armed clans and groups to withstand the attacks of other armed clans and groups. It’s the re-tribalization of society, which is and always has been the logical consequence of Multiculturalism. If you’re a Westerner, it’s coming to a street near you very soon, accompanied by loud cheers from the intelligentsia.

Iraqi refugees returning to Iraq, maybe, maybe not

05/25/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

We hear so much conflicting news, who is to say what is correct and what isn’t anymore as it relates to Iraqi refugees. Here is a story that says Iraqis (Muslim Iraqis) are returning to Iraq in a big way. Tomorrow there will be a story that says they aren’t.

More than a million Iraqi refugees and internally displaced people have returned to their homes in Iraq over the past six years, despite the violence that prevails in the country.

As of April this year, 609,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) and approximately 409,000 refugees had returned to their homes in Iraq, according to the latest figures published by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

UN Return Assistance Centers

The Iraqi immigration authorities are encouraging refugees to return, explaining that the security situation in the country has improved.

The UNHCR has opened return assistance centers in Baghdad, with the aim of supporting returnees and assisting them to integrate back into communities.

Most of the people returning to Iraq are middle class, Sidky said. Christians and other minorities in Iraq have faced persecution since Saddam Hussein was ousted and many of them have fled the violence to seek better lives elsewhere.

However, she said most of those returning were Muslim, since they are a majority in the country and most of those who fled were Muslim.

I will say that if Obama pulls us out precipitously and a bloodbath follows, it will be Obama’s bloodbath.

By the way, I haven’t seen any news stories about unhappy Iraqis leaving the US recently, I wonder if there hasn’t been a big effort made by the volags to keep them happy and out of the newspapers.

A different kind of Iraqi refugee story

05/23/2009 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

With all the stories we’ve put up about unemployed Iraqi refugees, I thought I’d post one outside of that template. Adam Ashton of the Modesto Bee reports on a group of Iraqi refugee women who are learning hair styling at Modesto’s Dior School of Cosmetology.

Sam Rasho, the school’s owner, lent these students a hand up, waiving $12,000 in tuition for them and 13 other refugees. They must spend eight more months in class before they’ll be ready to seek a license from the state Board of Barbering and Cosmetology.

“People helped me, so I felt it was my duty to help them,” said Rasho, who left Iraq and arrived in Chicago in 1974.

This is typical of how immigrants have traditionally made their way in America — earlier arrivals helping new ones to make a living and to assimilate. So how come this story is so different from those previous ones of Iraqi refugees disillusioned with America? I suspect the answer is here:

Rasho heard about their trouble finding work through a network of Assyrian Christians in Stanislaus County.

That’s all it says about Christians, but it’s clear these are Iraqi Christians, not Muslims. Not something a reporter who values his job would want to emphasize, but probably the crux of the story.

“They are so dedicated,” Bradley said. “They’re going to get jobs because they’re eager to work and they work hard.”

There are plenty of Iraqi Muslims who have been here a long time and have prospered. Perhaps they could help out some of those unemployed Iraqi Muslims refugees by teaching them a useful trade. Perhaps they already are doing that and we just haven’t heard of it, but I doubt it. It makes such a good story that some reporter would have picked it up.