Category: Who is going where

Canada: Privately sponsored Syrian refugees do better than government-supported refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Editor: If you saw my weekly roundup on Sunday, here, you know I’ve been off at jury duty this week. It lasts for a month so if you read RRW daily, there will be some days I miss (and probably some great stories too!).
Besides the disparity in their financial status at the end of a year or two, I’m guessing the privately supported Syrians integrated better into the country as well.

For the latest on Canada and the mess they have on their hands (because they brought too many Syrians too fast), go here.

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This map of Canada is from December 2015 and shows where private sponsors for Syrians are located. What I wonder about is this: what if the private sponsor quits or otherwise falls short, does the government step in? http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/privately-sponsored-refugee-map-1.3346250

Someone working on a documentary contacted me a few days ago asking me to point him to a family that is being privately sponsored in the US.  I don’t know of any because that isn’t something the US does often.  However, we have told you before that a group of Libertarians and Open Borders activists and resettlement contractors have been talking about getting a private sponsorship system going here too (there was one previously).
I would consider private sponsorships if we drop the entire VOLAG contractor system and go fully private.
Unfortunately, see here, what the US Open Borders people want is a system like Canada where there are both types of resettlement—privately sponsored and government-supported.  I see it as a way for them to increase the numbers entering the US. Perhaps they know that as taxpayers begin to wake up to the reality of what they are paying for in the present US VOLAG system and want it abolished, they are searching for other avenues to keep the flood of refugees coming.
Here is what the Taipei Times is reporting about Canada:

New refugees to Canada are more successful breaking into the job market when sponsored by private community groups rather than by the government, a finding that takes on added importance as the nation welcomes tens of thousands of Syrian migrants.

Refugees sponsored for a year by a community organization such as a church or a group of private individuals earned C$18,300 (US$13,934) in the 2014 tax year compared with C$13,300 for those who had government support, based on the median estimate of arrivals over the prior five years, according to Statistics Canada data.

[….]

The US has considered adopting Canada’s private sponsorship model, while supporting refugees through federally contracted resettlement agencies that help the newly arrived integrate in the local economy with an early financial boost and other assistance.

So, this is my question:  If refugees that are privately sponsored do better than government-supported refugees, then why have any government-supported refugees?

I know why the Open Borders Left will scream bloody murder if Congress were to consider a system where all refugees entering the US would have to have private sponsors!  Do you?

Which refugees have gone to Missoula, Montana's new resettlement office?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

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A reader recently commented that the new International Rescue Committee office was being silent on how many refugees they were getting.  It is easy enough to check at Wrapsnet.org.
For new readers, see our archive on the huge (and still on-going) controversy about the office that is now resettling third worlders from Africa and the Middle East in Montana, in Missoula to be exact.
Montana had resettled a handful of refugees years ago, but up until last year the state (alone with only Wyoming) did not have a program.
Here is a screenshot of the ethnicity and numbers placed in the city that we are told has a shortage of low-income housing. These are only resettled refugees, not secondary migrants or others who entered the US illegally or through different legal programs.
(The data below is for FY2016 and the first 2 months of FY2017, up until Dec. 1, 2016. Fiscal years run from Oct. 1 of the previous year to September 30th of the present year.)
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By the way, all three ethnic groups arriving in Montana have a certain percentage of Muslims in their group. See here. But, only the IRC (and its local volunteers) and the US State Dept. know if the refugees sent to Montana are Muslims (they could all be Christians or other religious minorities).

Message to new 'welcoming' towns: get out your wallets for your school system!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Ehtesham-Cating said… she cannot foresee the government penalizing Rutland schools if they cannot provide translation services right away.

This is yet another story from Rutland, VT where citizens and elected officials have been questioning a resettlement contractor (USCRI) and the federal government for months about the details of the US State Department’s decision to send the FIRST 100 Syrians there perhaps next month!
Board of Aldermen President William Notte wanted to know about school funding if the refugee children arrive in the middle of the school year.
As we point out in our 2015 post ‘Ten things your town needs to know‘ when ‘welcoming’ refugees, the impact of the resettled refugees will be felt first in your school system’s budget.
Here is what we learned at Vermont Watchdog:

Miriam Ehtesham-Cating, the English language program director for the Burlington School District, said the focus needs to be on elementary and high school kids, in keeping with the federal government’s requirements for English language learning.

