Category: Iraqi refugees

Two Washington Post readers show good sense on refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two letters to the Washington Post make an interesting postscript to my post the other day about Iraqi refugees and the Post’s article on Nazaar Joodi, the refugee who was headed for a homeless shelter. They’re so good, in fact, that I’m making this separate post about them. (Are there too many “posts” in that sentence?) I’m going to put them both here in their entirety because they’re short and well worth reading.

The first letter is from Gary Kelch of Springfield, Virginia:

When I read the article about the Iraqi refugee Nazaar Joodi [“For Once-Celebrated Iraqi, Life in U.S. One of Lost Hope,” front page, May 10], it was obvious to me that he, like many immigrants to the United States and even a significant number of our native-born citizens, has a fundamental misunderstanding about the great gift this nation provides.

Our nation’s founders never intended for people to be a kept population in which citizenship alone brought wealth and prosperity. This nation provides the gift of opportunity, a safe and cooperative environment where people can strive to achieve wealth and prosperity that are not given but earned. It is a nation dependent on the success of its citizens — and not citizens who serve and are kept by the state.

Later, the article quoted Pary Karadaghi of Kurdish Human Rights Watch as saying of Iraqi refugees in general, “The ones who don’t think America owes them anything are the ones who do best.” This statement applies to everyone, immigrant or citizen. I imagine that Mr. Joodi had a vision of utopia when he brought his family to the United States. Well, this is a utopia but not one of streets paved with gold. It is a utopia where hard work and initiative are rewarded with achievement. With so many citizens of this great nation confused on this point, it is easy to see how a newcomer would also be confused.

Should Mr. Joodi stay in America, it will be difficult for him to succeed but not impossible. What he makes of the opportunity depends on him and no one else.

The second, from Gregory Davis of Oakton, Virginia, says:

As a small-business owner of 22 years, I would gladly hire hardworking individuals such as Mr. Joodi, as would many other small businesses. But the economic system in place must be changed to encourage such efforts. At present, we use subcontractors wherever possible to avoid matching Social Security and Medicare costs, unemployment insurance and other burdensome employee expenses.

Why not allow employers to match the amounts given by county programs and hire people such as Mr. Joodi, offering employment, training and a future? For this to be done, programs would need to be put in place that would compensate employers and exempt us from the excessive costs.

Doesn’t this make more sense than using tax money for temporary solutions that so often end sadly, such as with Mr. Joodi and thousands of others?

Bravo to both.

Comment worth noting: answering Liam

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Comments worth noting is our category for readers comments that are posted now, but on an older post, so it would be unlikely for readers to see them.   I am assuming from past comments that Liam is an Iraqi, but I can’t say for sure.  Liam’s comment to this older post is worth noting because it’s an opportunity to give you additional information.

Liam says:

yes I am asking question

what is the recent arrival of Iraqi families in the USA and which states and which country in the Middle East are they coming from and the dates please

Liam, we are not an agency of the government and so therefore we have no access to the information you are requesting.  We do know that we have brought 9,581 Iraqis to the US this fiscal year that began Oct. 1, 2008.  Where they went in the US, we don’t know.  Where they came from in the Middle East, we don’t know.   The reason we don’t know is that the government and the refugee agencies keep all that secret from the public.

We know all that information is recorded at this office of the US State Department (here), but the average citizen has no access to the data.

Liam said:

all other Iraqi arrival in other countries are getting published

you mention that the USA has resettled 200000 refugees from a different nationalities since 1980
compared to the UK this is very small number

the UK has taken at least four million Iraqis most of them are Kurdish and plenty more from other nationalities

I guess all those other countries publishing data are better than the US, what can I say. We all know the US is the worst country in the world, right Liam?   By the way, there is no way on earth that the UK has taken 4 million Iraqis, but if that  figure is anywhere near being correct, I guess that explains why the UK is having such a horrific experience with immigrants and maybe it’s time they cut back on Middle Easterners in the UK.

Liam said:

every body in the world pay tax not only in the USA
and there is no full employment in any country
and as you know there are plenty of forginers are working in Iraq and getting paid a high salary but Iraqis do not mind

And your point is?

Are the volags orchestrating a public relations campaign to get more taxpayer funding?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I’m getting weary of seeing the SAME story everywhere—Iraqi refugees who helped America, arriving in the US, not finding work, becoming desperate, fearing eviction with some wanting to go home to the Middle East.   The solution is always the same, reform the Refugee Resettlement Program with more taxpayer funding.   Either reporters are lemmings (always a possibility) or this is a well-oiled PR campaign to use Iraqis as ‘poster children’ for a taxpayer bail-out of the volags.    Volags for new readers are supposedly voluntary agencies that have federal contracts to resettle refugees—it’s big business, it is corporate humanitarianism!

The CNN story from Monday starts out with the sad story of an Iraqi woman who helped the US government in Iraq but now can’t find work as a refugee here.   I’ve completely lost track but it’s probably our 25th such story.

