Tag: World Relief

‘Religious’ refugee resettlement contractor wants more refugee workers in North Carolina

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Is there any connection between Obama wooing big businesses to get on board with his threat to go-it-alone on immigration and the spate of stories we are seeing about how much businesses love their refugee labor force?  I wonder.

First we note this must-read article at Politico about the Obama Administration working to expand its plans for an executive branch-driven immigration overhaul by sweetening the pot for big businesses looking for tech labor and cheap labor (in the case of refugees it is cheap and captive labor!).

Tamar Jacoby: It’s all about promoting the free flow of labor into the US. https://refugeeresettlementwatch.org/2013/02/13/washington-lobbyist-for-big-business-the-basic-goal-is-to-promote-the-free-flow-of-labor-into-the-usa/

 

Public opposition has been building against more immigration generally as the 2014 election season advances in light of the illegal alien invasion on the southern border this summer.  However, if Obama can get big business on board, and thus blunt any establishment Republican opposition to changes in immigration policy (law!), it could be a winner for the Dems and for big business this fall.

Politico:

Representatives from Oracle, Cisco, Fwd.US, Microsoft, Accenture, Compete America and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among those present at a wide-ranging Aug. 1 session…

Later in the story we hear from Tamar Jacoby that she doesn’t want the needs of employers who want low-skilled laborers left out of the discussion.  See also Jacoby with Grover Norquist in 2009 NumbersUSA expose’.

Why so many stories lately about the refugee resettlement contractors*** serving as employment services for businesses?

The contractors previously kept a pretty low profile about their services to businesses large and small (they especially like meatpacking companies and the hotel/service sector).

Just last week the Washington Post wrote glowingly about the role resettlement contractor Church World Service is playing in bringing refugee laborers to North Carolina, here.   I wonder do the businesses give CWS a finders-fee for bringing them laborers?

Now here is the Winston-Salem Journal telling us how much another contractor, World Relief (National Association of Evangelicals)  is doing for North Carolina businesses.  It is a win-win—contractors get to wear the white hat of humanitarianism while making money!   Is World Relief in competition for refugee bodies with CWS?

World Relief’s Andrew Timbie begs US State Department in Washington for more refugees for NC. Remember readers that contractors are paid by the head for everyone they resettle.

 

KERNERSVILLE — The work here at EFI, which makes architectural glass and aluminum, takes strength and skill. Glass sheets can weigh as much as 155 pounds and the measurements must be exact. On a summer morning, the plant floor is noisy and hot.

In the company’s early years, it had trouble finding and keeping reliable employees. But these days, when Jeanne Clary, the company’s human resources director, has a vacancy she calls the World Relief office in High Point, a local refugee resettlement agency.

“I will almost always call World Relief first,” said Clary.

[….]

Andrew Timbie, the director of the High Point office of World Relief, has spent the summer making a pitch to his national office to send refugees this way. He expects to resettle 450 refugees in the next year, with a handful from Syria. “Generally speaking it’s a very good area for refugee resettlement,” he said. “The weather’s good. It’s warm. There’s a newcomer’s school. There are clinics here. There are lots of jobs for refugees.”

With the federal and state welfare goodies coming their way, businesses don’t have to feel bad about the low wages that are discouraging American workers.

The federal government provides refugees with a stipend that lasts for three months and extended federal benefits for six more months. They are also eligible for state aid, such as food stamps and Medicaid. But Timbie’s first goal is to help refugees find a job. In spite of North Carolina’s unemployment rate of 6.4 percent, Timbie said he can count on a handful of employers other than EFI that are eager to hire refugees, among them Ralph Lauren Corp. and Tyson Foods Inc..

LOL!  Tyson Foods is no surprise, they hire refugees and change American small towns throughout the mid West and South.  But, see Ralph Lauren goes to North Carolina, here—  says they will bring high-skilled jobs.  So how do the third-world refugees fit in?  Are they going to clean the offices at night?

There is much more in the W-S Journal, so please read it.

We have many posts here on North Carolina.  You might wish to review several from 2010 in which contractors (the Lutherans at that time) in North Carolina came under fire for overloading some locations and then not taking proper care of the refugees they resettled.

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (I suspect grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs  are now devouring all the federal cash):

 

Carrot-tasting classes for refugees cut due to ‘unaccompanied minors’ taking all the federal cash

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Update:  No sooner had I posted this then an update arrives:  The money has been restored and carrot-tasting class will resume! (Click here for the happy ending!)

One thing we have to thank these ‘unaccompanied alien minors’ for is exposing the three-decades-old Refugee Resettlement program of the US State Department to public scrutiny.

