Iraq’s problem of internally displaced people not entirely our fault

05/20/2008 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Judy and I have been following the Iraq refugee “crisis” for months and months and have posted 147 times on the topic. In not one of those articles critical of the United States (until Judy found a brief mention the other day) were we told that the regime of Saddam Hussein had actually displaced one million people PRIOR to our arrival in Iraq in 2003. Every article we have read on the subject lays the complete blame for the “crisis” at the feet of President Bush.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not happy with the Bush Administration, but if a solution is to be found (short of bringing a million or more Iraqis to America) then people involved in finding a resolution need to be honest with the public. And, we need to lay some blame on other institutions including the United Nations for the mess in Iraq today.

Here are some lengthy excerpts from the Brookings Institution in November 2002 (4 months before the war in Iraq began)!

A recent study published by the Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement (John Fawcett and Victor Tanner, “The Internally Displaced People of Iraq,” Occasional Paper, Brookings-SAIS Project on Internal Displacement, October 2002) recommends a series of steps to manage the problem. First, acknowledge that the expulsion of people from their homes on ethnic grounds constitutes a crime and that those expelled have a right to restitution. Second, set up an official body with representative ethnic and religious makeup and international oversight to enable persons to regain land and property lost as a result of displacement. Third, establish a special task force to coordinate returns and adjudicate disputes, thereby preempting a rush on Kirkuk and other cities. Fourth, apportion oil revenues to compensate those expelled from the Kirkuk area and arbitrarily dismissed from their positions in the oil fields.

….

Helping Iraq to solve the problem of its internally displaced persons will also require changes in the UN response, which has so far proven inadequate. The United Nations is the main provider of humanitarian assistance to Iraq but has given insufficient attention to assisting or protecting the displaced to date. The Oil-for-Food Program generates as much as $6 billion a year for Iraqi civilian spending, more than enough to fund programs for the displaced. Yet according to a UN survey in 2000, more than 400,000 displaced persons in the north live in collective towns, many in an advanced state of decay. A further 57,000 live in barracks, including more than 6,000 still in tents. More than 50,000 in the north are without access to health centers. In the center/south, governmental obstruction has been reported when the displaced register for food rations and little is known about their numbers or conditions.

According to the Brookings-SAIS study, this state of affairs is mainly attributable to Iraqi government intimidation combined with a self-imposed “code of silence” practiced by UN officials. Fearing violence, expulsion or other retaliation from Iraq and lack of backup from UN headquarters, UN officials in most cases have refrained from demanding access to the displaced or protesting their treatment, especially in the center/south.

….

It is not too early to begin to address problems of internal displacement in Iraq. In a country of 23 million, Iraq’s more than one million internally displaced persons constitute too large a group to be ignored, and the linkage between their plight and Iraq’s deeper political, economic, ethnic, and social problems suggests that to try to ignore them could undermine any reconstruction effort in fundamental ways.

REMEMBER, THE ABOVE IS FROM 2002!

Here is a New York Times article that says the seeds of the refugee crisis in Iraq were planted by Saddam Hussein.

As for those Iraqis who have left Iraq, surely many have been displaced by the war and the sectarian violence but many had left Iraq before we even arrived. Last fall I posted on another study from the Brookings Institution that mentions that hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees in Syria have been there for more than 20 years. See those posts here and here.

So, to all of you pushing for resettlement of Iraqis to the west, you owe it to the public and our knee-jerk legislators to tell the whole truth about the Iraqi displaced persons problem.

Somalis having landlord problems in Nebraska–no you are kidding!

05/20/2008 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday a reader alerted us to another hot spot for Somalis and Tyson’s Food. According to our reader, about 1200 Somalis have migrated to South Sioux City, NE to follow Tyson’s, presumably many of those had previously worked in the recently closed Emporia, KS meatpacking plant. Read all about the Emporia, KS Somali problem here.

Although I will remind readers that we admitted 6958 new Somali refugees to the US in 2007 alone, so these South Sioux City people could be new Somalis and not Emporia’s. That has to bring the total number of Somalis resettled in recent years to over 80,000.

In South Sioux City the Somalis claim they were evicted from apartments due to race.

Imagine moving to another place thousands of miles away from where you came and feeling like you don’t belong once you get to there. About 25 African Refugees say that’s exactly what happened to them in South Sioux City, Nebraska.

News Channel Four caught up with one of many refugees who say they allegedly got terminated or wrongfully evicted from the apartment complex they were living in not because of money but because of their race.

The owner of the apartment complex says the allegations are false and it never happened but the director of Fair Housing in Omaha Nebraska says their investigation indicates something different.

….

