Mayor of Lewiston reports on why Somalis have trouble getting jobs

The Mayor of Lewiston, Maine, home to  many thousands of  Somali refugees (see here, here, and here for a few of Ann’s posts), has written an informative column on his blog, explaining why so many of them are unemployed.  He is reporting on a research project done by students in an anthropology course at Bates College.

Like so many of these studies, the results seem pretty obvious — he probably could have talked to a couple of employers and a couple of Somalis who speak English and come up with the same conclusions. But that would have deprived the students of a valuable research experience, so what the heck. Here’s what they found, leaving out a lot of words that don’t say much. It’s worth noting that the study began before the financial crash and finished during it.

Oops, it’s not about the actual reasons; it’s about the “perspectives of potential employers and employees concerning perceived barriers to Somali employment.” Just in case the employers and employees are in touch with reality, we’ll proceed. Here they are:

Employees’ Perceived Barriers:

• The biggest problem potential employees feel they face is the need of English language skills when finding, applying, and maintaining employment.

• Employees found frustration with the GED requirement for employment in entry-level positions. Many had job experience in other American states; however this experience was rendered irrelevant by local employers’ GED requirements. They felt that successfully maintaining such jobs did not necessarily require a GED level of formal education.

• Lack of computer skills were another obstacle encountered by the New Mainers. Online applications were a challenge. Moreover, computer literacy is required for job applicants even when the actual job does not require any such skill.

• Many potential job seekers referred to feelings of discrimination when they were not contacted, not hired, or when they were disqualified based on language skills or educational background, despite their abilities to perform the tasks assigned.

• Overall, communication barriers, and the resulting lack of mutual understanding, were the largest concern of the job seekers in our study.

Employers’ Perceived Barriers:

• Employers expressed similar concerns regarding communication. Evaluating potential employees was difficult when information seems to get lost in translation. They expressed having difficulty reading body language and emotional reaction in interviewees.

• After hiring Somali employees, it is seen to be a challenge to convey employment policies and procedures. Safety issues have been one of the biggest concerns expressed in our study.

• Cultural differences appear to pose obstacles to employers in the areas of timeliness, clothing, and certain religious practices. Some learned not to assume homogeneity among the immigrant population, noting that Somalis display a range of religious expression, modes of dress, and punctuality.

• Tension between African immigrant and other employees, as well as that between ethnic Somalis and Somali Bantu refugees, was cited as a disincentive to émigré employment.

Some of these are problems for many low-skill people: the ridiculous need to fill out applications online, and educational requirements that are irrelevant to the job.  The language problems are serious, as are the cultural ones. These are things that should be the responsibility of the resettlement agencies, but which are almost invariably left to the resettlement cities, local agencies and employers to solve. English language lessons should be part of the requirements for the resettlement agencies. Here are the recommendations of the study’s authors:

Best Practices and Further Suggestions:

• Mediators such as the Adult Learning Center, the Career Center and Catholic Charities have been essential in facilitating the employment process.

• Both employers and employees recommend multiplying the types of acceptable application procedures and prerequisites. This includes demonstrating one’s ability through pictures, using trained translators, and revising hiring requirements such as for the GED, English language skills, or computer literacy. Accepting prior work experience as evidence of employability, and accepting alternative forms of recommendations, could assist in this effort.

• Examples of successful training programs included hands-on sessions, online courses, and establishing conversation partners on site.

• Using well-trained cultural brokers to assist in safety, policy, employment rights, and diversity awareness workshops was highly recommended.

There’s a job category with a bright future: “cultural broker.” And there’s a great opportunity for “community organizers” to step in. I hope instead they use people from the local Somali population who have learned to speak English.  Here is a summary of the benefits of overcoming the barriers:

Benefits:

As a large percentage of Maine’s workforce will approach retirement age in the next few years, recent Somali immigrants potentially could fill our employment gap. Moreover, as ten percent of our population, we need to employ members of this group, they need the wages, are willing to work hard at entry level positions, will bring diversity to our workplaces, will work flexible hours, can broaden our customer base as well as our employment pool, and will prove to be loyal employees committed to their employers.

What about that “tension between African immigrant and other employees, as well as that between ethnic Somalis and Somali Bantu refugees”? This is a summary, so there might be more in the report itself. It would seem to deserve some explanation, given the major problems in Greeley, Shelbyville, and Emporia, which Ann has reported on at length.