Here is yet another whiny story, this one featuring refugees in Washington state under the care of contractor World Relief.  I bet you didn’t know you were funding classes so that new refugees could discover the joys of eating carrots in America.  And, now this special program may be cut because the invading “children” are gobbling up all the federal cash.

Caption from the Inlander: “Rwandan refugee Emmanuel Rucyahana, right, tries a carrot during a nutrition workshop at World Relief Spokane. Funding for workshops like this one has been redirected to address immigration at the southern border.” Photo: Young Kwak

This is my question—are there no Evangelical Christians (World Relief is an Evangelical federal contractor) or Catholics who could use their charitable time and teach refugees the vital information about carrots and thus leave the federal taxpayer out of the loop?

From the Inlander:

“We came here because we have to save our lives,” she says, sitting next to her husband. Now, they’re tasting raw carrots from a paper boat, seated at a long table surrounded by posters about the Founding Fathers, with people chatting in four languages. [Where is Saturday Night Live or Jon Stewart!—ed]

Refugees like Farwah Rubab and Syed Mubashar Abbas from Pakistan come here, to World Relief’s headquarters in Spokane, for answers. Not only do they get help finding housing, schooling and jobs, but they can attend workshops on the essentials: banking, interacting with law enforcement and today, cooking healthy food.

[….]

Though the much-covered influx of unaccompanied children at the southern border is 1,500 miles away from this classroom, the two are unavoidably linked by a pot of federal funding increasingly under stress.

Last month, the federal government halted funding to states for “refugee resettlement assistance” — the money that pays for these classes — because it needed that money to address needs at the border. In Spokane, World Relief, a nonprofit that helps resettle refugees, uses its $89,500 allotment to pay staff to help refugees apply for permanent residency and to organize these classes. The nonprofit Catholic Charities gets $35,500 from the contract to provide similar services. About $1 million in funding was cut for the current quarter.

Boo-hoo-hoo!  If this keeps up there may be staff layoffs!  Offices may close and the trickle down could crash the economy of Spokane (and refugees will not enjoy the culinary delights of America, the healthy delights of course!).

As I have said previously, no sympathy here for the contractors***.  They lobbied Congress for amnesty for illegal aliens, what did they think might happen if tens of thousands of new ones arrived overnight.  Did they think that the Washington money tree would just grow more money?

***The federal refugee resettlement contractors (I suspect grant recipient big dogs Baptist Child and Family Services and Southwest Key Programs  are now devouring all the federal cash):

Our complete archive on ‘unaccompanied minors’ goes back several years, click here for all of those posts.

Update from Appleton: community meeting puts refugees on display

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

They say it was planned before the latest uproar about Appleton, Wisconsin and whether it could support more needy refugees, but this—a show and tell of sorts—is a standard practice for refugee contractors like World Relief.  They know if they can showcase some happy refugees it becomes easier for them to demonize anyone who objects to more resettlement as motivated by racism and xenophobia when residents are simply concerned with the economic viability of the plan.

Be sure to see our previous post on Appleton a few days ago, but don’t miss this morning’s post, also from Wisconsin, about Somali gang fights coming across the border from “welcoming” Minneapolis.

Myriam Mwizerwa appears to have moved from Nashville World Relief to direct resettlement from Oshkosh.

From Post-Crescent Media:

The long-scheduled educational panel came on the heels of a weeklong controversy after Alderman Jeff Jirschele raised concerns about preparations for the 75 refugees due to arrive this year from Congo, Iraq and Myanmar.

[….]

Myriam Mwizerwa, the Oshkosh director for World Relief Fox Valley, explained that refugee status is a narrow classification determined by the United Nations. Rounds of interviews determine if individuals meet the persecution requirements based on race, nationality, religion, political opinion or social affiliation.

“A refugee is not someone who has fled due to an economic or natural disaster,” Mwizerwa said. “Only refugees whose lives are threatened and that have crossed into another country for asylum qualify.”

Regarding the above comments, many of the refugees we are accepting into the US are not in danger for their lives.  I’d like to know how many rounds of interviews convicted murderer Esar Met had before being granted permission to enter the US.  And, keep in mind the Senate-passed Comprehensive Immigration Reform bill would do away with refugees having to prove they are persecuted personally at all.  If S.744 (which World Relief lobbies for) should become law, whole classes of people will be considered eligible.  For example, just being a Somali, an Afghani, or a Rohingya would get you in automatically.

Ms. Mwizerwa continues:

After achieving the status, host countries begin resettling the refugees. Last year the U.S. took 70,000 refugees — a number set by Congress that will remain the same for 2014.

Congress does not set the number the President does in his annual determination letter.  Congress could change the numbers, but as far as I know they just rubber-stamp whatever the President wants.

