Interesting to us is this review by Steve Weinberg at The Star Tribunein which Weinberg draws attention to Fergusson’s research in the United States, in Little Mogadishu/Minneapolis. Emphasis below is mine.
Weinberg:
When James Fergusson, a journalist based in Edinburgh, Scotland, decided to write a book about a chaotic African nation, he initially had no clue that his research would require a visit to Minneapolis.
It turns out that one of the largest populations of Somalis outside their national borders is in the Twin Cities.Some of those residents are almost surely linked to violent organizations overseas and thus might constitute a terrorist threat, according to Fergusson. He was drawn to Minneapolis in large part by the presence of Omer Abdi Mohamed, a resident who had pleaded guilty to a U.S. government charge of conspiring to recruit warriors for possible illegal activities within and outside North America.
Beyond Omer’s case, Fergusson wondered why the Twin Cities had become the destination of between 75,000 to 100,000 Somalis, especially given the frigid weather — frigid, at least, compared with the parched heat in the Horn of Africa.
Enter those Lutherans again! Weinberg continues:
Here is part of the answer, in a fascinating paragraph written by Fergusson: Lutherans whose ancestors arrived from Scandinavia to settle Minnesota run social service agencies efficiently and generously. [With taxpayer money!—ed] “A number of voluntary Somali migrants, mostly professionals with ambitions to study or to set up businesses, had been drawn to the Twin Cities even before the [Somali] civil war by the abundance of jobs and social housing on offer, at a time when the local economy was conspicuously booming. Word soon spread of the good life in Minnesota, making the state the destination of choice when the main refugee exodus began in the early 1990s.” When Fergusson visited Minneapolis, he identified “the de facto parliament of the Somali community” as a Starbucks coffee shop just off Riverside Avenue.
While in the Twin Cities, Fergusson concluded that the large refugee population consists mostly of hardworking Somalis. But he demonstrates that the recruitment of suicide bombers has occurred in the Twin Cities, and that various gangs of Somali refugees have shattered the peace of the Twin Cities from time to time.
I do hope Fergusson went beyond the notion that Somalis ‘found their way to Minneapolis.’ We have extensively chronicled how Minneapolis and increasingly elsewhere in Minnesota has been targeted for refugee resettlement by the US State Department and resettlement contractors like the US Conference of Catholic Bishops/Catholic Charities and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services/Lutheran Social Services which are PAID to resettle them in “welcoming” cities (not so welcoming cities too!).
Here is a 2011 post we wrote explaining in some detail how the contractors brought the Somalis to Minneapolis, most didn’t find their way there! Perhaps now they do, but when there is no serious and sustained squawking by the community as it reaches overload, the contractors just keep pouring in the refugees. This 2011 post is daily one of our most-read posts here at RRW.
North Carolina is one of the country’s leading refugee resettlement states (and one of its leading illegal alien-populated states), here.
Also, in 2010, refugee contractors were criticized and shut-down by the State Department for poor handling of the large refugee load being placed there. Here is the third of three posts in which we chronicled the problems there.
Today’s post is about Carolina Refugee Resettlement Agency a subcontractor of theHebrew Immigrant Aid Society. I’m guessing CRRA picked up more of the refugee load in NC after the Lutherans got the boot over in the Triad region of the state. However, this interview gives us a little idea of how the program is operating there now (after a long introduction to help set the mood for readers).
There’s a lot of debate surrounding immigration, but there is one kind of immigration that receives bipartisan support– that of refugees. More than 2,000 refugees resettled in North Carolina last year.We often hear about what refugees have to leave behind – war and persecution – but what is waiting for refugees when they get here?
I don’t know why a radio reporter is interviewing another reporter and not the resettlement agency itself, but here is the exchange I found interesting (emphasis is mine):
Briana Duggan joined Morning Edition Host Marshall Terry to talk more about refugee resettlement.
TERRY: Briana, we just met a family of refugees the moment they arrived. What are the next steps for refugees after they land?
DUGGAN: Well, a resettlement caseworker – like Rebecca in the story – signs them up for social services. So that’s food stamps, whatever cash or medical assistance they’re eligible for, enroll any children in school. [This made me laugh, remember Rand Paul said their job was to bring’em in and sign them up for welfare and took a lot of criticism for saying it, here—ed]
And then, there’s finding a job – with help from refugee resettlement agencies. There are two in Charlotte, and they told me it takes refugees around here about three to four months to find a job. [“Later, many refugees will find physical work, often at a poultry plant or greenhouse “(Duggan earlier in the article)—those meat packers again!—ed]
TERRY: And you said refugees get welcome money from the federal government. What does that pay for?
