Monday a big day for refugee contractors, expect
more stories like these….by Ann Corcoran, 9/27/18.
Now to California…..From KPBS San Diego: Budget Cuts, Layoffs And Closures Hit Refugee-Serving Organizations
Reminder!
Now to California…..From KPBS San Diego: Budget Cuts, Layoffs And Closures Hit Refugee-Serving Organizations
Reminder!
What
is Monday? It is the beginning of the federal fiscal year. It is the
first day of FY19. It is the day when the writing will be on the wall for many
refugee resettlement offices around the country.
Why?
Because in 1980 Jimmy Carter signed the Refugee Act of 1980 in to law and set up a house of cards that needs to fall now. Originally
(supposedly!) designed as a public-private partnership, the federal government
and ‘humanitarian’ non-profit groups were to share equally in the costs of
admitting tens of thousands of refugees to the US each year.
But,
over the years, because
Congress has been so remiss in overseeing the program (the Rs want cheap labor!), those
non-profit groups (aka federal contractors) have gotten fat and confident (like
Aesop’s grasshopper) on ever larger amounts of federal funding and too lazy to
raise sufficient amounts of private money to see them through if for any reason
the number of paying clients/refugees declined.
(An aside: The inability to raise
enough private money is also indicative of the fact that there isn’t enough
interest by average Americans in financially supporting the program in the
first place.)
So here we are with one story after another about what Monday will
bring to dozens of resettlement contractors around the country.
From
Austin, Texas we learn that a Catholic contractor—Caritas—is closing its
refugee program. The
Statesman: EXCLUSIVE: As refugees dwindle, Caritas will end resettlement
program.
Since
1974, the organization has helped thousands of people fleeing war or
persecution find a new life in Austin. But after 44 years, Caritas is ending
its refugee resettlement program and as of Monday, it will no longer serve new
refugees.
“It’s
really a tragedy that this program has to go away,” said Jo Kathryn Quinn,
executive director for Caritas. For
the past two years, Caritas has seen a sharp decline in the number of refugees
arriving in Austin, and the development has made the program “financially
unsustainable,” Quinn
said. Between 2010 and 2016, Caritas resettled an average of 576 refugees each
year. Since last October, Caritas has resettled 151 refugees, but the nonprofit
has not received any new refugees since April.
“Having
zero refugees arrive in two months was unheard of for us,” Quinn said. “It was
the final alarm bell that told us that we couldn’t continue this way.” In June,
Caritas’ board of directors voted to close the program at the end of the fiscal
year at the recommendation of the nonprofit’s executive leadership.
When fewer refugees arrive, less federal money comes in to support them
as well. Refugees
receive a one-time amount of $1,125 from federal funds for resettlement needs,
including housing and food, said Adelita Winchester, Caritas’ director of
integrated services. Caritas would supplement federal funds with about $1
million annually in philanthropic donations, Winchester said. The reporter has missed an important piece of information. The refugee
gets $1,125 and Caritas gets another $1,125 for themselves per refugee.—ed]
“We didn’t have any excess philanthropic dollars to shift to aid this
program,” Quinn said. More
here.
Donna Duvin is executive director at the San Diego office of the
national nonprofit International Rescue Committee, or IRC, one of nine
federally funded resettlement agencies in the U.S. Duvin said the local office’s VESL
funding dropped by 34 percent this year forcing the agency to replace some paid
instructors with volunteers and interns.
“As the numbers began to fall, the support that we had from the county
that passed through dollars from the federal government, those declined as well,”
Duvin said.
Duvin said in past years more than three-fourths of the agency’s budget
relied on government dollars, causing a loss of millions as the office’s
arrivals dipped by 85.5 percent since 2016. She said the budget changes during
that time forced the agency to eliminate 15 positions.
Apparently
the IRC is trying to raise private money to keep some functions going.
LOL! Maybe CEO David Miliband could give up some of his nearly $700,000 in
annual salary to keep some low-level staffers in a job! The IRC is not alone.
A representative for the national resettlement agency Church World
Service estimated it lost possibly hundreds of staffers when it closed 10
offices after it was forced to merge operations with other organizations in
some U.S. cities. And a spokesman for World Relief said it laid off 140
employees after shutting down five offices across the U.S. More
here.
Expect
more stories over the coming days.
What you can do….If
you are looking for something to do, go to this list from last year of the resettlement
agencies working in your towns and cities and call them. See if they are
still in operation, or plan to close soon.
The
1980 structure of the US Refugee Admissions Program is still in place and the
Trump Administration must push now for a complete reform of the program or in
2021 or 2025, it will be full steam ahead for these contractors. They
will quickly staff-up and a new President could say—We must make up for the
lost Trump years and quadruple the numbers of refugees coming in.
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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