Category: Other refugees

Shall we call Lexington, KY “Little Congo?”

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Sure sounds like it.  Don’t tell Professor Kotkin that these new immigrants didn’t ‘find their way’ to Lexington, Kentucky as the result of all the buzz back in Kinshasa about the great economy for ‘new Americans’ in “the horse capital of the world”.

Red states are being turned blue through refugee resettlement.

Once a seed community has been established and no one complains, more will arrive. 

From WEKU-FM (hat tip: Robin)

They aren’t coming from Syria yet!

As refugees flee the civil war in Syria, few will probably settle in the Commonwealth.  Barbara Kleine with Kentucky Refugee Ministries [subcontractor of  one of the top nine federal contractors Church World Service—ed] says many displaced Syrians still remain within that nation’s borders.  “There are just multiple layers of security checks before people are admitted to the U.S. and that can takes months up to years really.  So right now, there is no process in place that is processing Syrian refugees who are outside the country,” said Kleine.

But, they are going to “welcoming” Lexington from the Congo:

Congolese on the march! ‘Finding their way’ to Lexington, KY with the help of Church World Service!

Meanwhile, the number of immigrants from the African nation of Congo who settle in central Kentucky is expected to grow significantly.  Kleine says about 800 Congolese ex-patriots now live in Lexington.  She predicts they’ll attract even more refugees from that war-torn nation.

“When there is a community of say Congolese or Bhutanese in your community and you can prove to the State Department that you have the language capacity and the community support to welcome those refugee, then you are able to continue to resettle that population,” added Kleine.

Kleine says the new immigrants could arrive in the Lexington-area this coming fall.  Over the last five years, she says Lexington has become one of the nation’s most popular destinations for refugees from Congo.

Iranian TV calling Mali conflict “the French war on Mali;” blame the French for refugee crisis

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is actually funny if it weren’t so serious.

“French War on Mali increases Refugees,” from Press TV (Official Iranian English language news outlet):

The number of Malian people crossing into neighboring countries goes on to rise amid the French-led war on Mali.

According to reports by the United Nations, over 4,000 Malian refugees have arrived in Mauritania alone since January 11, when France launched a war on Mali under the pretext of halting the advance of fighters in the country.

Just some random fighters?  Not Jihadists trying to control the country?

They go on to tell readers about the terrible plight of refugees created by the FRENCH.

And, why did France launch this war?  To steal the resources of Mali, what else?

Press TV:

Some political analysts believe that Mali’s abandoned natural resources, including gold and uranium reserves, could be one of the reasons behind the French war.

If you missed it last Saturday we reported that a Leftist agitation group in Illinois is already calling for temporary refugee status for Malians already in the US, here.

More refugees to Wisconsin….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

…..and more federal dollars to fund them (well, to fund the contractors).

There is nothing unusual about Wisconsin.  Everyone is going to get more refugees and Washington will surely have the funds flowing to the contractors* now that the Obama Administration is free to go full steam ahead.

If you live in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh, here they come.

From AP at Fox 11:

MADISON (AP) – Agencies in six Wisconsin communities will receive a total of $1.5 million to help resettle new refugees.

The state Department of Children and Families says the latest refugees arriving in Wisconsin are mainly from Burma, East Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Nepal. To receive refugee status, a person must have a well-founded fear of persecution and not be able to safely return to their home country.   [LOL! Now they are saying East Africa so as not to say Somalis.—ed]

That definition of a refugee is important.  It used to mean that the individual refugee had a fear of persecution, now one only needs to be from a certain region of the world and one is assumed to be persecuted.  The refugee industry has long wanted that expanded definition and now they have just made it so.  And, hey, didn’t Obama tell us that Iraq and Afghanistan are safe—after all, he says we don’t need our military there!   Somalia has a new government and is encouraging its people to come home.   And, who is persecuting in Nepal?

AP continues:

The state has funded refugee programs using federal money, beginning with the Hmong resettlement in Wisconsin. Local agencies provide a host of services to the refugees, including language and literacy classes, school enrollment, job information and mental health services.  [You pay for all of this!—ed]

The funding has been targeted for agencies in Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh. About 1,000 new refugees are expected to settle in Wisconsin this year.

For Wisconsin readers, you can learn more about refugees in Wisconsin here at your state agency website.  Five of nine federal contractors appear to have divvied up Wisconsin.

An afterthought:  Just as I hit publish I remembered that I wanted to mention that one of the bits of information for you to note at the Wisconsin website might answer an oft-asked question, namely, do refugees who come as senior citizens get social security?  The answer is yes—for up to nine years.   SSI will continue past that time if they become US citizens:

A refugee senior must naturalize within nine years of arrival or lose eligibility for SSI.

* The ORR website is down, but for new readers the big nine contractors who hold a monopoly on federal contracts are:

The so-called “religious ” contractors receiving tax dollars:

US Conference of Catholic Bishops  (we just mentioned them yesterday, here)

Church World Service

Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services

World Relief

Episcopal Migration Ministries

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

The secular contractors:

US Committee on Refugees and Immigrants

International Rescue Committee

Ethiopian Community Development Council

Mali: Muslim “rebels” creating more refugees on the move in Africa

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here we go again (from StarAfrica.com):

A statement from the UNHCR quoted its spokesperson Melissa Fleming during a news briefing in Geneva on Friday as saying that a further 700 000 people may be displaced by the fresh wave of violence to hit the landlocked West African country as a foreign intervention force engage the rebels who have been in control of northern Mali since April 2012.