DUGGAN: Yeah, so the welcome money is about a $1,000 per person. And it’s meant to cover the basics while refugees are looking for those jobs. So rent, utilities, deposits, a bit of food. [The resettlement contractor actually gets $1850 per refugeewith CRRA and HIAS taking their cuts—ed]
TERRY: A thousand dollars—for the three to four months it takes to get a job? That couldn’t cover rent alone.
DUGGAN: Right, but you have to remember that most refugees do arrive in families. So, for example- Khup Than Lun who was in my story – she came to the U.S. with a family of five, so that comes out to be $5,000. If they run out of money before they find a job, they’ll get welfare cash assistance. And it’s also important to note that many refugees come to Charlotte because they have family or close friends here. So they may live with their sponsors while they get on their feet.
TERRY: But what about those refugees that come alone?
DUGGAN: That is more complicated. It’s not all that common, but in that case, resettlement agencies have to dip into any donations or extra funds they may have. Agencies will sometimes group together single refugees from the same country to save on rent. But ultimately, it means that those single refugees will need to be quicker on their feet when they arrive to their new country.
This is the second part of my report from the Pennsylvania Refugee Conference which I attended earlier this week in Lancaster, PA. If you haven’t read my earlier report it might be useful to check it out and then come back here for part II.
One of the many things that I found revealing about the conference was that problems with the program to resettle over 100,000 “refugees and asylees” to your towns and cities each year was not discussed (your classic hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil!). There was no direct discussion about problems with assimilation, tensions in communities, crime problems, cost to local communities, school conflicts, housing shortages for refugees etc. except for one session dedicated to how to silence people who might like to complain—the keynote speaker talked about how ‘Welcoming America’ was working to get YOUR minds right about your new refugee neighbors (and, they received a federal grant from ORR to do it!).
Before Susan Downs-Karkos from ‘Welcoming America’ spoke, we had been alerted by the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Director of Placement, Mitiku Ashebir that (gasp!) “three pockets of resistance against new arrivals” had developed. He assured the gathering it was not widespread and that Pennsylvania, thankfully, was not one of them. Drum roll please! Here are the pockets of resistance and Mr. Ashebir’s brief description of the unwelcoming problems:
New Hampshire—some mayors have problems, said Ashebir
David Lubell, founder of ‘Welcoming America,’ doing work for George Soros!
Georgia—budget reductions for some service providers
Tennessee—they want to control arrival numbers! Imagine that!
But, Welcoming America is on the case! They want to “transform” communities by “Building a Nation of Neighbors”!
Downs-Karkos described her organization’s job as “promoting understanding and support for refugees.” The whole concept is that YOU must improve your attitude to your new neighbors, not that the refugees must learn to fit into American society. We are a Nation of immigrants, they are coming, so get used to it was the basic message.
The refugees and immigrants are the seeds and your community is the soil into which they are being planted is how she described what is happening. Her group is working on improving the soil.
She said ‘Welcoming America’ was created by David Lubell of TENNESSEE who had successfully launched ‘Welcoming Tennessee’ a few years ago where he mobilized support for refugees in Nashville and Shelbyville and promoted the propaganda film—Welcome to Shelbyville. If you are a new reader here you might want to visit our many posts where we traced the history of that deceptive film from its origin when a Hard Left documentary film group was funded to visit Shelbyville (where community tensions had developed around a large influx of Somali refugees who had arrived there to work for Tyson Foods)–-it is a classic case study in how to produce propaganda.
“Is everything perfect in Tennessee now?” asked Downs-Karkos. No, she answered herself, “but it is improving.” Really?
Follow the money!
Here is a summary from Welcoming America’s websiteabout how the organization got its start (with the help of George Soros). Our friends in Tennessee will be amazed at the spin about their state! “Changing communities” indeed. I wonder does David Lubell understand what just happened in Manchester, TN last week?
The history of ‘Welcoming America’:
In 2005 the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition (TIRRC), inspired by the Iowa campaign’s message and approach, started to make plans for a “Welcoming Tennessee Initiative” (WTI). Since launching in 2006, The Welcoming Tennessee Initiative – the model for all subsequent welcoming initiatives – has substantially improved the climate for immigrants within the state. Statewide polling by Middle Tennessee State University has demonstrated an increase in positive opinions towards immigrants, and thousands of Tennessee residents have become active supporters of Tennessee’s increased diversity as a result of the project.In 2009 WTI was awarded the E Pluribus Unum Prize for exceptional immigrant integration initiatives. [LOL! an award!—ed]
The success of Welcoming Tennessee inspired several additional immigrant support organizations across the country to follow its lead. In July of 2007, seven organizations interested in starting Welcoming campaigns met to combine efforts and expand Welcoming campaigns past Tennessee. Hosting the meeting was Four Freedoms Fund, a funding collaborative that has played a crucial role in the formation and development of Welcoming America.
