Tag: Somali refugees

Ah the challenges! Getting Somalis to sign up for MNsure

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, symbols for MNsure. Immigrants want to know who the heck they are!

MNsure, of course, is Minnesota’s Obamacare exchange.   They are looking for the young, healthy, legal immigrants to make it work.  The part I don’t get is, how is it going to help premiums for all if the immigrant is unemployed and will likely just be pushed onto Medicaid?

Here is the news from Minnesota Public Radio about how to get tens of thousands of Somalis signed up:

The Somali 24 Mall and mosque in Minneapolis is a serpentine maze of stalls, where merchants selling sandals, cell phones, prayer rugs and pots try to lure the throngs of shoppers.

Most days you won’t find health insurance among the wares. But that’s what Asli Ashkir was trying to sell recently — in Somali and English.

Ashkir isn’t an insurance agent. She leads Somali Health Solutions,* an organization designed to introduce people to MNsure, the state’s new online health insurance marketplace.

Minnesota is home to at least 83,000 uninsured immigrants who may be eligible for health coverage through the state’s new insurance marketplace. But convincing them to use the new exchange is proving to be a communications challenge.

“The government will be at your side…..”

Ashkir’s organization has crafted a decidedly Somali outreach plan that includes telephone and in-person assistance in Somali. On her visit to the mall, Ashkir enlisted the imam in the mall’s mosque to talk about the program during the midday prayer.

“Whatever the Imam says is highly respected,” she said. “He is the leader in the religion.”

Setting up shop at the mall also was strategic. On Fridays, when few Somalis work, the shopping center attracts young, uninsured men — a demographic that’s critical to the economics of the exchange.   [They would have to be employed men with a decent salary to make it work! Right?—ed]

Hassan Abdi of Minneapolis followed the imam’s advice and stopped by. Abdi, who is unemployed, dropped his health insurance earlier this year because it cost too much and covered too little. He had not heard of MNsure and wanted to know the cost.

“Sometimes, it’s difficult to get the insurance that covers all of your needs,” he said.

Price is a chief concern among the people she’s talked to about MNsure, Ashkir said.

“But there’s help available from the federal as well as the state, that’s what we keep telling them,” Askir said. “You will be supported if you don’t make enough. The government will be at your side to help you. Then, they like that.”

About the photo:  Minnesota Public Radio says that symbols chosen for MNsure’s logo are unfamiliar to most immigrants.  No kidding!

*By the way, I tried to find some financials for Somali Health Solutions, but could not.  I couldn’t even figure out in my cursory search if they are a non-profit organization.

Soros organization: Somalis happy in Helsinki!

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

George Soros Open Society Foundations has produced a report (one of many) from which they conclude for the media that everything is hunky-dory for Somalis in Helsinki.  The Somalis might(?) be happy, but some of the native Finns aren’t!

You know this is how people like Soros operate, they do studies and make conclusions for the media and the media laps it up.  And, by doing such media spin they can shame other cities/countries that aren’t so “welcoming” into doing Soros’ bidding—open their borders   If you go to the study, here, it doesn’t look like everything is copacetic with the growing Somali population of Helsinki.

Helsinki Mayor Jussi Pajunen: Immigrant population growth is key to Helsinki survival (Soros tells us so!).

Here is the happy news from Finnbay (emphasis is mine):

(FINNBAY) – Helsinki, 25 November 2013. According to the latest report published by the Open Society Foundations, Somalis in Helsinki enjoy a good life in Helsinki due to numerous policy initiations from the Helsinki City.

Somalis in Helsinki is part of a seven city research series, Somalis in European Cities, which examines the realities of people from Somali backgrounds in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Malmo, Leicester, London, and Oslo. In Helsinki, the research was conducted by the Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki.

From Buffalo to Helsinki they are all falling for this economic benefit argument that uneducated, unemployable, impoverished third-worlders are going to bring an economic boom to a city.

“Immigrant Population growth is the key to Helsinki and the entire population of the metropolitan area. The City of Helsinki wants to be a model city with its work on anti-discrimination, so we must have zero tolerance for any sorts of discrimination against the Somali community and others, “said Mayor of Helsinki Jussi Pajunen.

The report highlights the experiences of Somalis living in Helsinki, focusing on five areas of local policy and the broader themes of identity, belonging and interaction. Through qualitative research methods, including interviews with key stakeholders at the city and national level and focus group discussions with Somali residents, conducted from the beginning of December 2012 through to the end of February 2013.

“Education and employment are the core of things for Somilis to enjoy living in Helsinki in order for them to participate as an active and equal group of our society. Much good work has already been done in integration, but the report highlights areas where room for improvement,” says Nazia Hussain , the Open Society Foundations, the Foundation Project Manager.

Although Somalis’ absolute numbers have always been small, the arrival of  Somali asylum seekers in the early 1990s was a significant event; it has been referred to as the “Somali shock”, Finland’s first experience accepting large groups of refugees.

The report suggests that Somalis living in Helsinki are satisfied with the city’s housing policies and services to promote the diversification of the structure of the population and to reduce their socio-economic one-sided.

Somali participants in the study felt that they are subjected to strong prejudices from other cities and attitudes that undermine the inclusion of experience in the wider society, even in your own community cohesion, the feeling is strong in some places.