Rohingya News Roundup

There is so much Rohingya news over the last two days, I can’t begin to report it all.  So, I’ve decided to give you links to follow-up on yourselves today.

If you are new to RRW and wondering how this illegal alien controversy in Thailand affects you, it does.  There will soon be a plea to take these Burmese Rohingya Muslims to your town or city.  What the Thai government has done is to give refugee advocates the publicity they needed to push a campaign that has been in the works for a long time.

* New batch of Rohingya came ashore in Thailand yesterday.  The government claims they are economic migrants and the Rohingya are claiming they are seeking asylum.  Economic migrants can be deported.  The UN says those seeking asylum must be protected.    Here for the story.

* This editorial in the Korea Herald started out with the usual plea for human rights for the Rohingya arriving in Thailand and Indonesia, but took an interesting angle near the end.  I’m cheering!  Other Muslim countries, such as Saudi Arabia, should be helping the Rohingya.

The Saudi government (regardless of its poor attitude toward the anti-Israel, anti-US Palestinians) has pledged US$1 billion to rebuild Gaza. What about spending some of its God-given wealth on the Rohingyas and other poor, oppressed Muslim communities outside of Palestine?

* Refugees International, the lobbying arm of the refugee industry in the US, says Thailand cannot send them back to Burma (Myanmar) because they will be abused. RI didn’t say anything about Saudi Arabia helping—they never do.  From a Burmese Muslim website:

The Washington-based group Refugees International has warned that any Rohingya repatriated to Myanmar “is subject to arrest and abuse.”

“Until the Rohingya are recognised by Burma as citizens, neighbouring countries like Thailand must protect and assist this vulnerable population,” it said in a statement released earlier this month.

For a history of the building Rohingya resettlement campaign see our entire category on the subject here.

Some EU countries might take Gitmo prisoners because they don’t want to lose face with Obama

Oh boy!  And, I thought the only motivation for European countries to give asylum to Gitmo detainees was because they had some sense of honor—you know they had been yapping to Bush about closing it and now maybe felt some duty to take some terrorists off our hands.

However, here is an article in the Washington Post suggesting there is another motive—although they didn’t want to help Bush, they want Obama to succeed (too big to fail?) and they want him to like them.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Germany’s foreign minister, warned his counterparts in Brussels on Monday that they risked losing face with Obama — who is vastly more popular in Europe than Bush — if they didn’t help out.

No churlishness either:

But even lawmakers in those countries said they should try to find other ways to help, given Europe’s loud opposition to the existence of Guantanamo. “We should not be in the least bit churlish, or just let the Americans stew in their own juice,” said Andrew Tyrie, a member of the British Parliament from the Conservative Party. “We’ve got to help Obama and not get on our high horse and sound very pompous.”

Nevermind that they didn’t want to help Bush or that their own people might not want Gitmo former prisoners turned lose in their countries, it is all about being popular with Obama!

By the way, when you go to the Washington Post link, check out the photo of the two Europeans discussing the issue.  I looked at that photo and thought I hope to God we don’t have to save Europe again.

Cal Thomas: Obama and George Mitchell wait for the Great Pumpkin

But it’s really the Trojan Horse of Islamic expansion to be accomplished through immigration and military conquest that will greet them.  Read Thomas’ excellent assessment here.  He discusses the Somali missing ‘youths’ as part of the strategy.

Fighting Tolerance Fascists

That’s what we do here every day!

Here are a few choice bits from a good column today at Town Hall by blogger and columnist John Hawkins. 

No rational discussion allowed:

Tolerance taken to an extreme has actually impeded our ability to rationally discuss vitally important issues that will determine whether our country continues to be successful and prosperous over the long haul.

You hate immigrants don’t you:

Then there’s immigration. The whole point of allowing people to immigrate to this country is to benefit the people who are already here. Yet, if you try to have any sort of substantive conversation about how many people we are allowing into the country each year, where they should be coming from, or how we should choose them, the screaming starts again. “Why do you hate immigrants?”

Hang tough and stand up to political correctness:

Unfortunately, since the people benefiting from continually playing the tolerance card are unlikely to give it up any time soon, those of us who put our country first are going to have to be bolder about confronting them, drawing attention to the real issues, and sticking up for people who have the courage not to be cowed by political correctness. Whether our country remains a shining city on a hill or becomes just another unremarkable slum basking in its faded glory will depend on how successful we are at that task.

Yup, fighting tolerance fascists here everyday.

