Category: Legal immigration and jobs

Is yours a “welcoming” state for refugees? The answer may depend on your Hepatitis and HIV treatment availability

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

That is one of the interesting facts we are learning while reading through ORR’s Key Indicators for Fiscal Year 2015.  We have been telling you about it (see here and here).

The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has recently been compiling statistics on such things as employment opportunities and whether your state has generous social service benefits and healthcare to help refugees get the very best care they can get.

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/orr/statistical_abstract_for_refugee_resettlement_stakeholders_508.pdf

I found the ‘Access to Health Care’ on page 18 of the Statistical Abstract enlightening.

By the way, if yours is one of 26 states expanding Medicaid, yours will be a more “welcoming” location than the 19 (stingy) states which have not.

Access to Health Care

Access to health care and health insurance is an important consideration in refugee placement and resettlement decisions. Depending on their circumstances, refugees may be eligible for different types of health insurance, including Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, Refugee Medical Assistance (RMA), employer-based plans, and private insurance available through the Health Insurance Marketplace. However, many refugees are uninsured. In fact, one third of refugees from ORR’s Annual Survey in 2011 lacked medical of any kind throughout the preceding year. In addition, the availability of “safety net” health services varies by state.

Initial placement decisions can have a long-term impact on refugees’ health outcomes;

For example:

* Treatment for chronic Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C can last up to one year. People with these conditions who are resettled in a state where RMA is the only health insurance option will be less likely to start or complete treatment.

* Refugees with HIV will require specialized care; the availability of long-term health
insurance and the robustness of local Ryan White programs (especially, waiting periods to
access anti-HIV medications) should be considered when making placement decisions
regarding people with HIV.

You really should check out the report, you will learn a lot about how generous (or not) your state is and how well refugees are doing finding jobs and keeping them.

And, how is your TANF (Temporary Assistance to Needy Families)?  There is a very detailed state-by-state list of how much refugees get and what the rules are in your state.

Oh, and we learned one more thing!  ORR is using your tax dollars for “gaining socio-political support for the refugee program.”

For new readers, we have an extensive ‘health issues’ category, click here.  You may be surprised to learn that in addition to HIV and Hepatitis, we take refugees with TB, venereal diseases and parasites as well.

Office of Refugee Resettlement Key indicators for FY 2015 available

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Or, in layman’s terms, does your town or city have the amenities required (social service goodies, jobs, healthcare, etc.) to become a refugee resettlement site?

A couple of years ago the US State Department (Population Refugees and Migration) and the Office of Refugee Resettlement in HHS decided they better have a more organized way of determining if your town or city has what it takes to “welcome” refugees (as opposed to a previous method that sure looked like throwing darts at a US map!).

For awhile they just kept overloading the established resettlement cities (and they still do), but now they are scouting for fresh territory as well!

Below is what they say at ORR (you might want to contact the lead person listed below and ask to be a ‘stakeholder‘) about their “Coordinated Placement” plan.

Here is what we said about Key Indicators for 2014.  We have not yet even opened this 2015 report but remember in a few weeks Obama will announce his plans for how many refugees we will bring to America in 2015 (which begins October 1 of this year). Hat tip: Joanne.

By the way, they talk big about “capacity” but when a community screams that they are over capacity, they close their ears!

To facilitate the FY 2015 Refugee consolidated placement planning, ORR provides the attached “Statistical Abstract for Refugee Resettlement Stakeholders” document. This document contains critical information on the domestic refugee landscape for resettlement stakeholders to consider when making placement decisions, including a compilation of resources historically available to states for determination of the capacity of communities to serve the diverse needs of refugees.

This document is an additional key mechanism for ORR to share data and other critical information with PRM and resettlement stakeholders nationwide. The overall goal is to more effectively meet the needs of refugees while promoting their self-sufficiency and successful integration in the United States after their arrival.

Contact Information

Pierrot Rugaba
Program Analyst/Placement Liaison
Office of Refugee Resettlement
Administration for Children and Families
901 D Street SW – 8th Floor West
Washington DC 20447
Phone: 202-401-6891
Fax: 202-401-5772
pierrot.rugaba@acf.hhs.gov

 

 

North Carolina: Immigrants getting all the jobs!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update September 6th:  Black unemployment at over 11%, here.

Recently we told you about the busy beaver federal refugee contractors who are working hard to bring MORE cheap immigrant labor to North Carolina while native North Carolinians are going without work at an unprecedented rate.

Iraqi refugees in North Carolina. Doing work Americans won’t do? http://myfox8.com/2014/08/16/fleeing-syria-jobs-help-from-church-community-are-critical-to-stability-here-in-u-s/

See two recent posts here and here about North Carolina.

Then see the proof from the Center for Immigration Studies which analyzed the statistics to confirm what we suspected.

Previously CIS reported on similar numbers for the states of Florida and Tennessee.

Natives accounted for most of the growth in population, but all employment growth went to immigrants

The Gang of Eight immigration bill (S.744) passed by the Senate last June would have roughly doubled the number of new foreign workers allowed into the country, as well as legalized illegal immigrants already here. North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagen (D) voted for it. An analysis of government data by the Center for Immigration Studies shows that, since 2000, all of the net increase in the number of working-age (16 to 65) people holding a job in North Carolina has gone to immigrants (legal and illegal). This is the case even though the native-born accounted for 61 percent of growth in the state’s total working-age population.

