Michigan’s economy, refugees, and special deals

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I was searching for something else when I happened to look at the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) State profiles.  Mind you, this was during all the Presidential campaign hoopla last week about the terrible economic situation Michigan is in.     Check out these stats on refugee cases in Michigan. 

EMPLOYMENT        
 

2005

  

2006

  
Caseload 1,799   1,766  
Entered Employment 995 55% 700 40%
Terminations 242 69% 156 47%
Reductions 59 17% 115 34%
Average Wage $ 7.92   $ 7.72  
Retentions 833 76% 842 53%
Health Benefits 460 59% 236 49%

The refugee caseload for Michigan in 2006 was 1766 but only 700 (40%)  of those found employment at the average hourly rate of $7.72 an hour.    That is down 20 cents an hour from the previous year.   Also, note that those receiving health benefits had declined by 10 %.    Yet we continue to resettle refugees in Michigan.

You will notice too that the state of Michigan received almost $8 million in federal grants (2006) for additional welfare assistance (that is in addition to other government services such as food stamps).   Michigan has been the resettlement site of over 44,000 (as of 2005) refugees since the Refugee Act of 1980 went into effect.

But, here is a little nugget at the bottom of this State page at ORR.   In 2007 an organization called the Arab Community Center for Social and Economic Services in Dearborn received a $475,000 federal grant.   So, I went to Guidestar to see just what this is all about, and discovered that grant is a drop in the bucket.   The taxpayers are funding this specialized Arab-American group to the tune of nearly $8 million a year in a $14 million dollar budget!   This group does “Advocacy” on immigration and civil rights issues, has assets of $25 million, and employees 200.   It’s just a wild guess but I bet those employees make more than $7.72 an hour.

No wonder the taxpayer hasn’t a prayer. 

   

Shelbyville reporter hits the nail on the head

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Brian Mosely, the reporter who wrote the controversial series of articles on the Somali refugee migration to Shelbyville, TN and  who was vilified by multiculturalists for daring to expose the problems has today published an opinion piece that gets to the heart of the problem.     If you recall, Mr. Mosely and his editor had a visit this week from the Tennessee Immigration and Refugee Rights Coalition prompting this editorial.

No advocacy group has given these folks a helping hand since they’ve been here. When I first contacted Catholic Charities, the organization that is resettling Somalis and other groups throughout the nation, they had “no idea” that the refugees were living in Shelbyville in such large numbers.

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Instead, their current policy apparently just brings the hapless refugees into the country, gives them extremely limited orientation on how to properly function in western society, and then sets them loose to fend for themselves.

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This is a very bad idea. To simply relocate members of a totally alien culture into a community without the needed support, services or training to help them adjust to 21st Century America is immoral and wrong.

Volags (voluntary agencies) like Catholic Charities have been contracted by the US State Department and resettled over 70,000 Somali refugees from 1991 to the present.   Nomadic Somalis are moving from city to city in the US, so expect more clashes because contracted agencies send them out on their own after only 4 months in America. 

We advocate the return of the old system of refugee resettlement where individual churches and groups take one family each under their wing to care for them and help them assimilate to America, and do that for as long as it takes.  That would be true charity in the spirit of the Good Samaritan.  

A Harbinger of what is to come?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

A pair of articles published in Great Britain this past week should serve as a wake-up call to America about what rapid uncontrolled immigration could do to us (or is already doing to us).  (Hat tip: Infinicat).

The first from the Sunday Mail begins:

Almost 2 million new homes will have to be built just to cope with the immigrant influx, peers will be told tomorrow.

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It means 263 houses must be constructed every day for almost 20 years – the equivalent of five cities the size of Birmingham during the next 18 years.

If you are thinking, well great, that helps the economy because all those workers will contribute and keep the housing industry booming, the second article from the Daily Mail  tells you why you would be wrong.

Many choose the cheapest possible rented accommodation so they can send more of their wages home, according to the report.

Months ago we wrote about this practice —sending money back home and out of the economy—called remittances.  