The Gang is all here!  I laughed when I read this because CNN managed to get in  6 of the Top Ten contractors (volags) for a mention.  Surprise!   They all say the same thing—give us more tax money!   Incidentally all of those individuals quoted below make 6-figure salaries.

“It’s the most challenging time I’ve seen and I’ve been doing this work for 25 years,” said Robert J. Carey, vice president of resettlement and migration policy at the  International Rescue Committee, one of several nonprofit organizations that the U.S. government pays to resettle refugees.

Lavinia Limon, president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, says, “it’s a significant problem.”

“All refugees are required to become self-sufficient in a very fast time period. Our program is designed with that in mind. There isn’t a long-term basis of support,” said Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Council of Catholic Bishops. “What we have right now is a situation where it’s becoming more and more difficult to find employment in a very short time period.”

[….]

Three agencies — Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, and Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service — said in a recent statement that “the recession is making it harder for refugee newcomers to find jobs within 180 days of arrival as the program prescribes.”

Please make a special note of the fact that 4 of the 6 mentioned above are groups that are part of the “religious left” that got involved in lobbying on the Amnesty for illegal aliens fight in 2007.   Just think about it, from Planned Parenthood, to ACORN, to these volags your tax dollars are supporting political causes.  Can you imagine the uproar if conservative groups like the Heritage Foundation or groups working to close the borders and fighting Amnesty, like NumbersUSA, were on the taxpayer dole!

Poor babies!   If they have to ask for more private charitable giving for refugees—it might actually involve some work.

The State Department allocation for living expenses per refugee on arrival to the country is $450, a sum the department calls “modest.” [Edit:  it is really $900 they receive but the volag pockets half for ‘overhead’].   Individual refugees also are eligible to get eight months of cash assistance and medical assistance under the HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Depending on states’ eligibility requirements, refugee families could be eligible for Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and Medicaid. State governments stipulate welfare benefit cash levels. There are five years’ worth of social services, such as English language instruction.  [What about Americans struggling to find work, do they get all this?]

Refugee agencies across America pursue various state and federal programs that can help newcomers stay afloat, but they say they rely more and more on private donations to help provide food, clothing, money and furniture. That increasing reliance on community support shows that the U.S. program for resettling refugees needs reform, resettlement agencies argue.  [Edit:  Yes, more money = reform, nevermind that this program is a mess.]

Then here is the topper!

The public-private partnership that has been the “genius” of the U.S. program has “fallen out of balance,” with the private sector is bearing much of the cost, these agencies say.

The only “genius” involved was figuring out how to funnel taxpayer money to completely unaccountable LEFTWING political groups to quietly flood America with third worlders who could be relied upon to continue the demand for welfare assistance and to vote Democratic.   The immigrants are just pawns that these groups can leave in a lurch as we are seeing across America right now—get them in the country but then walk away.  There can be no other rational explanation for lobbying for more refugees and then not caring for them.

The reason they can’t find enough private support—why finding it is such hard work— is because there is not  a great  clamor by Americans to bring more poverty into America especially if they have to use their own hard-earned money to do it. 

Damn it!  Refugee advocates, if  you want to feel good, adopt a child or sponsor a family privately, that is true charity.   It is in my opinion frankly evil to expect others to help you feel good about yourself.

And, “genius” because the way the program is structured there is virtually no accountability to you who are paying for it.  These volags (as supposed non-profits) answer to no one, except occasionally to the State Department but only after they publically screw up.

They talk about reform, but the only reform they want is more of your money with no accountability. 

Readers:  It is my view that funding of LEFTWING SOCIALIST CAUSES by the taxpayer is one of the greatest scams undermining our culture, our society, and our government, but it is so deep and so broad only a catastrophic collapse of the federal government could halt it now.  And, the way things are going, that could happen!

Unemployed Iraqis in Albany; can’t reporters use google?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Albany TV station, WNYT, reports that Iraqi refugees are unemployed in that city. Ann reported in February that the refugee agency there, U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, was “maxed out” and was asking for volunteers. She also mentioned that Albany is a preferred community for refugee resettlement. Somebody has stepped up to help them.

The Iraqi refugees are being helped by several local groups, including Women Against War and the Bethlehem Neighbors for Peace.

One of the men in the story is an English speaking electrical engineer; the other is in IT.  They can’t find any work.

Now here’s a question for reporters. We’ve read dozens of stories about unemployed Iraqi refugees. Almost all are just human interest stories. Some give some information about the refugee program, but very few look at their local problem as part of a national phenomenon. I just googled “unemployed Iraqi refugees” and came up with 141,000 hits. Many of these are about refugees abroad, but it looks like just as many are about refugees in the United States. In this era of shrinking media and job losses, wouldn’t you think that some enterprising reporters could do the small amount of research it would take to put their local story into a larger context? Maybe someone higher up would notice.