Read it all, it is shocking!

I wonder if the same thing holds for Pennsylvania?

For more posts like this one, see our category ‘legal immigration and jobs’ by clicking here.

Refugees get jobs as dealers in PA casinos

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Jobs Americans won’t do?

Just as Atlantic City, NJ casinos are tanking with thousands expected to be unemployed, across the river in Pennsylvania refugees are getting jobs paying $22 to $28 an hour.  I know that area of Southern NJ and this is going to have a far reaching impact on the local economy.  Some of those employees might want to head to Pennsylvania.  But….

Extended family of Bhutanese refugees see first snow in Pennsylvania! PA is the top resettlement state for Bhutanese followed by Texas, NY, and Georgia. http://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/profiles/bhutanese/population-movements/

From AP at Go Erie:

The gambling industry in western Pennsylvania is betting on refugee immigrants. And casinos say it’s paying off.

At Presque Isle Downs & Casino, 40 percent of the men and women in the pits flipping cards and counting chips got their initial training in a room barely larger than a closet in the rear of a former Methodist church owned by Multicultural Community Resource Center, an Erie nonprofit that helps resettled refugees find jobs, housing and schools.

[….]

Nearly 200 of the 1,800 workers at Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, including those in the finance department and blackjack dealers, arrived as documented immigrants in the State Department’s refugee resettlement program. That’s twice the rate of foreign-born employment for the rest of Allegheny County, and it’s growing as charities help the state-regulated gambling parlor place qualified, law-abiding immigrants in service jobs that pay $22 to $28 an hour, depending on tips.

Now check this out!

That last line above (in red) has been edited because another version of the same article (this one at the Washington Times) says this:

Nearly 200 of the 1,800 workers at Rivers Casino on Pittsburgh’s North Shore, from the finance department to blackjack dealers, arrived as documented immigrants in the State Department’s refugee resettlement program. That’s twice the rate of foreign-born employment for the rest of Allegheny County, and it’s growing as charities – including the Catholic Diocese, Jewish Family and Children’s Services and the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council – help the state-regulated gambling parlor place qualified, law-abiding immigrants in service jobs that pay $22 to $28 an hour, depending on tips.

So why did Go Erie take out the names of the contractors resettling refugees in the area?

For more information, see our July post here—Pittsburgh at “tipping point!”  For more on how we came to take 70,000 plus Bhutanese refugees in the last few years, type ‘Bhutanese Sauerbrey’ into our search window.

Obama considering allowing 800,000 more immigrant workers into the US to appease big business

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

You know who should be really worried about this (in addition to American workers) is anyone who is trying to help real legal refugees find work because this plan may include employers of low-skill labor as well if the likes of Tamar Jacoby get their way.

Refugee activists won’t be concerned of course because it’s more about open borders for the refugee contractors than it is about humanitarian concern for needy refugees (or needy Americans).

Obama: Go ahead and joke about golfing all you want, but I am getting it done!

Reports run as high as 50% for the unemployment rate among legal refugees from some ethnic groups.  (I can hear the howls from refugee contractors when I say it’s that high, but they don’t really know themselves because they keep phoney records on employment.)

The contractors must report to the feds the employment status of their refugees, but here is what they do—they get the refugee some piddling job that might only last a few months just so they can say their refugees are employed and it doesn’t matter if the refugee is fired or quits after that reporting date.   And besides, after a few months, refugees move on to other towns and cities and no one tracks what they are doing!

From Breitbart:

After meeting with a “bevy” of big-business groups, President Barack Obama is reportedly considering granting them up to 800,000 additional guest-worker visas via executive actions.

According to the Associated Press, “one of the more popular requests among business and family groups is a change in the way green cards are counted,” which would “essentially free up some 800,000 additional visas the first year.” In addition, “other requests have included removing the requirement that some spouses of U.S. citizens return to their native country for at least three years before they can apply for U.S. residency, as well as extending work permits to the spouses of all temporary H1-B skilled workers.” The Obama administration is also considering granting work permits for low-skilled industries as well.

The Obama administration “has already increased the number of guest-worker permits by possibly 100,000 when it allowed the spouses of high-tech guest-workers who are applying for permanent residency to obtain permits.”

Numerous companies – like Microsoft and Cisco – have massively laid off American workers while pushing the Obama administration for more guest-worker visas at a time when scholars and studies from organizations on the left, right, and center have debunked the notion that there is a shortage of American high-tech workers. The Obama administration reportedly wants to appease big-business interests so they give him air cover for his potential executive amnesty, which may enable millions of illegal immigrants to get work permits in addition to temporary amnesty.

[….]

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) accused the Obama administration of “actively working against the interests of the American worker.”

Not only will the “legal” immigrants be working, but they will be voting because anyone with a driver’s license can vote in most states.

The next time you hear someone say they disapprove of illegal immigration, but LEGAL immigration is o.k. pop them in the nose (gently of course).  Our problem is numbers now whether they are legal or illegal!