Just a little problem in faraway Bosnia

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Yesterday’s Washington Post headline, “In Bosnia, former Fighters Face Expulsion” got my attention.   It seems that the Bosnian government has now figured out that some of the foreign fighters who came to fight in Bill Clinton’s Bosnian war may pose some problems afterall.   Years after many married local women and produced large families, some of those Muslim fighters are being considered for deportation.  Possible links to al-Qaeda are to blame.

Foreign security agencies have long warned that Bosnia, which has struggled to stamp out lawlessness in the postwar period, is fertile ground for terrorist groups seeking a foothold in Europe and trying to recruit so-called white Muslims, non-Arabs who can more easily evade security profiling.

Who knows if they have links to the worldwide terror network, but they sound like charming fellows:

Both denied that they or any foreign fighters in Bosnia have a link to terrorism. But they warned that by separating them from their families, Bosnian authorities are creating a threat of extremism that otherwise would not exist…..  “The government will regret this, and they will pay.”

O.K. so what does this have to do with us?   The largest group of Muslims we ever brought to the US are Bosnians.  From 1990 to 2003 we resettled 103,107 Bosnians.  Any chance a foreign fighter or two slipped in?

Good for Daily Kos and us

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

I can’t believe I would be happy with anything I read at Daily Kos, the left wing blog that recently made the news by inviting Democratic candidates to their annual meeting (most accepted the invite).  But, today they reported that the Federal Election Commission(FEC) has deemed them a media entity and that is good for them and good for us. 

Here is what the FEC said:

DailyKos is available to the general public and is the online equivalent of a newspaper, magazine, or other periodical publication as described in the Act and Commission regulations.

Go here to read the rest.   Where do I pick up my White House press pass?

Immigrants sending a fortune out of the US

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

Every time you turn around there is some new angle on this issue of immigrants, refugees and mass migration.  This time its Remittances—the money immigrants send home and out of the US economy.    According to this article in the Washington Times yesterday, we really did not have a handle on how large a problem this was until after 9/11 when we began tracking terrorist financing.

The US lost a staggering $41 billion in 2005 alone ($22 billion went to Mexico), and according to this article much of it untaxed.  I guess it’s no surprise that the US has the largest outflow of money in the world. 

The article also touches on the concern many  leaders of the world’s less well-off countries have and that is the brain drain issue.  Actually this is something I’ve been wondering about—if everyone wants to live in the US, how will other countries ever improve the condition of their people?   And, if they improve largely because of remittances from the US, won’t that eventually kill that goose laying the golden eggs?

Globally, remittances — the cash that immigrants send home — totaled nearly $276 billion in 2006, according to the World Bank. Remittances have more than doubled since 2000, and with globalization increasing the number of people on the move, there’s no end in sight.

——–

Analysts tracking the phenomenon said they have gotten a much clearer picture since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, when authorities trying to cut the flow of cash to jihadists began taking a harder look at how immigrants move their money around.

 ——–

 Mass migration, they say, has spawned an underground economy of staggering proportions.  

——–

There are other downsides: fears of brain drains and a vast permanent army of economic exiles, and the untaxed earnings flowing out of host nations.

 ——–

 The U.S. lost $41.1 billion in 2005, according to the World Bank…

 ——–  

Mexicans wire home the most cash — nearly $22 billion — most of it earned in the U.S.

 ——-

Much of the world’s migration is illegal, and although many immigrants work at menial jobs, some are doctors, engineers and other professionals. Their departure can mean a brain drain of highly trained personnel and create an immigration culture.

Show me the money

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Your tax dollars:

For your Labor Day reading pleasure, here is a very informative and lengthy piece for anyone interested in learning how Refugee Resettlement works.  Although written in 1999 for the Center for Immigration Studies it appears that nothing has changed in the last few years; except that the amount of taxpayer money sloshing around has risen.   Entitled, “Show Me the Money:  How Government Funding Has Corrupted Refugee Resettlement” by Don Barnett, is an eye-opener.

The article mentions Female Genital Mutilation which I have been meaning to write about in our series on ‘diversity’s dark side’ and hope to get to you soon.

The message of the Good Samaritan

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

 Your tax dollars:

During the recent controversy about Refugee Resettlement in Hagerstown, MD a writer to the Herald-Mail, the local newspaper, remarked that afterall the good Samaritan didn’t leave the wounded traveler on the taxpayers’ doorstep but  paid for his care from his own pocket.    That is something to remember as you begin to ask questions about the role, as government contractors, of non-profit church groups involved in Refugee Resettlement.     They will be ready and eager to make you feel quilty as hell for even asking questions; don’t be! 

 The Good Samaritan story is used very effectively here, at VDare, to illustrate one of the lucrative special deals the church groups have worked out with the federal government.    It is entitled, The Bad Samaritan: The Episcopal Migration Ministries by Thomas Allen and it outlines the little deal where the churches get a cut of any airfare loans they can collect from the refugees.  I think they call this ‘doing well by doing good ‘(or something like that!)