No new resettlement site in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but where is State Department site list?

06/06/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

It has been missing for awhile! What is up with that. I thought we were going to have more transparency for communities that are (or might become) refugee placement towns and cities.

Bartlett with map — This is former State Department Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Larry Bartlett, proudly standing in front of the site map that PREVIOUSLY was posted annually at Wrapsnet along with a directory list of sites.

This morning I saw this brief mention about Ann Arbor that had been fingered as a possible new resettlement site at the end of the Obama Administration when his State Department was planning as many as 40 new sites (older ones getting overloaded?).
Michigan Live:

Samaritas, Michigan’s largest refugee resettlement agency, had planned to open an Ann Arbor office and that’s now on hold because there are not enough refugees coming to the area any more, according to John Yim, supervisor of new Americans in Michigan for Samaritas.

(For new readers Samaritas is the Lutheran resettlement agency. Why did they change their name? Who knows.)
You might want to visit this post in which I reported on the State Department’s “New Site Development Guide” published under Bartlett’s leadership.
The Ann Arbor mention reminded me to check Wrapsnet for the:

R&P AGENCY CONTACT LIST EXTERNAL DISTRIBUTION

The most recent map (like the one Bartlett is showing-off in the photo) is from FY16, but the full contact list is missing.
It hasn’t been available for awhile, so how is anyone supposed to know if their town or city has a refugee office? I suspect its absence is also hampering the refugee industry activists. Don’t we all have a right to know where refugees are being placed and which of the hundreds of subcontractors are still open for business?
The old list is here at my blog.

We have been hearing that as many as 100 of the 350 or so offices are to be closed, and we would like to know which ones!

Where is the transparency?
Come on State Department, what are you hiding? There are really only two reasons for not making this information available: incompetence or they want to hide something.

Under Trump, Muslim refugees from Burma (Rohingya) are numero uno

06/03/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I told you the other day that we had a slight increase in the number of refugees entering the US in the month of May. The number is still way below what the refugee contractors*** need to assure that their federally funded budgets are flush with your involuntary contributions via Washington.
Today I checked Wrapsnet (FY18 data) for the Muslim refugee numbers and learned this:
The percentage of Muslims entering as refugees is way down compared to Bush and Obama years. It now stands at 15% when it was approaching 50% under Barack Hussein Obama.
(Total admissions so far 14,321 and 2,184 are listed as Muslims of some sect or another.)
But….

Rohingya refugees mostly women — See my Rohingya Reports category with 224 previous posts: https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/category/rohingya-reports/

…much to my surprise I see that Burmese Muslims (Rohingya) top the list!

Continue reading “Under Trump, Muslim refugees from Burma (Rohingya) are numero uno” →

Refugee admission numbers tick slightly upward for May; Texas and Ohio top the list

06/01/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

As you know we track the monthly refugee admissions numbers at the US State Department affiliate we call simply Wrapsnet.
In a few days we will also check the list for incoming Iraq and Afghanistan so-called special immigrant visa holders. Their numbers have been helping keep paying client numbers up for the federal contractors, the Volags, whose budgets are built around numbers of incoming refugees via a per head payment.
President Trump set the ceiling for the fiscal year (2018) back in September of 2017 at 45,000. That number is a ceiling, a cap, and not a target that has to be reached. We are way below the pace to reach 45,000.
This past month, May, we admitted 2,132 which is above the monthly average of 1,741 for the previous 7 months. 23,000 could now be considered a reasonable final number when the fiscal year ends on September 30th (assuming the stepped up pace holds).
Below is a map from Wrapsnet of where the 14,321 have been placed so far.

Top ten ‘welcoming’ states in descending order are: Texas, Ohio, New York, California, Washington, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Minnesota, and Kentucky.

Screenshot (475)

Screenshot (476) — Numbers are hard to read, nothing I can do about that!

New data from Pew: Americans turning more negative on refugee resettlement

05/27/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

My subtitle:

Nearly half of US Catholics believe it is not our responsibility to resettle refugees

Most of the media blames the change in attitude on Trump’s rhetoric, but I think there has been a sea change in media reporting. There is more and more news available to the general public about the kinds of things I mentioned in my previous post this morning—stories about refugees scamming our welfare programs for example that previously were not published, but are now spread widely by social media!

Erol Kekic with mug — Erol Kekic of Church World Service: **“We have seen an unfortunate rise in xenophobia globally.”**

Ten years ago (nearly 11 now) when I first began writing this blog, stories in the media about refugees were in the genre I called ‘Refugees see first snow’ stories! All were meant to paint refugees in only the most glowing terms.
Now we do see more crime stories like food stamp fraud, Medicaid fraud etc, but also stories about refugee-perpetrated violent crimes and terrorism in the US and around the world.
Here is USA Today on the Pew numbers:

Fewer Americans believe U.S. should accept refugees

Fewer Americans believe the U.S. has a responsibility to accept refugees, a shift that has been spurred by President Trump’s efforts to limit them from entering the country, according to a poll released Thursday.

More than half of Americans — 51% — still believe the United States should welcome immigrants fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries, according to the poll conducted by the non-partisan Pew Research Center. But that number is down from 56% during a similar survey in February 2017.

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UN closes refugee resettlement program in Sudan while corruption investigation proceeds

05/18/2018 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Two days ago I told you that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees office in Sudan is being investigated (by the UN) for possible fraud in the selection process for refugees heading to mostly the US.
There are allegations that bribes are being paid to influence the selection of certain refugees over others.
unhcr sudan
Now comes news that the program is being shuttered at least temporarily.
And, in case you are wondering, after lobbying from the UAE, Trump did drop Sudan from the travel restriction list, see here.
Where is Homeland Security, is it time to have a look at the 652 Sudanese who got in to the US in calendar year 2017 (Wrapsnet)?
Continue reading “UN closes refugee resettlement program in Sudan while corruption investigation proceeds” →