I’m sure this is happening everywhere, so it is all the more reason to continue the suspension of new refugee arrivals that was supposed to have been liftedthis week by the US State Department.
No jobs for newly arrived refugees and no one to give them instructions in person as to where to get signed up for their taxpayer-funded ‘services.’
Nonprofits Retool to Serve Refugees Struggling During COVID-19 Shutdown
Refugees who arrived in the Bay Area around the time shelter-in-place orders were issued, as well as those who have been her for an extended period, are struggling to stay afloat, organizations who serve them said.
The most recent arrivals are simply trying to establish themselves, whereas others are unaware of services available to them, are being led astray by misinformation on social media or are faced with a rekindling of the trauma they thought they had left behind.
Given the shutdown of many businesses, new arrivals are less likely to find jobs.***
Without employment, refugees have less access to health insurance and more need for income assistance. Lacking income to buy cars, newly arrived refugees must rely on drastically curtailed bus and rail service to do essential tasks like shop for groceries or get to the hospital. New arrivals without existing community connections can then end up extremely isolated.
[….]
….the system of refugee resettlement in the United States is based on rapidly finding employment. “You are looking at a substantial pool of individuals who may not be able to pay for rent and their needs even if they were working,” said Blythe Raphael, who heads the refugee services program at Jewish Family and Community Services East Bay.“Those families we’re watching carefully and trying to find assistance.” [This organization is asubcontractor of HIAS.—ed]
Multiple organizations that serve refugees have shifted gears, reorganized and launched new services to ensure they can meet this population’s needs during the global COVID-19 pandemic.
The stay-at-home order was issued just after several families arrived in the area from Aghanistan, forcing Raphael’s East Bay organization to retool for remote work at the same time it was delivering assistance. “As all services were closing to in-person interviews, we had to really review our model in order for us to make the service connections for all of our new arrivals and for our case managers to be able to serve people with essential course services,” Raphael said.
In other words, it is hard to get new refugees signed up for their various welfare programs and other services when so much is closed.
These groups have had to quickly adjust to the shelter-in-place order, and are themselves vulnerable to the economic fallout, so they need as much public support as they can get, said advocates. “Small organizations are going to suffer a lot from this economic crash that’s going to happen,” said Zand (Leva Zand, development director of the Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants in Oakland).
***One of those jobs that refugees are hired to do is slaughterhouse work. And, now comes news that meat plants are having to close due to the number of workers getting sick with COVID-19. See here.
Just a little over three years ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a now infamous in-your-face tweet to challenge the newly sworn-in President of the United States.
Now here comes the news about the border closures that all sensible countries are putting in place in an effort to slow the momentum of the virus crisis.
It is a long story, probably not worth reading, by a Canadian professor clearly unhappy with the turn of events. The Open Borders Lefties are generally treading lightly because citizens are in no mood to have their liberties restricted (and health threatened) while migrants have free movement around the world.
Coronavirus: Racism and the long-term impacts of emergency measures in Canada
The dangers to public health during the COVID-19 pandemic are terrifying, so it’s not surprising governments around the world are taking extraordinary measures to curb its spread, including closing borders to non-nationals.
Canada has become one of many countries to either partially or completely close their borders and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also announced that Canada will no longer consider asylum claims.
[….]
One of many PR events when Trudeau welcomed Syrians to Canada by the thousands.
Canada has won international praise over the last few years for its commitment to refugee resettlement in particular, as evidenced by the arrival of 25,000 Syrian refugees in a few short months.
But Trudeau has announced that due to these “exceptional times,” a new agreement has been signed with the United States that would see asylum-seekers crossing the border on foot returned to the U.S.
This exceptional reaction goes against Canada’s commitments under the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and a 1985 Supreme Court ruling that says refugee claimants have a right to a fair hearing (the Singh decision).
Are we just bringing in more people every day who will be unemployed for the foreseeable future, sure looks like it.
Supposedly the UN is stopping the flow of refugees worldwide (the UN controls the spigot), but so far we are still ‘welcoming’ more impoverished people to America even in the last few days.
Here is John Binder at Breitbartreporting on Ingraham’s sensible demand:
Laura Ingraham: Halt All Immigration to U.S. During Coronavirus Crisis
Fox News anchor Laura Ingraham says the United States should halt all immigration during the coronavirus crisis.
Ingraham: Where is the moratorium?