U.S. communities accept 80 percent of the world’s refugees, Mwizerwa said, but that’s less than 1 percent of the 14 million worldwide refugees seeking a move.

After the two-year vetting process by the U.S. State Department and Federal Bureau of Investigations, the refugees are handled by the contract agency, in this case World Relief.

Two years?  I have never heard an exact time-frame for vetting.

“We have 90 days to help make people self-sufficient,” Mwizerwa said. “In that time we do the airport reception, help with housing, food, basic needs and do a community orientation.”

Almost none are self-sufficient in 90 days.  She only means that the federally-supplied contractor’s bucks start to run out.  It pretty much means they have 90 days to get the refugees signed up for welfare.  There is nothing that says World Relief can’t find private money to keep them afloat.

And, if refugees are becoming self-sufficient in 90 days, why do we have articles published like this one just yesterday at The Huffington Post—In the war on poverty, don’t forget the refugees!

The airfare for refugees is considered a loan, and eventually paid back. Each refugee receives about $925 for the 90-day period for essentials, a one-time gift, Mwizerwa said.  [A gift from the US taxpayer—ed]

Again, not the whole truth.  Yes, the refugees are required to pay back the airfare, but how many do so is a tightly held secret at the State Department; and World Relief takes a cut of whatever they can wring out of the poor refugees as their reward from the State Department for their collection agency services.

Refugees are eligible for permanent residency status in the U.S. after a year, and after five years can apply for citizenship. They only face deportation if they are convicted of a crime.

I would love to know how many are ever deported, even the rapists and murderers get to stay.  We did have some reports of Somalis being deported, but I’ll bet its a tiny handful.

Mwizerwa said the decision on a specific community is largely based on history.

The decision is really based on whether they (State Dept and its contractors) can get away with flooding a city with impoverished people before the local complaints get too noisy.  I call it the “squawk factor.”  The squawk factor seems to be coming into play in Appleton.    And, it depends on how demanding the local business community is for cheap laborers.  By the way, the State Department, the Office of Refugee Resettlement and their contractors are always out scouting now for new “welcoming” territory in which to drop off refugees.

Photo is here at World Relief Nashville unless there is more than one Myriam Mwizerwa.

If you’ve never checked out our Refugee Resettlement fact sheet, check it out here now.

Appleton, Wisconsin alderman dares question city’s readiness for more refugees

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Uh oh!  The fur is flying (or something is hitting the fan!) in Wisconsin where an elected official is bucking the Mayor and other city council members about the plans for US State Department resettlement contractor World Relief*** (subcontractor World Relief of Fox Valley) to bring in more third world refugees from Burma (Myanmar), Iraq and the Congo.

I told you about Appleton here last November and it’s a post worth re-visiting.  Check, out the Mayor and his diversity coordinator!

In this story the Mayor says like a petulant child:   “These are the diverse people I want in our city.”

Alderman Jirschele called for immediate suspension of refugee resettlement in Appleton.

Readers need to help spread this latest news about one (rare!) brave alderman standing up to the ‘diversity is beautiful’ crowd that has launched willy-nilly (as usual) into resettling more refugees before a city is capable of handling large numbers of poor and needy people.

The US State Department HATES news stories like this one where someone dares to say NO!—because consequently as the news gets out, others, elsewhere in America, learn that there is resistance!

From the Northwestern.com (emphasis mine):

APPLETON — An Appleton alderman says he has serious concerns about 75 refugees relocating in Appleton this year, setting off a furious response from City Hall.

Jeff Jirschele, who represents a portion of the city’s south side, said this week that planning has been lax and the region needs to be sure it’s prepared for the challenges with the resettlement — which is expected to bring people here from Congo, Iraq and Myanmar.

“I’m worried about these people and our social safety net when they arrive,” Jirschele said. “These are real people and real lives … we have no room to flounder on housing or medical care despite the best intentions of the groups involved.”

Jirschele authored a resolution with some tough language aimed at World Relief Fox Valley, the Oshkosh-based group shepherding the resettlement, and its selection of Appleton for a resettlement city.

He said the group had “not been vetted” and called for an immediate suspension of all city efforts in the relocation until a group could identify the impact of absorbing the refugees into the community.

“I understand it’s emblematic of our community to help people, but we need to slow down and take a breath,” Jirschele said. “I’m already hearing some folks that think this resolution is cold-hearted, but the reality is good intentions aren’t good enough to produce a successful outcome.”

Alderman hits a nerve!

Jirschele’s sentiment hit a nerve Thursday among fellow aldermen and Mayor Tim Hanna.

Hanna said he spoke for all City Hall departments in criticizing both the tone and content of Jirschele’s resolution.

