Category: Where to find information

US Census says Somalis are the poorest of the foreign-born in the US population

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

More in my recent series on ‘having fun with numbers.’

The US Census Bureau released late last week the 2007 demographic numbers collected by the American Community Survey.*   Here are some poverty figures from their press release:

Among people for whom poverty status is determined, about 51 percent of residents born in Somalia are living in poverty. About a quarter of the population born in Iraq, the Dominican Republic, Jordan and Mexico are also living in poverty.

On the low end of the poverty spectrum for the countries of birth, U.S. residents born in the Netherlands and Ireland each have a poverty rate of about 5 percent.

About 13 percent of both natives and the total U.S. population are living in poverty, while about 16 percent of the foreign-born are.

Additionally the Somalis are among the newest comers and have the youngest population.

Meanwhile, among the nation’s foreign-born, Somalis and Kenyans living in the United States are the most likely to be newcomers, and Somalis are among the youngest and poorest.

In fact, we reported earlier that more than half of the Somali Muslim refugees we have resettled in the US have come since 9/11.

You can get information on your community here.  

*  If you scout around at the American Community Survey, you can find even more information on your county.  It took me awhile but I found it.

For readers who like to pore over statistics, see my posts yesterday here and here.

2006 Annual Report to Congress tells you everything you need to know about refugee program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Each year the Office of Refugee Resettlement prepares an Annual Report to Congress about the refugee program for that fiscal year.  The most recent report available is for FY2006.   It is a gold mine of information about the program:  who came, where they went, what grants and programs were available, and much more.

So, just as I said about that report I posted earlier today, this document will give you many hours of informative reading.

A couple of things that caught my eye on a quick skim of the 124 pages was a $1 million grant to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to do a “marriage education” program.  There was over $7 million awarded that year divided among 45 multicultural groups to “enhance ethnic community organizing”  (see page 34).

And then one of my favorite charts is the one on Welfare Usage on page 75.  For the 5 years prior to 2006 all forms of welfare usage have increased dramatically.   The four categories of usage include any type of cash assistance, Medicaid, Food Stamps and Public Housing.    For Food Stamps, 54.9% of refugees were using food stamps in 2006 while 35.8% were using them in 2001.   You can just imagine what the number must be now!

And with more food stamps available comes more opportunity for Food Stamp Fraud.

Senator Chuck Schumer to head Senate Immigration subcommittee

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I came across this information just now in a publication called  The Pakistani Newspaper.    It’s a statement by Ali Noorani, executive director of the National Immigration Forum welcoming Schumer as the new chairman of the important Senate subcommittee on immigration.   Check out both the Forum and Noorani to see where this organization stands on immigration issues; I think you can already guess.

Washington, DC – On Wednesday, it was reported that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) would take over as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Immigration. He replaces Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) in that role. The following is a statement by Ali Noorani, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, a non-partisan pro-immigrant advocacy group in Washington.

[…..]

No human could possibly fill the shoes of Senator Ted Kennedy when it comes to his stewardship of the immigration issue across decades of shifting political winds and economic ebbs and flows, but we have high expectations for Senator Schumer nonetheless.

Schumer’s subcommittee includes all the issues that interest us.

The Immigration Subcommittee has a wide portfolio, including oversight of Department of Homeland Security’s immigration-related entities (ICE ,CBP, USCIS), and Department of Justice immigration functions, and the U.S. refugee program.

For those of us working in the grassroots to secure our borders and reform legal immigration programs like the Refugee Resettlement Program, take a look at this list of directors of the National Immigration Forum that is working to bring amnesty to millions of illegal aliens:  US Chamber of Commerce, National Restaurant Assoc, United Food and Commercial Workers Union, American Nursery and Lanscape Assoc. and the list goes on.

Fun with numbers! See the 2007 Yearbook of Immigrant Statistics

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

If you are interested in who came to the US (legally) and why (for decades) and you love to pore over numbers, this is the place for you to spend many a joy-filled hour—“2007 Yearbook of Immigrant Statistics.”   Published in September 2008 by the Department of Homeland Security, this is a must-have document for anyone interested in immigration generally.

For example, on page 18, I learned that in 2007, 54,942 refugees became legal permanent residents.   81,183 asylees (definition) became legal permanent residents and 42, 127 diversity visa lottery winners hit the jackpot.

To new readers:   We have a ‘Where to find information’ category, those of you new to the refugee resettlement program might wish to visit from time to time.

A state is permitted to withdraw from the Refugee Resettlement Program

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For as long as we have been writing RRW, a year and a half now, I’ve wondered how it is that no refugees are resettled in Wyoming.   I had heard the state had “opted out” of the program but I could never figure out how this was done.

Today a kind reader sent me this section from the Code of Federal Regulations that answers my guestion!   A state is permitted to withdraw from the Refugee Resettlement Program.

The following is from Section 400.301, Withdrawal from the Refugee Program from 45 CFR.   The “Director” is the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services.

(a) In the event that a State decides to cease participation in the refugee program, the State must provide 120 days advance notice to the Director before withdrawing from the program.

(b) To participate in the refugee program, a State is expected to operate all components of the refugee program, including refugee cash and medical assistance, social services, preventive health, and an unaccompanied minors program if appropriate. A State is also expected to play a coordinating role in the provision of assistance and services in accordance with §400.5(b). In the event that a State wishes to retain responsibility for only part of the refugee program, it must obtain prior approval from the Director of ORR. Such approval will be granted if it is in the best interest of the Government.

(c) When a State withdraws from all or part of the refugee program, the Director may authorize a replacement designee or designees to administer the provision of assistance and services, as appropriate, to refugees in that State. A replacement designee must adhere to the same regulations under this part that apply to a State-administered program, with the exception of the following provisions: 45 CFR 400.5(d), 400.7, 400.51(b)(2)(i), 400.58(c), 400.94(a), 400.94(b), 400.94(c), and subpart L. Replacement designees must also adhere to the Subpart L regulations regarding formula allocation grants for targeted assistance, if the State authorized the replacement designee appointed by the Director to act as its agent in applying for and receiving targeted assistance funds. Certain provisions are excepted because they apply only to States and become moot when a State withdraws from participation in the refugee program and is replaced by another entity. States would continue to be responsible for administering the other excepted provisions because these provisions refer to the administration of other State-run public assistance programs.

[60 FR 33604, June 28, 1995, as amended at 65 FR 15450, Mar. 22, 2000]

Based on that Section c, it looks like they aren’t going to let any state out easily.

For the entire Code of Federal Regulations for Refugee Resettlement, go here.  It is a treasure trove of information.

An afterthought:  I don’t know how many times over the last year and a half we have heard officials at state or local level say there is nothing they can do about refugees coming to a particular community—it’s all the federal governments doing they say.   Well this puts a lie to that notion, a state can say NO and it looks like a state can say, slow down the numbers!