Four Freedoms Fund: This organization was designed to serve as a conduit through which large foundations could fund state-based open-borders organizations more flexibly and quickly.
Longtime readers know that Soros has had his proteges installed as Asst. Secretaries of State for Population, Refugees and Migration throughout the Obama Administration. Type ‘George Soros’ into our search function for more.
A chuckle for Tennesseans—Tom Negri is on the board of ‘Welcoming America’! You may remember the story from back in 2009: Negri, who manages the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel in downtown Nashville (hotels need cheap immigrant labor and that’s why so many are behind open borders), broke a contract just days before a conference that I and others (from around the country) had registered to attend saying we might be a danger to their other guests. Maybe the Muslim protesters would be a danger, but not us! The conference went on peacefully at another “welcoming” hotel!
Negri’s move was a stupid one because it just confirmed for all of those who knew about it (including thousands of readers of Newsmax) what dirty tricks the open borders advocates and Lefties are willing to use to silence speech they don’t like!
Bottomline is that ‘Welcoming America’ is spreading throughout the US–they are “community organizers”with affiliates in twenty plus states, here.If you are in one of those states, sign up for the group and begin learning what they are planning for your community. And, then spread the word!
For new readers: If you would like to learn more about those pockets of resistance in New Hampshire, Tennessee and Georgia, simply type the state name into our search function and dozens of posts will be available. Also, note that we have a separate category on Nashville (50 posts!) because it has been such a controversial site for refugee resettlement (by Catholic Charities!) and Islamic activism.
The list below represents the number of refugees resettled in your state from fiscal year 2007-2013. The stats are maintained by the US State Department at their Refugee Processing Center in Virginia. Here is the website, but its difficult sometimes to find the statistics easily. The list below was discovered by one of our many friends from Tennessee.
This is what the Refugee Processing Center says of its job (you’ve heard me mention WRAPS before):
The Refugee Processing Center (RPC) is operated by the U.S Department of State (DOS) Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) in the Rosslyn section of Arlington, Virginia USA.
At the RPC and at Resettlement Service Centers (RSCs), an interactive computer system called the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) is used to process and track the movement of refugees from various countries around the world to the U.S. for resettlement under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
By the way, they keep statistics on the refugees’ religious affiliations, they just don’t make those public.
I think you will find this list as interesting as I do!
From 2007-2013 your state got this many refugees:
Wyoming 0
Montana 11
Puerto Rico 25
Hawaii 39
Delaware 49
Mississippi 51
West Virginia 81
Arkansas 83
District of Columbia 199
Alaska 522
South Carolina 812
Alabama 934
Rhode Island 1,057
New Mexico 1,112
Maine 1,294
Louisiana 1,563
Vermont 1,961
Kansas 2,007
North Dakota 2,620
Connecticut 2,817
New Hampshire 2,864
Nevada 2,945
South Dakota 2,986
Iowa 3,289
New Jersey 4,073
Wisconsin 4,095
Nebraska 4,593
Oregon 4,901
Idaho 5,924
Maryland 6,451
Utah 6,559
Tennessee 7,993
Indiana 8,536
Virginia 9,091
Kentucky 9,260
Massachusetts 9,386
Colorado 9,654
Ohio 11,508
Minnesota 12,112
North Carolina 13,977
Pennsylvania 14,365
Illinois 14,520
Oklahoma 14,901
Washington 15,300
Georgia 16,692
Arizona 18,415
Michigan 19,442
Florida 21,458
New York 24,139
Texas 40,257
California 48,813 Total: 399,179
We reported recently that the following states are the Top Ten Refugee Resettlement States:
In 2012 Texas led the nation in the number of resettled refugees (not counting asylum seekers or those already granted asylum, and probably not the Cubans or Haitians otherwise Florida would be higher on the list); followed by California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Washington, and North Carolina.
We also heard that the Dems have a goal of turning Texas and Arizona from Red to Blue (maybe they have their eyes on Georgia too?).
Now check out this graphic of the top ten states for illegal aliens (hat tip: Cathy) and see that there is a fairly close overlap. Seven of ten “top states” coincide. But then again, maybe they are just the most “welcoming” states. (Nah!)
For new readers, if you type the name of a state into our search function, you will get a list of all the posts we’ve written on that state.
That is the conclusion of author James Fergusson in a new book aptly titled ‘The World’s most dangerous place.’
Where does your state rank?