As refugee numbers drop, resettlement contractors
shrink and change focus, by Ann Corcoran 7/17/18.
The declines [in refugee admissions] left many agencies depleted of federal funding and struggling to survive.
According
to the LA Times, as
paying refugee clients decline, refugee NGOs are now focusing on helping
immigrants of all stripes on a longer term basis, presumably by raising private
money! Could this be a reawakening of real Christian charity?
I’m
really sick of these stories. I see them all over the country (this is
the PR run-up to the President’s decision on how many refugees the US will
take in FY19, a decision expected to be made public in September).
However, this story did have a few bits of information that
are useful and make it worth posting.
Arrivals of refugees have hit historic lows. To stay
afloat, resettlement agencies re-brand
The door to the nonprofit World Relief, tucked between a dance studio
and a tutoring company on the second floor of a Garden Grove strip mall, still
says “refugee resettlement services.”
In 2015, we obtained a World Relief
internal letter instructing staff to not read Ann Corcoran’s blog!
https://refugeeresettlementwatch.wordpress.com/2017/10/31/former-refugee-contractor-ceo-america-needs-refugees-to-teach-us-how-to-love-one-another/
But it’s been nearly a year since a new refugee has walked through
it.
The
number of refugees admitted to the U.S. since President Trump took office has
dropped to its lowest level in decades. As a result, the office and dozens of
other refugee resettlement operations across the country have been forced to
close, shift their resources or re-brand.
One
of the advances I’ve seen over the last decade is that the media now reports
that the contractors are paid by the US taxpayers on a per refugee basis.
Nine nonprofits across the country are federally approved to resettle
refugees and receive government funding for each case they handle. Until
last year, each of them had an office in Southern California.
But
World Relief and four others have shut down in the region, suspended
operations, laid off staff or reduced their hours.
The office closed its refugee operation last July and shifted its
resources to helping immigrants, which had long been a sideline of its
operation.
Even
in places where new refugees are still arriving, changes are afoot. The
International Rescue Committee office in Glendale, which once resettled more
than a thousand refugees each year, has received only about 100 people this
year.
“The
need just isn’t there in the same way anymore,” said Martin Zogg, the group’s
executive director. “So we have to give people other jobs to do.” More here.
I
would like to think that the nine resettlement contractors listed below have
seen the light and are raising private money and not depending on the money
trees growing in Washington, DC for their charitable ‘good works,’ but my
cynical side says they are just trying to stay in business until Trump is no
longer President and the refugee spigot opens again.
Sorry if you are sick of me saying it, but there will be no long term
change to our refugee policy and program as long as there are no changes in the
law during the Trump years.
I
post these as often as I can because new readers need to know that these
quasi-government groups (funded with taxpayer dollars) are also politically
pushing for more immigration of all sorts in Washington—they are not simply
refugee advocates.
The
number in parenthesis is the percentage of their income paid by you (the taxpayer) to place the refugees and
get them signed up for their services (aka
welfare)! From most recent accounting, here.
Ethiopian Community Development Council (ECDC) (secular)(93%)
International Rescue Committee (IRC) (secular) (66.5%)
US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI) (secular) (98%)
Norb Leahy, Dunwoody
GA Tea Party Leader
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