The director of Fair Housing in Omaha Nebraska says they’ve obtained documented stories from 25 refugees.

….

Eventually it could be turned over to the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office.
They are the ones that would determine if these allegations are in fact true and if any charges would be filed.

Note to this landlord. You need to compare notes with landlords in Manchester, NH and Shelbyville, TN because we have heard similar stories from those cities. In Manchester there were lawsuits by refugees, and reports of Somali refugees destroying apartments. In Shelbyville, the Somali residents of an apartment complex drove away other tenants because of their rude and disruptive behavior. Check out a landlord problem closer to home in Lexington, NE where landlords reported Somalis burning wood on top of the kitchen stove.

It is not about race, it is about culture and the apparent unwillingness of the Somalis to assimilate to America. Or, possibly they were never taught to assimilate by the volags contracted by the US State Department to resettle them here.

BTW, Somalis have landlord problems in Finland too.

Rubenstein report: Immigrants cost the the American economy big time

05/19/2008 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

Early in April we reported on a study of the cost of immigration to the American economy. I had meant to follow up on Economist Edwin Rubenstein’s work and give you links for further edification. Thanks to a reader for reminding me this morning.

Go to the Social Contract Journal here for all the titles in this massive study.

Here is one bit in the section on refugee resettlement in the report on the US State Department that you might have seen before but is worth citing again today just as the US Senate considers amnesty for illegal farm workers.

These numbers apply to the majority of refugees resettled in the US, because most are uneducated.

The fiscal year (FY) 2008 budget contains $774 million for “Migration and Refugee Assistance”—up from $750 million the prior year.

The lion’s share of the public costs associated with refugees occurs at the state and local level, where refugees are eligible for a wide array of social programs and benefits—including access to public education.

In recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Robert Rector estimated the fiscal deficit of households headed by immigrants who lack a high school diploma—a reasonable proxy for refugees. Cite. Rector finds that the average uneducated immigrant household:

Receives $30,164 in government benefits

Pays $10,573 in government taxes

Generates a fiscal deficit of $19,588 ($30,164 less $10,573)

So it costs us, the American citizen, nearly $20,000 per refugee to supply cheap labor to big companies like Tyson’s Food, Swift and Co., and even the likes of Sealy Mattress.

Note: I’m filing this in our category entitled “where to find information.”

Quiz: What Asian country is driving out Muslims?

05/19/2008 ~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

There is a lot of talk these days about halting all immigration of Muslims to the West. Here is an article at New English Review by Hugh Fitzgerald suggesting that is a measure we should consider, but the politically correct multiculturalists in the United States would have a cow. They are agitating for more Muslims not less.

That suggestion of halting immigration and the other measures put forth by Fitzgerald are mild compared to what one country is doing.

We’ve written about the rise in Ethnic Nationalism here and here.

Now comes one country that is taking this concept to the max. What follows is a list of policies one government has put in place. You guess the country!

The government is:

1. Forcibly closing all mosques and madrassas

2. Prohibiting the construction of new mosques and not allowing repairs to old ones

3. Jailing those who do attempt to repair mosques

4. Making religious congregation difficult

5. Forcing Muslims to build religious buildings for another faith

6. Requiring Muslims to get permission to marry. They also must shave their beard and agree to having only two children.

Have you guessed it yet?

The government is the military junta that controls Burma (Myanmar).

The above is from testimony given by Chris Lewa (scroll down for bio) in December of last year speaking before the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (a government body we need to learn more about). She says the policies are driving the Rohingya out of Burma and and causing radicalization:

The resentment spread by these policies combined with sheer poverty are conducive to radicalisation. They have also lead to the continuous movements of Rohingya out of Burma to Bangladesh as well as through Bangladesh by boat to Thailand and Malaysia, thus becoming a regional problem. Therefore, U.S. policy makers should consider the unique situation of the Rohingya in formulating U.S. policy to promote human rights.

She recommends two things the US can do, the first is send more money to the United Nations for the Rohingya in Burma:

The U.S. government should provide more financial support for humanitarian action inside Burma, particularly for the UNHCR and the WFP.

And, finally the durable solution (remember that buzz word), bring them to the United States:

The U.S. has generously resettled a large number of Burmese refugees from Thailand and Malaysia. Unfortunately, the Rohingya have been excluded from the U.S. resettlement programs so far. Resettling Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and Malaysia should be considered as a durable humanitarian solution promoted by the U.S.

That’s right get the Rohingya to the US, put them to work in a meatpacking plant and living in a lousy apartment in a lousy neighborhood and they will magically give up all thoughts of Islamic supremacy. Fire up the magic melting pot.