Category: Other refugees

Catholic Charities can’t handle the large number of refugees coming to Syracuse

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It is the same story throughout the US.  As the fiscal year winds down, the State Department is in a rush to get as many refugees into the US by September 30th as they can.    The problems in Syracuse, with the large number of Bhutanese refugee arrivals, are symptomatic of what is wrong with refugee resettlement and demonstrates why the system is, in my opinion, rotten and needs to be overhauled.

The volags, like Catholic Charities are paid by the head by the taxpayers of the United States to resettle refugees.   But, it is supposed to be a public/private partnership and they are supposed to put in their own time and money.   They obviously don’t do enough. 

I have contended all along that each family arriving in America must have its own sponsor—a group, a church, whatever—to take care of helping the family assimilate and survive for as long as it takes.   This individual sponsor would be responsible for providing food, shelter, clothing, transportation, help with paperwork and assistance in finding a job.  If we are going to bring refugees we should care for them properly and help them become good American citizens.   See the post I just wrote a few minutes ago about similar problems with Iraqis going to Arizona.

Situations like this are completely irresponsible:

Because of the rush of refugees, it’s taking 60 to 90 days to get people in for medical checkups and sign them up for health care and public assistance. Normally, that takes 30 days. Because of the delays, Catholic Charities has had to rely more on donations to buy people food and medicine for new refugees [this should be their job, not the taxpayers anyway!], Hargrave [director of Catholic Charities refugee program in Syracuse] said.

Local agencies say the bubble of refugees is caused by the federal government’s attempt to resettle refugees before the federal fiscal year ends Sept. 30. Officials said they wouldn’t be scrambling if the refugees were spread out throughout the year.

“We’re having trouble working with that many people,” Hargrave said. “The Department of Social Services is having a great deal of problems getting people through Medicaid, food stamps and public assistance. We can’t manage to get them through the system.”

Those Bhutanese not getting medical check-ups immediately pose a health risk to the community because refugees with both HIV and TB can enter the US, and children need to be immunized in order to go to school.

And, on top of not being able to get the new refugees on welfare fast enough, there are virtually no jobs:

Jasenko Mondom, a job developer at the Refugee Family Program, said the biggest challenge is finding jobs for new refugees. Local companies that typically hire refugees for entry-level jobs have either shut down or moved those jobs overseas.

It’s taking longer to find people jobs, he said. Typically, Mondom said, local companies hired two or three people a week. Now, he’s lucky if he can get one person hired a week.

The US has agreed to take 60,000 Bhutanese, presently living in camps in Nepal, over the next several years.  We have written on many occasions about their situation and their arrival in the US, go here to see those posts and learn more.

The World Cup, South Africa and xenophobia (yes, xenophobia again!)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Apparently the World Cup is scheduled to be held in South Africa in 2010 and everyone is freaking out about what impact the “xenophobic” unrest (violence!) of recent months will have on the games and the hoped-for economic boom tourists might bring.   This is an overly long article from a publication of the Namibian government in which, yes, once again, xenophobia is blamed for the violence.    Those South Africans hate foreigners for no reason at all (except that they are foreigners), or so the theory goes.   See my earlier post on xenophobia here.

Sandwiched in the middle of this, as I said, overlong dissection, is what I see as the crux of the matter.  There are too many people in Africa and too few resources.  As the population increases and hordes of people cross borders to find the basic necessities, jobs, food, shelter,  the indiginous population will react violently to preserve their own lives and livelihoods.   In South Africa it is the poor black population perpetuating the violence against other African black ‘outsiders’. 

This is not rocket science, nor does it call for a psychiatrist to root out xenophobia.

In 1997, it was found that 25% of South Africans wanted a total prohibition of migration or immigration and 22% wanted the South African government to return all foreigners presently living in South Africa to their own countries.

Forty-five percent of the sample called for strict limits to be placed on migrants and immigrants and 17% wanted migration policies tied to the availability of jobs. In the same survey, some 61% of respondents agreed that migrants put additional strains on the country’s resources.

The government of the “rainbow nation” did nothing.  So does the next survey surprise anyone?

