Category: Who is going where

Church World Service sets its sites on State College, PA….

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

….. to establish a new resettlement hub!  

It basically works this way: refugee agency wears out its welcome somewhere nearby (no more jobs or housing, or the public gets overwhelmed with the refugee overload of social or education services), then they quietly scout out another site and set up an office before the public fully understands what is happening (and usually with the help of local publications or media which help soften the message to the community. (Gee, sounds like Hagerstown, MD in 2007!*)

Below is a story (part of a long story) about Church World Service (one of the top 11 federal contractors) targeting State College, PA (I wonder if there are any meatpacking or warehouse jobs nearby?).

As I said, this is a long article in Voices of Central Pennsylvania but I laughed to see that the most provocative information is near the end, and I especially liked this comment from an unnamed commenter to a local paper.  This is exactly how the majority of people in small town America feel about the refugee program (once they learn it is happening to them).

“Why couldn’t this Church World Service do something like this for a struggling American family?” asked one respondent to a Centre Daily Times article about the arrival of the Alshekhkders. [Iraqi family that just arrived]. “If they already do help American families, why not help more American families, until no more American families need help? When we get to that point, then they can go looking for publicity with a foreign family.”  [Because they are not paid by us to do that, there are NO big bucks and federal grants involved when caring for Americans!—ed]

Church World Service picked Iraqi Muslims for State College—figuring that would be the best fit!  They plan to resettle about 100 there this year.

Jones [Phil Jones, the newly-hired Director of the CWS refugee resettlement office of State College] began preparing for the arrival of refugees in February. One of his first tasks was to determine which refugees the State College community could best accommodate.

“The three main needs now [in terms of refugee relocation] are for Bhutanese, Burmese and Iraqis,” said Jones. “There’s a fairly significant Arabic-speaking population here, there’s a mosque here, there’s both Sunni and Shiite populations, and … Arabic language support, so it made sense that [Iraqis] would be the easiest population to start out with.”

Church World Service’s main office in New York told Jones that 50 Iraqi individuals, mostly young families, would arrive in July. According to Jones, the first family scheduled to come to State College in July was expecting a child in September. They had hoped to arrive before giving birth.

However, after this family and several others had passed all the necessary clearances and were ready to schedule their flights, the Dept. of Homeland Security added an additional security check which delayed their arrival indefinitely. That security check was a response to an incident in Tennessee [I think they mean the Iraqi refugees arrested in Kentucky on terrorism charges relating to sending bomb-making material to Iraq—ed] in which two Iraqi refugees were arrested for raising funds for Al Qaeda.

[….]

One group that plans to play an active role in supporting Iraqi refugees is the Islamic Society of Central Pennsylvania. Along with assisting in translation, members plan to help the refugees with many of the daily needs that arise as families learn how to navigate a new culture.  [Church World Service got the Islamic Society of Western MD involved in the Hagerstown resettlement, but something went awry and they weren’t much help.—ed]

Another organization that will play a large role in helping refugees transition to State College life is Global Connections, a local nonprofit housed on Penn State’s campus that works to foster cultural understanding and exchange.

Some in the community are not happy, but this publication tells us that only after we have waded through many column inches of gushy stuff.

Some community members have expressed concerns regarding the arrival of the refugees, predominantly due to the lack of affordable housing in Centre County and the competition for jobs.

In response to a Centre Daily Times article in January on CWS’s refugee office opening in State College, one poster wrote, “I appreciate what might be commendable efforts to help people in need, but this will make the problem of providing low cost housing to OUR own people more difficult. While the cultural environment of the Centre Region is attractive, the cost of living may be out of reach for these folks.”

Colby Woodring, Centre County Housing Case Manager, echoed the concern about finding suitable housing for the refugees.

“I imagine it could be just as difficult for the families CWS is helping relocate to find affordable permanent housing as anyone else in Centre County,”she said. “[However] it is helpful when those in need of housing assistance have support. I think it’s wonderful that CWS can offer that support for the refugee families needing assistance.” [They only help until their federal money runs out, then it’s up to the local community to find affordable housing for the refugees—ed].

Other residents have publically voiced worries about the pressures refugee families will place on social service agencies.

* CWS is gone from Hagerstown now and it’s a good thing because Washington Co., MD has one of the highest unemployment rates in the state.

Kentucky newspaper publishes many column inches on Burmese refugees in the state

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

The other day I reported that the Louisville Courier-Journal led the way in reporting the Iraqi refugee alleged terror plot story, but I see they quickly published a lengthy article on Burmese Christian refugees in Kentucky I expect to divert readers away from the terrorist refugee story.

The article is the standard refugee pull-on-your-heartstrings story—poor refugees, live in camps for decades, come to America for a better life, refugee financial aid running out, on welfare,  try to keep their traditional customs alive, try to find work in meatpacking,  but wish they could go home.  The same boiler-plate story is written from coast to coast and year after year.

The article quotes Senator Mitch McConnell.  I bet if you did a little digging you would find McConnell getting campaign contributions from Kentucky meat packers who need the legal immigrant labor.   I even hear that the meat packers get a tax break for hiring a refugee!

By the way, it’s been awhile since I mentioned it, but there needs to be a way for refugees who are profoundly unhappy in the US to be returned to camps where at least they know where their next meal is coming from.   Taxpayers pay refugee airfare to the US and they are supposed to repay it, but many cannot, so they surely can’t get the airfare home—-they are trapped here.