Read on.  A representative from World Relief says that most refugees are not on food stamps.  Not so, from the latest available figures, 63% of refugees nationwide are on food stamps and I doubt the numbers are somehow much better in Wisconsin.

***So what is World Relief?

Just a little bit about World Relief whose full legal name is World Relief Corporation of National Association of Evangelicals.   It is one of nine major refugee contractors the US State Department has chosen to resettle refugees.  The State Department pays them by the head for each refugee they resettle.  In turn, World Relief contracts two dozen subcontractors including the one in this news story—World Relief Fox Valley.

It is very hard to track the federal dollars that flow from the primary contractor to subcontractors (there is no financial auditing done by the feds).  I could not find a Form 990 for the Oshkosh/Appleton subcontractor, but World Relief’s most recent Form 990 is here.  Note on page 9 that their income that year was $51.8 MILLION and you (the taxpayer) paid them $34.1 million of that.  This is not a charitable effort from the goodness of their Christian hearts and pocketbooks—it is big business funded by you!

One item that caught my eye on that same page 9 was a line in the income ledger that is also YOUR money.  They received $1.3 million for “travel loan commission.”   What that means is that taxpayers paid the airfare (in a loan program) for the refugees to fly to your city and it’s up to the contractor to collect the loan from the refugees.  When they are successful (and we don’t know how many loans go uncollected) they keep a cut.  In this particular year, the cut was $1.3 million of taxpayer money that also went to the contractor on top of the $34.1 million!  Racket huh!

And, on page 10 note that they pay out approximately $25 million for salaries and benefits/other payroll expenses.

For more about how refugee resettlement works, visit our fact sheet here.

And, one more thing, once your city is deemed “welcoming” these contractors are paid to do the paperwork to bring the family members of those they had previously resettled and there is no end in sight!

Appleton, Wisconsin: more refugees on the way to your town

~ Ann Corcoran ~ Leave a comment

Here is a short AP story at The Republic of Columbus, Indiana. Apparently Appleton is a target city, among 6 others in Wisconsin, to receive the blessings of diversity—all kinds are on the way!

Appleton Mayor and Diversity Coordinator Flores celebrate on election night 2012. Photo from FairWisconsin.

The resettlement program is only three years old in Appleton—that is very new.

However, the chance of extricating itself from the situation is limited because with a DIVERSITY COORDINATOR on the city payroll, she will be working 9-5 to bring in the diversity and thus, in my opinion, dooming Appleton’s economic and social ‘future.’

From The Republic (emphasis mine):

APPLETON, Wisconsin — Plans are underway in eastern Wisconsin to resettle about 75 refugees from conflict zones around the world.

The nonprofit organization World Relief Fox Valley* is coordinating health screenings, housing and integration services for the refugees coming from Congo, Iraq and Myanmar in 2014. World Relief will work to help the refugees search for jobs that match their skills.

It is the third year for the operation, which has already resettled 174 people, mainly from Myanmar. Others have arrived from Iraq, Kyrgyzstan, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and Darfur, said Myriam Mwizerwa, the Oshkosh office director.

“We’re expecting 135 in the next year, with about 75 of them in the Appleton area,” Mwizerwa told Post-Crescent Media (http://post.cr/1ioesLt). “We don’t get notification about who is coming and when until about two weeks before they arrive.”

With the first refugees expected to arrive in January, nonprofits, schools and city officials are coordinating efforts.

“Our goal is self-sufficiency,” Mwizerwa said. “We have to get everyone in an employment position within a year and work to find industries that match skills.”

Appleton’s diversity coordinator Kathy Flores said she will be working with churches, synagogues and mosques to prepare accommodations.

“These individuals have faced some trauma in their home countries and are coming here for some very serious reasons, and we’re excited to be helpful and welcoming,” Flores said.

Diversity coordinator!  Do you have one in your town?

I see in 2011 there was quite a controversy involving Flores, a gay rights activist, and whether the city should fund such a position.  Apparently she survived the fight, because here she is with the Mayor on Election night 2012.

What are the six target cities for refugee resettlement in Wisconsin, according to this story from earlier in the year they are:

Appleton, Barron, Green Bay, Madison, Milwaukee and Oshkosh

For readers arriving at RRW for the first time, you might find our “fact sheet” very helpful.  Click here.

*World Relief Fox Valley is an affiliate of World Relief Corp.National Association of Evangelicals which is one of nine major federal refugee contractors.  In the most recently available Form 990 World Relief had an income of $52 million and $34 million came from you, the US taxpayer.  None of this could be happening in Wisconsin or anywhere else in the US if the taxpayers weren’t paying the bills.