Another thing I wonder about when I read articles like these is where are the environmentalists?  Why are they silent?  Imagine 5 more cities the size of Birmingham!   My guess is they are chicken to speak up for fear of  being called racists by their multicultural buddies.   

American Somalis detained in Ethiopia with links to terror?

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Read this post at Jihad Watch yesterday about an AP story which quoted Ethiopian officials saying they have detained terror suspects who are American Somalis.  Be sure to check out the comments.  

Here is what Brian at UsorThem said to me this morning, and he says it better than I could:

We bring them here at our cost. Give them support, make them healthy, teach them another language, so they can return to Somalia, more educated, healthier, better connected, more free to move about the world with American passports, so they can become better Jihadists.

________

I wonder if they finagle a free ride back to the U.S. by claiming refugee status again.

And, if this turns out to be true, will the US State Department dash over there and bring ‘home’ these American jihadists?

Answering Katie

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday we received a comment from Katie in Dallas critical of what we report at RRW.  It was posted with the fact sheet and so would likely not get very many readers.   But, because she raises some important issues I’ll respond here just as Judy responded to Will recently.

Katie says:

I have purposely chosen to live in an area of Dallas where refugees are resettled (going on 3 years in low income urban apts). My neighbors are all refugees. It seems that are some frustrations towards their resettlement in your article, but i would like to offer my experience. They are the best neighbors i’ve ever had.

She goes on to describe how wonderful, patriotic, generous and kindhearted one neighbor, a Congolese man, is and how much he helps her and her other neighbors.   I am sure that is absolutely true.  But, it’s funny she should mention a man from the Congo, because we had exactly the opposite experience in Hagerstown with a Congolese man.   He was recently evicted from his apartment because he refused to work.   Somehow he had gotten the idea that he would come to America and be taken care of.   As the police attempted to remove him to a homeless shelter he said he just wanted to return to the Congo.    So whose experience with Congolese men is more valid, Katie’s or ours?

The reason I mention this is not to get into a back and forth with Katie or anyone about our emotional feelings about individual refugees.   Do you think anyone revels in the misery that poor unhappy man is going through?  Hearing about it causes us all emotional pain.  But instead of brushing the issue aside we feel that our role at RRW is to get to the facts and address the policies and practices that placed him in that situation in the first place, and insist the program be reformed. 

Was our Congolese man properly instructed about what his life in America would be, before he arrived in our city?  Did he think people didn’t work here?   He spoke virtually no English but had been here for nearly a year (maybe longer).  Did anyone get him to ESL classes and make sure he went regularly?  Did he have a church or other organization sponsoring him?   I bet he didn’t, because if he had he would have had a roof over his head.    Did he have anyone like you, Katie, who cared about him and helped him become an American?

Whose fault is all of that?  In my view, it’s the fault of this entire refugee resettlement program from top to bottom.   Frankly, we are bringing too many refugees.  It has become a big business for volags—bring ’em in, get paid by the head, send them out on their own at 4 months and bring in the next batch.     Citizens in small cities and towns become overwhelmed and angry to see incidents like our Congolese man’s eviction and the result is your whole cause suffers.  

I say “your cause” because it isn’t my cause, one of the things people do who push refugee resettlement is to try to bully others into working on their personal charity.   I have lots of charitable things I work on, but I don’t guilt trip others into being involved in my charities and I don’t expect the taxpayer to support them either.

Then Katie wraps up her comment with a personal attack on us.   Somehow people like Katie think they can only make their point by calling us names and suggesting we are cheap, hard-hearted, evil people.  It won’t work, Katie. 

Chill out. I’m proud that my nation offers freedom to starving and endangered widows and orphans.

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So I apologize on behalf of my African and Middle Eastern friends for wanting safety and food- at the expense of a few of your cents each year…

Katie does also bring up ESL, but this post is getting too long already.    After what we saw in Hagerstown, I would suggest that ESL classes be mandatory and that refugees not be pushed out to work before they really learn some English.

Katie, if I have mischaracterized your comment or you have more to add, please comment to this post.  

We look forward to continuing this discussion with anyone who wishes to jump in!

For Katie’s full comment, go to the Refugee Resettlement Fact Sheets page.