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In news dated December 2nd, USCRI says it is proceeding with plans for Rutland with a wait and see attitude toward the incoming Trump Administration. http://wamc.org/post/vermont-refugee-resettlement-opening-rutland-office

“Vermont and the federal government have a strict regulatory process for identifying English language learners, and providing language assistance,” Ehtesham-Cating said.

Ehtesham-Cating, who oversees English language instruction for 14 schools, said services for preschoolers would not likely be a priority. “It is more important for staff to receive coaching and to receive help in developing learning profiles for these children,” she said.

In addition, since schools are required to send materials home to students and parents in a language they can understand, Rutland schools will need to offer some sort of translation services.

Ehtesham-Cating said that in her opinion, she cannot foresee the government penalizing Rutland schools if they cannot provide translation services right away.

[….]

Winooski, another refugee resettlement community in Vermont, spends about $1 million dollars annually on language services. Rutland schools would have a much lower tab, said Ehtesham-Cating, since only two full-time liaisons would likely be needed to help an estimated 40 refugee school kids.

“(Language services) aren’t just a requirement, they’re good practice,” she said. “Some of these children have grown up their whole lives inside a camp. They don’t know how to even go to school. … Rutland has to decide how they are going to help these children transition.”

Continue reading here.
See our complete archive on the on-going tension in Rutland, VT by clicking here.
The federal contractor WRAPSnet previously maintained a list of a couple hundred resettlement offices, here.  As of this writing they have removed that list and so after years of being able to see where refugee offices are located that information is no longer available to you.
Rutland is one of 47 new sites the US State Department and the Office of Refugee Resettlement have quietly targeted as new resettlement sites.  One of the first things the Trump Administration must do is to make all of this information public information.  Here are some of the sites we have identified so far:

Asheville, NC

Rutland, VT

Reno, NV

Ithaca, NY

Missoula, MT

Aberdeen, SD (may have been thwarted as a primary resettlement site!)

Charleston, WV

Fayetteville, AR

Blacksburg, VA

Pittsfield, MA

Northhampton, MA

Flint, MI

Bloomington, IN

Traverse City, MI

Poughkeepsie, NY

Wilmington, DE

Watertown, NY (maybe)

Youngstown, OH (maybe)

Storm Lake, Iowa

Surprise! Lutheran refugee contractor got more refugees last year than they planned for

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

For all of you in ‘welcoming’ towns, do not believe the numbers you are being told! Because the feds are short of locations and they are on a tear to bring in as many refugees as they can (at least up until Trump takes office or their federal money runs out) your state is likely to get more refugees than they initially ‘promised.’
This news from Inforum in Fargo, ND makes it even more clear that Donald Trump must slow the flow in to the country across the board as soon as he is inaugurated.
 

FARGO — More refugees were resettled here in the last fiscal year than Lutheran Social Services North Dakota had expected, the agency reported Thursday, Dec. 8.

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Cass County Commissioner Mary Scherling suggests that Lutheran Social Services send some of the refugees destined for the state to Minot (270 miles from Fargo). What? since they aren’t getting the joys of diversity yet! Photo and bio: https://www.casscountynd.gov/county/Boards/Commission/Commissioners/District5/Pages/MaryScherling.aspx

A total of 558 refugees came to the state by way of LSS in fiscal year 2016, which is 22 percent more than the agency was told to expect by agencies farther up the pipeline. The bulk of the refugees were settled in Fargo-Moorhead: 372 in Fargo, eight in West Fargo and 22 in Moorhead.

Some local government officials have expressed concern over the large number of the newcomers, fearing they would be a strain on resources.

Cass County Commissioner Mary Scherling, who attended the meeting, said Thursday she just wants to be sure local governments can help give refugees a good start in America. She and Commission Chairman Chad Peterson said they’d like LSS to add Minot as a fourth resettlement site in North Dakota. Refugees are now settled in Fargo, Grand Forks and Bismarck.

LSS officials said Thursday they, too, are concerned about their resources, but saying “no” is not easy.

Readers, please pay attention to this next paragraph. Once your town is set up as a resettlement site, not only will the numbers continue to grow, but others of the same ethnic group as your primary refugees will come to live there too.  Our use of the word ‘seeding’ about this program is not an exaggeration.