In 2006, respondents continued to consider foreigners to be a threat to the social and economic wellbeing of South Africa. More than two-thirds said that foreigners use up resources such as water, electricity and healthcare destined for citizens. Two-thirds of respondents felt that foreigners from other African countries commit crimes and close to one half said that foreigners bring diseases such as HIV to South Africa.

Thus, like in the1997 survey, respondents in 2006 appear to continue to have a negative view of the impact of foreigners on the country, and in fact it would appear that their view on certain issues has hardened, with greater percentages saying foreigners take up resources meant for citizens.

It makes perfect sense that the citizens of South Africa are responding to a real problem of too many people and not enough resources.  When the government didn’t listen 10 years ago, is it any surprise that their view has hardened!     Take heed John ‘open-our-borders’ McCain.

Go back and read about Steve Camarota’s Washington Post opinion piece and our increasing population and dwindling resources here.

North Korean refugee is a spy

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

South Korea last week charged a refugee woman from North Korea with spying after she had entered the South seeking asylum.

Prosecutors say Won Jeong-hwa was trained in espionage before being sent to the South, where she claimed asylum.

She is accused of giving sexual favours to army officers in exchange for military secrets, according to the South Korean news agency Yonhap.

Potential refugees from North Korea go through individual screening tests before being allowed into the South.

But correspondents say that if Ms Won is found guilty of espionage, it could raise fears among South Koreans that there are other secret agents in their midst.

Read the whole article and note the Chinese role.

According to the BBC, South Korea has identified 4500 spies in the last 60 years entering from the North or through China.

The US has begun resettlement of “refugees” from North Korea, see our posts here and here.  South Korea doesn’t want them, so the good ol’ USA will take them.  Oh brother!

Bush calls for financial assistance for displaced Georgians

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

In a memorandum to the Secretary of State, President Bush yesterday asked that internally displaced Georgians receive American aid:

I hereby determine, pursuant to section 2(c)(1) of the Act [Migration and Refugee Assistance Act of 1962], that it is important to the national interest to furnish assistance under the Act, in an amount not to exceed $5.75 million from the United States Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance [ERMA] Fund, for the purpose of meeting unexpected and urgent refugee and migration needs, including by contributions to international, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations and payment of administrative expenses of the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration of the Department of State, related to the humanitarian needs of conflict victims and those displaced by recent violence in Georgia.

For you numbers folks, here is the FY2007 ERMA fund (couldn’t find 2008 in my few minutes of research), but here is a report from our friends at Refugees International (RI) about how happy they are that the FY2008 monies in this category bring the fund to its chock-full level of $100 million.  RI must be busy lobbying on the FY2009 fund about now.

Refugee news from around the globe

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is so much happening and so little time to comment, so to be sure you aren’t missing refugee and immigrant news from around the world, here are a few nuggets:

Italy declared emergency over illegal immigrants arriving in boats and a few days later 800 more came ashore from Africa.

Some 800 immigrants arrived in Southern Italy on Thursday (31 July), just a few days after the country declared a national state of emergency over what it describes as the “exceptional and persistent influx” of irregular immigrants.

Rohingya Muslim refugees go to New Zealand.  To see why this could be a problem for New Zealand, see our category Rohingya Reports here.

New Zealand has already welcomed the Rohingya Refugees from Bangladesh. The first batch of 23 Refugee were resettled on 28th June 2008 that included the members of the Rohingya Youth Development Forum (RYDF), Arakan-Burma.

Japan may soon take refugees.   Heretofore Japan has avoided taking refugees but now is working with the UN to start opening its doors.

Critics say Japan is a generous supporter of refugee programs overseas but shuts the door when people seek asylum in its own shores.

North Korean refugee coming to US from Russia.

He is the first North Korean defector to find asylum in the U.S. from Russia, which has refused to recognize North Korean defectors as refugees and approve their seeking of asylum to the U.S. for fear of harming diplomatic ties with the North.

South Africa, the rainbow nation, has a large and growing group of impoverished people—white people!   Will South African whites be considered for refugee resettlement some day?

It is not politically correct to talk about white, poor people,” said Dirk Hermann, a senior Solidarity official. “They are the nation’s forgotten people. Zuma’s been surprised by the level of poverty among the white population which is not talked about. They have been poorly served by the government.