Check out some of my 2009 posts (begin here) on the deplorable conditions in which Burmese refugees have been expected to live in Bowling Green, KY.

Church World Service looking to send refugees to State College, PA

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Judging by comments to this story in the Centre Daily Times, local folks are not too happy about the plan.

State College is used to newcomers — incoming Penn State freshmen, university families, job-seekers, retirees. If a global humanitarian agency’s plans come to pass, more fresh faces will join the community.

Church World Service, out of New York City, is considering opening a local refugee resettlement office here. Last fall, the organization met with municipal officials, human-service leaders and church representatives to discuss the prospect of relocating about 40 people in the first year, and then about 100 annually.

As some housing advocates worry about finding affordable apartments in a tight market, Church World Service expects to hire an office director soon.

[….]

As one of 10 agencies in partnership with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, it runs 34 local offices, mainly in large cities but also in midsize towns. The Lancaster office last year resettled the fifth-most refugees among all branches, trailing only Indianapolis; Columbus, Ohio; Los Angeles and Phoenix in ascending order.

Read the article, there is a discussion about the lack of affordable housing in a town where students pool their money and share homes and apartments.   Then there is this comment that makes me laugh:

For Corman [director of county adult services], one issue could be increased demand for social services already strained by budget cuts. Walters [county housing case manager] wants assurance Church World Service will help refugees beyond resettlement.

Laughing my head off!  State College, you will be lucky if the refugees are properly cared for in the first 6-8 months, then they will be all yours after that!   So, tell me, what constitutes an assurance?  And, what is the penalty if they don’t follow through?

Readers, I don’t want to go into a long history lesson, but Judy and I started following refugee issues in 2007 when Church World Service (CWS) began to send its refugee overflow from Lancaster, PA to Hagerstown, MD.  That was the beginning of the story, and the end is that they are not bringing refugees to Hagerstown now.

Readers comments to the Centre Daily Times appear to be universally negative.

Church World Service a radical left wing organization says one commenter:

Look under the covers as to who the radical leftists in the State College Borough are welcoming to our area. Check out the website for pro-Dream Act Church World Service and you will find every left wing cause in the known universe hypocritically masked as the work of God with a Communist vocabulary. Do a careful google for Church World Service‏ in this regard and see a liberalization theology political arm that has no problem contributing to communist causes worldwide, and which promotes the entirety of a culture-of-eternal-death, proving that the CWS serves another master.

See my post, one of several on CWS, here, and the other occupants of their New York City office building.

Who is going to pay for them, asked another commenter:

Wow get real, More medical assistance, more food stamps, There is no affordable housing, NO Good Jobs . Who is going to pay for them to move here ? 100 annually. Get Real .

Yet another commenter says, Lancaster is crime ridden:

Lancaster has one of the highest crime rates in PA..wonder why?

I tried to figure out exactly where Lancaster fell in the crime rate for Pennsylvania.  I don’t know if it has the worst crime rate, but this should be interesting to you.   At this site the crime rate for Lancaster is 9 (100 being the safest) and Philadelphia is 12 (100 being the safest)—what does that tell you!

Lancaster is considered near the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch country and you know the Amish aren’t contributing much to the crime rate.

As a matter of fact, when refugees were being sent to Hagerstown in 2007, we learned that there had been some crime issue in Lancaster and CWS was told to not bring more for awhile.  Guess Lancaster has relented and refugees are still arriving there, but it looks like CWS has its sites set on State College now.

Japan remains one of the hold-outs to the one-worlder-megalomaniacs’ goals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

George Soros and his one-worlders, who are busy trying to eliminate boundaries in their tyrannical drive to make us all one big happy warm and fuzzy world, have a tough nut to crack in Japan where they have been sensibly trying to hold onto their unique culture.  Japan only recently began resettling a small number of refugees and continues to get the wrath of the UN and the far left “human rights” activists aimed squarely at them as we see in this story.

From The Mainichi Daily News:

TOKYO (Kyodo) — When five ethnic Karen families arrived recently from the Mera refugee camp in northwestern Thailand, Japan became the first Asian nation to accept refugees under the third-country resettlement program promoted by the United Nations.

Yet critics remain skeptical of Tokyo, often criticized for its restrictive refugee policy, and some experts said a much more comprehensive approach is necessary to make any significant difference.

“Japan’s refugee policy lags way behind the rest of the world,” said Shogo Watanabe, a lawyer actively involved in human rights issues concerning refugees and other foreign residents in Japan. “From the very beginning when Japan ratified in 1981 the Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, it has never had a consistent policy.”

Japan decided in December 2008 to accept Myanmar refugees from the Mera camp under the resettlement pilot project. The move was welcomed by U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres as a symbolic development in Japanese asylum policy and it also raised hopes of setting an example for other Asian countries to follow.

“But with a quota of 90 people over three years, compared to the tens of thousands that the United States [it is mostly the US as you will see shortly] and various European countries are taking in, what Japan is doing does not qualify as having fulfilled its responsibility,” Watanabe said.

According to the UNHCR, 24 countries* currently take part in the refugee resettlement program, which calls for third countries to accept refugees who have fled to nearby states due to conflicts in their home countries but have found it difficult to settle there or return.

Among the top three resettlement destinations, more than 62,000 refugees relocated to the United States through the UNHCR in 2009, while Australia accepted over 6,700 people and Canada took in more than 6,500.

*Most countries in the world DO NOT take refugees.  Why?  Because they are trying to hold onto their cultures too!

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