Plight of Iraqi refugees is now front and center

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The Washington Post has discovered an Iraqi refugee with a sad story — and better yet, one that can be used to bash George W. Bush! Now maybe these poor people will get some attention, because their plight is all Bush’s fault. Whatever it takes.

For Once-Celebrated Iraqi, Life in U.S. One of Lost Hope is the headline, and the story is about one of the Iraqi men who had had a hand cut off by Saddam Hussein and were brought to America to be fitted with artificial hands. I remember reading about these men and seeing their pictures. It was a heartwarming story. The Post’s current story begins:

The walls of the little brick house in Fairfax County where Nazaar Joodi lives with his family are adorned with framed photos from his first visit to this country. Here he is shaking hands with Colin Powell. There he is embracing Paul D. Wolfowitz. And, clasping Joodi by the arm, a grinning George W. Bush offers his “Best Wishes.”

Oh, Wolfowitz, the evil neo-con. Now we know something bad is coming.

It really is a sad story, but it is not so different from the many stories we’ve posted about Iraqi refugees in the United States. The difference is that Joodi had been semi-famous here, and expected better treatment based on the high-level people he had met. Now he can’t pay the rent and is facing taking his family to a homeless shelter.

But this is the Washington Post, which sometimes really reports on the news. And the reporter, Brigid Schulte, comes up with a few facts about Iraqi refugees in general which we can only hope will lead to some actual investigation.

The struggle of newly arrived refugees in the United States has always been difficult. But now, with a refugee system that hasn’t changed in 30 years, a failing economy and an influx of thousands of Iraqi refugees, advocates say many Iraqis are being resettled into institutional poverty. In the past, a lone refugee with mental illness would wind up homeless every few years, they said. Now, a “staggering” number of recent refugees — one-third of them Iraqi — are at risk, like Joodi, of being evicted.

“We’re actually giving orientation services to Iraqi refugees on how to access homeless services. I’ve been doing this work for over 25 years, and I’ve never seen a situation like this,” said Robert Carey, a vice president at the International Rescue Committee.

Every year, Carey’s agency helps about 4,000 refugees find work with the goal of becoming self-sufficient within six months of arriving. In recent years, almost three-fourths were. But in the last quarter of 2008, only half were self-sufficient.

I don’t expect an investigation of the refugee agencies; it’s just a good thing that a reporter is focusing on the Iraqi refugees. She goes on to write about our moral obligation to the Iraqis and how few refugees we accepted.

“We have an obligation to Iraqi refugees, because many in the United States, if not most, were persecuted because of their associations with the United States. . . . So many of these people did put their lives in danger on behalf of America. I think there was an expectation that, as a result, they would be taken care of,” Carey said.

Instead, they’re given $450 from the U.S. State Department and help from a resettlement agency. The amount of aid varies by state and agency.

“Many Iraqi refugees are having a tough time now. And some have a feeling that because they’re Iraqi, the U.S. government owes them more. But the U.S. program treats refugees all the same,” said Pary Karadaghi, executive director of Kurdish Human Rights Watch, a Northern Virginia-based group that helps more than 1,000 Iraqi, Afghan and other refugees every year.

She said she knows Iraqi translators who worked for the U.S. government and can’t find jobs. Middle-class professionals consider themselves lucky to be bagging groceries at Giant or working the night shift at McDonald’s. A coroner works part time at T.J. Maxx. And the former Iraqi health minister has a job at Wegmans.

“The ones who don’t think America owes them anything are the ones who do best,” Karadaghi said.

I’ve got to say something about the “America owes them” idea. This is said again and again, and I’ve said it myself. The story is that we went into Iraq and caused all this violence which drove millions of people to become refugees. Thousands of Iraqis helped us, and therefore we should take care of them, if not all the displaced millions.

But the real story is that Iraq was living under a monstrous regime. It was Saddam Hussein who cut off this man’s hand for money trading. It was Saddam who fed people into industrial shredders and had rape rooms for his henchmen to satisfy their sadistic lusts. Under Saddam people disappeared into prison or death for no reason except opposing him. He killed hundreds of thousands of his own people. Life was a nightmare for ordinary Iraqis.

So in helping us, these Iraqis were working for the good of their own country. They weren’t helping America; they were helping Iraq, and many were getting paid. Did they do it so they could get a visa to come to America? No, they expected a better life.

Instead, they got, for a while, sectarian violence, which often but not always focused on those who had worked for Americans. So we need to make it up to them by bringing them here. 

But we corrected our mistake and quelled the violence. Whether that will last is another story, now that our enemies see that President Obama does not intend to secure peace in Iraq. But there is no better insurance for Iraq than to have its people there in the country to fight back against whatever comes along. It is their country.

Mr. Joodi is wondering whether he should go back to Iraq. Many other Iraqis who came to America are wondering that too. For many of them the answer is probably yes, they should. They will be better off and their country will be better off. Which ones could successfully stay here? I repeat the quote from Pary Karadaghi:

“The ones who don’t think America owes them anything are the ones who do best.”