Somali man thought to be involved with inauguration threat arrested

The plot thickens!    Remember we told you about the fear Homeland Security had that the Somali terrorist group al-Shabab (sometimes Shabaab) was planning to disrupt The One’s inauguration.   And remember we told you that missing Somali ‘youths’  (former refugees!) are thought to have left the US to attend terrorist training camps in the Horn of Africa.   This morning comes news that a Minneapolis Somali was arrested trying to leave the US for Canada and may be linked to both stories.   Hat tip:  a Tennessee friend.

MINNEAPOLIS (FOX 9) – With the inauguration of President Barack Obama in the past, U.S. officials are reporting information about possible threats on the day of the ceremony by a Minnesota Somali man.

Video

: Inauguration Threat

U.S. intelligence was reportedly investigating a potential inauguration threat involving a Somali insurgent group. They believed one man to be connected with the missing Somali men from Minnesota.

48 hours before the inauguration, U.S. customs agents arrested the 32-year-old Bile Abdullahi, a resident alien from Minnesota, at the Canadian border near Detroit.

According to federal charges, Abdullahi was trying to sneak into Canada using his brother’s U.S. passport. Both Bile Abdullahi and his brother are from Minneapolis, and until recently lived in the Cedar Riverside apartment complex.

Abdullahi told officials he was going to Canada for a vacation, but intelligence officials fear it could’ve been some kind of dress rehearsal for leaving the country in a hurry.

It is not clear from this report whether it was Abdullahi who tipped officials off to a possible plot against the President or the American people—-a very implausible notion (the plot that is) since we know that Obama’s election has signaled to the Muslim world that we are a nice country now that we got rid of that meany George Bush.

This last line from the Fox News 9 report was interesting:

U.S. intelligence officials are investigating whether financial support for Al Shabab is coming from Minnesota and other cities with a large Somali population.

I just saw an article the other day (and paid it no attention) about how much money Somalis are still sending “home” to Somalia.  Guess I will have to pay more attention to those reports in the future.

 

Georgia Honor Killing Update

I was going to update you yesterday on the Georgia honor killing we first reported last July here.  NPR did a lengthy piece on it yesterday here.   But, I notice that Robert Spencer really dissects the NPR story at Jihad Watch, so I will just send you there now because I could never explain the significance of this Islamic practice as well as Spencer does.

Spain sends us a jaw-dropping message, but will we listen

Or is it already too late?

How many times in recent years have we heard that Europe is so far ahead of us, so multicultural, so sophisticated, so you know—advanced!   Even Barack Hussein Obama while running for President made his pilgrimage to the great region of diversity and enlightenment sending a message back home that we knuckle-draggers needed to follow Europe’s lead.  

Now, besides Judy’s news this morning that immigrants in France will be DNA tested we have news from Spain which I found appalling, shocking, depresssing.   Will we follow Europe’s lead now?

From the Wall Street Journal a couple of days ago, as the economy crumbles, Spaniards are now doing the work immigrants used to do:

MANCHA REAL, Spain — Spain’s unemployment rate rose to 13.9% in December — an eight-year record and by far the highest rate in the European Union. In this southern village, that means olive grower José Morillo is hiring locals and turning away foreigners who worked for him during the country’s economic boom.

Half of Mr. Morillo’s pickers used to be immigrants, as Spaniards shunned the low-paying work. This year, all but one of his 11 workers is Spanish — and the nearby town is teeming with unemployed immigrants who sleep outdoors or in church shelters.

It is so bad the Spanish government is paying immigrants to leave!

Government efforts to free up more jobs for Spaniards are having a limited effect. Billboard-size ads in subway stations and on city buses pitch payments for legal immigrants who go home: If they agree to leave Spain for at least three years, the government will pay the unemployment benefit they’re entitled to in a lump sum — 40% on leaving and 60% on arrival back home.

The average payment runs about $14,000. In the program’s first two months last year, just 1,400 immigrants took up the offer.

Spain got in the same problem we did—easy credit fueling over-zealous construction.

A building frenzy helped Spain generate more jobs than any other country in the euro zone this decade. More than five million immigrants arrived, and the registered population, which had been stable till 2000, jumped 15% by 2008.