On Wednesday, State Department officials confirmed to Breitbart News that the refugee resettlement program — which has resettled nearly 2,500 refugees in the last six weeks — would be suspended until at least April 7.
Likewise, a State Department official told Reuters that most visa services through the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency would be suspended until further notice, though federal immigration officials have yet to clarify which visa programs will continue to bring foreign nationals to the U.S.
Ingraham suggested in a post online that the Trump administration should implement an immigration moratorium while trying to stop the coronavirus outbreak and as millions of Americans are forced to stay home from work. Many of those workers rely on hourly minimum wages and tips.
“All immigration to the US should be halted due to this national emergency — we sure as heck don’t need any foreign workers with millions of Americans on verge of losing their jobs,” Ingraham wrote, along with “#AmericaFirst.”
Editor’s note: As RRW approaches its 13th birthday, there are over 10,000 posts archived here at Refugee Resettlement Watch. Unfortunately, it is just me here with no staff and so it has become virtually impossible to answer all of the basic questions that come into my e-mail inbox or to RRW’s facebook page every day. I don’t want to appear rude—I simply haven’t enough hours in the day.
Please take time tovisit RRW(don’t just read posts in your e-mail) and use the search window in the right hand sidebar and see if you can find the information you need. Also see my series that I wrote in recent months entitledKnowledge is Powerwhich explains some basic principles of how Refugee Resettlement is carried out in the US.
And, lastly, I don’t write that much every day, so if you made a habit of reading my posts here on a daily basis, you would eventually catch on to what is happening because I do link back to previous posts as much as possible. LOL! Thank you for helping me not go crazy!
The International Organization for Migration, a wing of the UN, announced refugee travel was being suspended. “This is a temporary measure that will be in place only for as long as it remains essential, ” said the IOM in a statement released yesterday.
I am still not seeing any official announcement from the US State Department and no commentary, so far, from the refugee contractors. See below that 69 new refugee arrivals were ‘welcomed’ to America since Monday.
IOM, UNHCR announce temporary suspension of resettlement travel for refugees
If you see the distinctive IOM blue bags at the airport, it is a sure sign of refugee arrivals. IOM arranges the plane tickets that you, taxpayers, pay for!
Geneva – As countries drastically reduce entry into their territories owing to the COVID-19 global health crisis, and restrictions around international air travel are introduced, travel arrangements for resettling refugees are currently subject to severe disruptions. Some States have also placed a hold on resettlement arrivals given their public health situation, which impacts on their capacity to receive newly resettled refugees.
Refugee families are being directly impacted by these quickly evolving regulations in the course of their travel, with some experiencing extensive delays while others have been stranded or separated from family members.
In addition, UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and IOM, the International Organization for Migration, are concerned that international travel could increase the exposure of refugees to the virus.
As a result, IOM and UNHCR are taking steps to suspend resettlement departures for refugees. This is a temporary measure that will be in place only for as long as it remains essential.
[….]
Both agencies look forward to resuming full resettlement travel as soon as prudence and logistics permit.
I decided to check to see if we were still seeing refugee arrivals since I reported, here, that as of a week ago, there was not a slowdown.
Here are the numbers this morning at the Refugee Processing Center from Monday (the 13th) to this morning.
We had 69 arrivals, 62 of those from the DR Congo.
In 2013, Anne Richard, Obama’s head honcho for refugees, told then UNHCR that we would ‘welcome’ 50,000 impoverished Congolese to America.
Just to review, in 2013 the Obama Administration told the UNthat we we would take 50,000 needy people from the DR Congo over five years.
In 2020, we are at 60,880 and they are still coming in in large numbers.
In fact, since Trump took office we have admitted 32,000 from the DR Congo and distributed them throughout America.
Here is a map from the Refugee Processing Centershowing where 69 refugees were placed since Monday. 62 hailed from the DR Congo (including the 13 who went to Idaho and 21 of 22 who were placed in Texas).
In addition to the 62 from the DR Congo, 3 refugees arrived from Iraq, 2 from Eritrea and one each from India and Somalia.
These numbers do not include the Special Immigrant Visa holders arriving from Afghanistan and Iraq and treated like refugees. There is no daily breakdown that I know of for their arrival. Make note that since October 1, 2019 to yesterday we admitted 6,867 special refugees from Afghanistan and 152 from Iraq. Will check in a few days and see how the number changes.