We have several posts in our archives on Somalis in Finland and none involve happy Somalis or happy Finns.

Black Brits angered by immigration—want it stopped (or at least curtailed)

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

This is an interesting bit from the Telegraph late last week.  Some members of Britons black population think immigration is out of control in the UK.  Emphasis is mine.

Somalis in London protest plans to stop permitting remittances to Somalia

Black History Month is all about learning. I certainly learnt something this year. I trekked across England as a panelist on the Great Debate Tour. The tour travels to university campuses through October and November and invites black and ethnic minority students to Question Time style debates on immigration, integration, voter registration and enterprise.

To hear black people opposed to immigration is nothing new. In 2011 a study by Searchlight Educational Trust found 21 per cent of black Britons believed that all immigration into the UK should be stopped permanently, or at least until the UK’s economic situation improves. The study found 17 per cent of black Britons believed immigration had been a bad thing for Britain. However, what stunned me was the anger I witnessed.

One example (go to the Telegraph for the others):

At Greenwich University, a black charity worker from East London shared his deep-seated irritation at how the local culture had been transformed by Asian and Somali immigrants: “I feel uncomfortable” he said. His candid comment led to an awkward silence.   [It is not about race, it is about culture!—ed]

Immigration is the one political issue that motivates British blacks.

One concern of the Great Debate founders is that blacks are not as politically active as whites. But immigration was the one issue black people in these audiences did have a political opinion about. And black Brits are uncomfortable with it.

Photo is from this story you may have heard about.  Banks fear that money being sent out of western countries to Somalia may end up in the hands of Islamic terrorists.  These London Somalis who know how to work the system and, whose population is dramatically increasing, want the tap left open.

Lewiston: First Somali elected to school committee as write-in candidate

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment
Jama Mohamed waits for the recount Thursday in Lewiston.

Here is the news from the Lewiston Sun-Journal via Hiiraan online:

LEWISTON — A School Committee write-in candidate picked up 10 votes in a ballot recount Thursday, making him the city’s first African immigrant to be elected to public office.

Jama Mohamed will represent Ward 5, which comprises the downtown.

[…..]

Serving on the School Committee “is a lot of responsibility,” he said. Being the first African immigrant is like a door opening for him and others who come from different countries, he said. He hopes more will follow his lead.

[…..]

Mohamed, 29, is a native of Somalia. He came to the United States in 2004 and to Lewiston in 2008. He works as a case manager and interpreter at Trinity Jubilee Center in Lewiston. He is co-founder and communications director of the Somali Bantu Youth Association of Maine, an organization that mentors students.

A father of six, he told the Sun Journal last month he was running for office because “it is my duty to serve.”

Wow! most of 1,204 ELL students are Somali!

Lewiston has 5,239 students, 23 percent of whom are English language learners; most of the ELL students are children of Somali refugees. With so many Lewiston students being Somali, “we need representation from the Somali community on the School Committee,” Lysen said.

For background on how so many Somalis “found their way” to Lewiston, read our 2009 post about Maine the welfare magnet.  Our complete archive on Lewiston is here.

Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton: Somalis time will come

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

And, so it has with the election of Abdi Warsame to the Minneapolis City Council.

Dayton to Warsame: Your time has come

The Star Tribune has another glowing profile of the first Somali-American (Englishman?) elected to such an important post in a major America city.

After Somali immigrants failed to elect one of their own to the Minnesota Senate two years ago, a small group of them joined supporters of the victor, Kari Dziedzic, for a campaign event in her father’s home in northeast Minneapolis.

Gov. Mark Dayton, who was there, urged the East African attendees not to give up, saying their time would come.

One of the Somali-Americans in the crowd that day was Abdi Warsame, who became the first member of his community to win election to the Minneapolis City Council this month, two decades after Somali refugees began arriving in the state.

“I felt like he was speaking to me that day,” Warsame said.

His landslide victory in the Sixth Ward race signals the rising political influence of Somali-Americans in Minneapolis and offers a window into the changing demographics that also swept into office the council’s first members of Hmong and Mexican descent.

But Warsame’s win was different from that of the other immigrant candidates, Blong Yang and Alondra Cano, in that he relied more heavily on bringing members of his cultural community out to the polls — some for the first time.

“He couldn’t have done it without other communities in the Sixth Ward, but everyone recognizes the Somali vote was important for him. It was really impressive,” said Ryan Allen, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota who is studying Somali-Americans’ experience in the Twin Cities.

Somali immigrants have created mosques and nonprofits and gotten involved with civic life in ways that outsiders have not immediately seen, he said, and “all of that activity built a base that Warsame was able to take advantage of.”

Warsame joins Ahmed Hassan, elected the same night as he was to the City Council in Clarkston, Ga., as the highest elected Somali-Americans in the United States.

There is more, read it all. I’m still wondering how Warsame came to be an American citizen after being resettled and raised in England.  You can’t just pop on over from England and become an American citizen.  There is mention in the story that he has a 7-year-old daughter in Texas who he doesn’t want to talk about (he came to the US in 2006).  Maybe he married his way in?

Photo is from the Puntland Post.