Last year, the cheap credit that fueled Spain’s boom dried up. The economy likely entered recession in the second half of 2008, and the European Commission expects it to shrink 2% this year. Data out Friday show the number of Spanish out-of-work job seekers rose by 609,100 in the fourth quarter, bringing the total number to 3.2 million. The unemployment rate was nearly twice the euro zone’s November average of 7.8%

Thank God for the defeat of the Kennedy-McCain Amnesty bill in 2007!   Thank God for knuckle-draggers, rednecks and assorted bitter clingers!    Spain granted its illegal aliens amnesty and now they are sleeping on the streets!

During Spain’s flush times, immigrants were welcome to come and work. In 2005, the government granted amnesty to more than half a million people living in Spain illegally. Today, they are seen as a growing social problem.

I wonder if the Wall Street Journal editorial staff, that had pushed Amnesty here in the US,  took note of this message from Spain.

As time goes on, I think we too will see that there are many jobs Americans are happy to do, just as advanced Spain (Europe!) has belatedly discovered.

France plans to DNA-test new arrivals

It happens all over the civilized world: A would-be immigrant falsely claims family ties with someone in a desirable country in order to get a visa. Now France is cracking down by ordering DNA tests for these claimants, the UK’s Daily Mail reports:

France’s hard-line new immigration minister is set to implement legislation that would allow DNA testing of new arrivals.

Eric Besson, who was appointed this month, has said the tests would establish which foreigners were claiming visas by making up fictious family ties with those already settled in the country.

Civil liberties groups have reacted furiously to the controversial scheme, which was approved by the French parliament 15 months ago.

It’s beyond me what this has to do with civil liberties. Following the law is a civil liberties violation? I guess it must be, since civil liberties groups go crazy in the U.S. when we require proof of citizenship for things like getting hired.

A recent report said there was often doubt over the authenticity of papers in family applications for visas.

It claimed that in African countries such as Senegal, Ivory Coast and Togo up to 80 per cent of birth and marriage certificates were forged.

France, and all European countries, have more of a problem with fictitious family ties than we do here, because so many of their immigrants come directly from Africa, where this fraud is most rampant. Many of the Africans who come to the U.S. are refugees, which is why we are concerned with this issue.

The State Department suspended a family-reunification program for Africans when DNA testing showed that the majority of claimants were not related, and that tens of thousands of Somalis and other east Africans are here illegally because of fraud.  It then suspended the program worldwide. See our previous posts on DNA testing here, here, here, here, and here.  We’ve been posting on it since July.

France has a reputation here of being a nation of softies. But they have often been very tough when it comes to defending themselves. They have much stronger anti-terrorist laws, for instance, in which there is a lot less concern for the “rights” of terrorists. (They can’t seem to figure out how to deal with their car-burning Muslim “youths,” though.)

Outgoing immigration minister Brice Hortefeux recently announced that France deported 30,000 illegal migrants in 2008 – a record number. It was a rise of more than 25 per cent on the number expelled the previous year.

I don’t know what our numbers are here, but I doubt we expelled that many.

Hat tip:  Blulitespecial

World Relief: North Carolina refugees unemployed

So what else is new!   We hear this everywhere.   If the economy continues to slide more refugees will require more public assistance to survive and these government contractors, like World Relief (not wanting to lose their jobs funded by the feds), will still be agitating to bring in more refugees.

From the High Point Enterprise (you will have to register to read the whole story):

HIGH POINT – The 2.6 million jobs lost in 2008 created unemployment woes for Americans, and even harder struggles for refugees who sought a haven in the land of opportunity.

From October 2007 to September 2008, about 370 refugees came to High Point with World Relief, a nonprofit organization that has helped resettle refugees in 21 U.S. cities for 22 years.

The refugees came from Myanmar (Burma), Iraq, Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, Bhutan, Somalia, Sudan and Burundi, and though currently about 118 refugees are employed, 62 motivated people in High Point who are eager to work are without jobs to satisfy. Many come with limited English skills, making employment even harder, especially under such economic circumstances.

“This is by far the highest number of employable adults without work we have ever experienced,” said Mark Kadel, affiliate director for World Relief in High Point, adding that locations throughout the United States are experiencing the same difficulties.

Note that an impediment to employment is their inability to speak English.  Gee maybe we could send them all to Nashville where English doesn’t matter.  Maybe Mr. Oreck can employ them all.

This last paragraph is a reference to the Iraqis.  We have reported previously that Iraqis are not finding work in North Carolina (oh, and in at least 14 other states!):

Many refugees who resettle in America are qualified to work higher-paying jobs, but have left lives as doctors and lawyers in their home countries and taken severe cuts in pay and status to come to the United States.