That’s because some of the funding the agency gets for resettling refugees is based on the number it agrees settle in North Dakota, said Saurav Dahal, an LSS refugee coordinator. It has a much harder time with funding if those refugees move here on their own after resettling in other states.

Whining about funding!  LSS could end up out on a limb with not enough funding because federal ORR funds are drying up (or more accurately being diverted to the Unaccompanied Alien Children crisis) and so is private charitable giving (in fact there was never much private charity to begin with!).

Here is my question: if most refugees are “self-sufficient” in a matter of months, as we are constantly told, then why do they need more “services” paid for by taxpayer “resources?”

For each primary refugee that LSS resettles, the U.S. State Department provides enough funding to give them three months of assistance, Dahal said. That funding is not available for secondary refugees.

For assistance beyond three months, LSS relies on funding from the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement and charitable organizations; its aim is to cover as many as eight months. But funding from ORR is not directly tied to the number of refugees resettled, and funding from charities are not assured from year to year.

Dykshoorn and Dahal said the latter two sources of funding aren’t keeping up with the numbers.

Continue reading here.
See our complete archive on North Dakota here (this is one of the states I visited on my fact-finding tour last summer). ND has had some spectacular criminal cases involving refugees. Don’t miss this: Somali sentenced to life in prison for killing native American family.  And the Somali who went on a knife attack in St. Cloud, MN last September was originally resettled in North Dakota.
North Dakotans who think you are getting too many refugees must continue to put pressure on your governor, your state legislature, your local elected officials, but do not forget to pound Senator John Hoeven who sits on the all powerful Senate Appropriations Committee which could dry up resettlement dollars for North Dakota if he had a will to do it!  See here.
I see an important part of my job going forward is to educate you and me on the Appropriations process in Washington. Funding is policy!

Bates College students petition administration to become a sanctuary college; protect Somalis of Lewiston too

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

All over the country (we are told) college administrators are setting up sanctuaries for illegal aliens (and refugees!) to protect them from Donald Trump and his “deplorable” voters.

The Annual Puddle Jump is a tradition at Bates College.
The Annual Puddle Jump is a tradition at Bates College.

Here is what the students are saying at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.
BTW, Bates is the alma mater of House Judiciary Chairman Bob Goodlatte who is responsible for most immigration issues that come  before the House.  Can’t he get a little pressure going among other alums to stop sending donations if sanctuary is approved.
Or better still, how about seeing what federal money the college is getting and cut it off!
From Bates College students:

We, the concerned students of the Bates Community, move that Bates College follow the lead of over 200 colleges and universities across the nation in seeking official status as a sanctuary campus for undocumented immigrants living at Bates and in Lewiston. This is an imperative step as we prepare to protect the members of our community directly threatened by President-Elect Donald Trump and his administration.

Within the first 100 days in office, President-Elect Donald Trump plans to block funding for sanctuary cities and states and overturn Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). DACA specifically grants protection from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States under the age of 16 and before June of 2007. With the repeal of DACA, over 13,000 U.S. college students will be in danger of deportation. It is the duty of college and university administrations across the country to act in defense of students most vulnerable to President-Elect Donald Trump’s proposed immigration policies.

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Here is an idea for Mom and Dad! Instead of spending $50,000 a year for tuition at Bates, if you have so much extra money, maybe take some refugees/DACA kids in to your homes. Why waste it on Bates! Total cost with room and board: $66,000! http://www.bates.edu/financial-services/costs-and-payment/

Sanctuary spaces around the country—including cities, states, and college campuses—serve to protect undocumented immigrants by refusing to comply with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Colleges and Universities hold unique power in that ICE officials cannot step foot on campus property without authorization (policy number 10029.2). Not only will sanctuary status serve to protect DACA-mented, undocumented students, faculty, and staff, but it will also serve as a gesture of protection and kindness to Lewiston’s large Somali refugee population (one of the largest populations in Maine with approximately 7,000 Somali refugees)—a group of people whom Donald Trump has directly targeted in his campaign, blaming them for Maine’s increasing crime rates.

I guess the kids haven’t heard about Ohio State? Trump will be there today to meet with student victims.
Continue reading here to see what else the little darlings want.
As a country we could do with far fewer colleges (like Bates) busy brainwashing kids.  Let’s focus on creating trade schools that might train students for something useful.
Go here for our complete (lengthy) archive on Lewiston, Maine.  And, definitely don’t miss this news from Lewiston—Maine has a sexual assault problem!