“We believe there could be in the near future an additional 300,000 displaced inside Mali and up to 400 000 additional displaced people in neighbouring countries as a result of the unrest” Fleming remarked.

According to her horrific, accounts of amputations and executions have been reported in Islamist-controlled regions of Mali, with claims suggesting that some civilians were being lured with large sums of money to defend the territories from the onslaught by Malian troops backed by French ground forces and airstrikes.

She also said there were reports of children fighting within the ranks of the rebels who continue to put up stiff resistance against intervention forces.

Close to 200, 000 displaced Malians have fled to neighbouring Mauritania, Niger, Burkina Faso and Algeria since the conflict began in March 2012 with over 300, 000 more internally displaced.

Will Samantha Power and her “responsibility to protect” get us into this conflict too?

Writer: Bhutanese ‘third country resettlement’ sets a bad precedent

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Joseph Mathew (or is it Mathew Joseph?) writing at the International Business Times has penned an interesting article giving us the background on why the people of Nepali origin were expelled from Bhutan which led to the US (under the Bush Administration and continuing into today) taking tens of thousands of those expelled people to America over the last five years.  Here is just one recent post about Bhutanese/Nepali people coming here en masse.

Below are my excerpts from the article by Mr. Mathew:

The long pending issue of the repatriation of Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin, who were housed in the UNHCR-sponsored refugee camps in the eastern Nepal districts of Morang and Jhapa since early 1990s, was “resolved” to many by the Third Country Resettlement proposal put forth and being carried out by countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark and the Netherlands. As of now, a sizable section of the refugees have been resettled in these countries, with a majority of them now living in the United States.

These Bhutanese refugees of Nepali origin were expelled from Bhutan in the early 1990s as a result of the state sponsored Bhutanization drive epitomized in the promulgation of “Driglam Nam Za” (code of social etiquette) in 1989, which stipulated strict controls over the people of Nepali origin who inhabited the southern districts of Bhutan.

The author explains that the ruling class in Bhutan feared the growth of the population of people of Nepali origin.

A growth in the number of the people of Nepali origin and their cultural distinctiveness from the ruling elite became a cause of worry for them. The heightened political consciousness among the people of Nepali origin compounded the fears of the Ngalong ruling elite.

Several times Mr. Mathew implies that the ruling class fears of being eventually taken over demographically by the Nepali people and losing control of their government was an irrational fear.  I do remember when I first wrote about the Bhutanese years ago that there was mention of the Maoists agitating within this expelled population.  I don’t know if that is so, but that might have been behind some of the intransigence of Bhutan’s government.  Yes, I found it! here is the news story that reported Maoists in the camps.

Mathew continues:

In the last 20 years, Bhutan has undergone many changes including transforming herself from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy and became a “democracy” from above. However, while undergoing these changes Bhutan has not changed a bit her policy towards the repatriation of the refugee population located in the UNHCR camps in eastern Nepal. On the contrary, it has created many hurdles in the process of resolving the refugee problem amicably despite the efforts of Nepal.

Frankly folks,  I have never understood why Nepal didn’t want its own ethnic people back!

So why did the US get into this squabble?

I have no answer to that.  Discerning readers at this point are likely asking—why is it the business of the US to resolve a dispute involving Bhutan and Nepal and to a lesser degree India?  Why is this in our national interest?

The only answer I have is this—that open-borders agitators wanted more immigrants, more Democrat voters, more people in need of Social Services, more cheap (captive because they can’t go home!) laborers in meatpacking plants and other low-wage industries.

And, then writer Mathew brings up the downside of this wholesale dispersal of a population to the four winds.  He notes that with this UN push to resolve the issue, we helped let Bhutan, Nepal and India get off the hook.  Consequently they didn’t have to come up with a solution that might have led to repatriation (or their resettlement in their original home country of Nepal!).

The diplomatic deadlock between Nepal and Bhutan and India’s non-involvement in resolving the problem created the opportunity for the international community to step in. The context of the proposal of the Third Country Resettlement is that. The proposal for Third Country Resettlement came as a blessing in disguise for Bhutan, Nepal and India as it will definitely ‘resolve’ the refugee problem without affecting their interests and concerns. For many refugees, mainly young people, it offered new opportunity in rebuilding their lives, though the older lot among them was not in agreement with this thinking. The socio-psychological impact of the Third Country Resettlement on the Bhutanese refugees is something to be visible in the course of time.

We have already seen some of the psychological impact with the high suicide rate of Bhutanese here in the US.

The decision to move this entire “refugee” population and not resolve it between the countries involved will have “serious implications” for the future resolution of similar problems around the world:

The proposal for Third Country Resettlement in effect, in this particular case, turned out to be a rejection of the right of repatriation of the refugees. This is going to have serious implications for the resolution of various refugee issues pertaining to different regions of the world. International community, instead of making arrangements for Third Country Resettlement, must put pressure on the concerned parties to facilitate the process of repatriation for the resolution of refugee problems. As far as refugee problems are concerned, repatriation not Third Country Resettlement is the only meaningful solution. [Agreed!—ed]