New Report: Immigrant unemployment at record high

We knew this anecdotally, but now comes a report out today from the Center for Immigration Studies to confirm it.

WASHINGTON (April 30, 2009) – A new report from the Center for Immigration Studies finds that immigrants have been harder hit by the recession than natives. Unemployment among immigrants (legal and illegal) was higher in the first quarter of 2009 than at any time since 1994, when immigrant data was first collected separately. This represents a change from the recent past, when native-born Americans had the higher unemployment rate.

Read all the findings here.  Especially take note of the findings that confirm that highly educated immigrants are having a harder time finding jobs too.  We knew that already from our extensive coverage of the Iraqi refugees.

Weird Iraqi refugee story in LA Times

I’m just going to let you go read this at the LA Times.  Frankly, it makes no sense.  This American woman, a reporter, falls for an Iraqi man while on assignment in Iraq.  They ultimately marry.    He then applies for refugee status (I think through the Special Immigrant Visa Program) because he worked for Americans.   But, he also applied for his younger brother to come with him.  Younger brother gets accepted but husband is still waiting to hear.  New wife is hosting sullen younger brother who doesn’t want to eat her cupcakes and cookies.

Either Iraqi refugee processing is very screwed-up or the husband has run into Homeland Security screening problems—not good whichever it is!

Three of original Ft. Dix Six sent to prison for life

You can read all about it over at Jihad Watch.  I’m just posting it here as a wrap-up to a story that we followed from the beginning.  Here is an archive of our coverage.  I took an interest in the case because I grew up not far from Ft. Dix, but more importantly because some of these men were in the US illegally and one was an Albanian refugee who had been resettled at Ft. Dix during Bill Clinton’s Bosnian War period.

Another Asylum attorney gets busted

I told you about a recent case in Maryland where immigration lawyer, Patrick Tzeuton from Cameroon, was convicted of immigration fraud when he fabricated documents for clients seeking asylum in the US.  

Thanks to a reader here is another case, from Seattle, with a different twist.  This asylum attorney (I am assuming he is/was an attorney although the article does not say) was advising clients to pretend they were gay and of course persecuted to receive approval for asylum.

SEATTLE – A man accused of advising straight immigrants to claim homosexuality – and potential persecution in their home countries – when they applied for asylum has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit immigration fraud.

Steven Mahoney entered his plea Tuesday in federal court in Seattle.

The U.S. attorney’s office says the 41-year-old Mahoney ran Mahoney and Associates in Kent, and held himself out as an expert in immigration affairs. They say he made money by advising immigrants on how to stay in the U.S. Between late 1998 and mid 2007, Mahoney admits he filed as many as 99 false immigration documents and was paid between $1,000 and $4,000 for each.

Asylees are people who have gotten into the US and claim they were in some way persecuted and would be in danger if they returned to their home country—you know, like Obama’s Aunt Zeituni.   However, once granted asylum they are treated just like refugees and receive the same benefits that refugees receive.

Last summer I told you about how it was harder to use the gay/lesbian persecution angle to legally stay in the US if you were Mexican here.   The reason is that being gay is becoming acceptable in Mexico and other countries south of the border.    But, here is what I wondered at the time:

I’m wondering how the government and these asylum lawyers know if the immigrant claiming asylum is telling the truth.   Couldn’t an illegal immigrant coming across the border just say he is gay? Surely no one checks behind closed doors.

I guess this Seattle story confirms that is exactly what they are doing, and I doubt this is an isolated case.

By the way, one commenter to the story asked if all the clients will now be deported for lying.  Guesses?

Iraqi refugees in Atlanta voice their unhappiness to IRC’s CEO

Your tax dollars:

I must say even I am getting tired of one article after another about Iraqi refugees struggling to find their way in Any City, USA.  Maybe you are too, but I think you will enjoy this aspect of the same old story. 

The basic story we have reported more than 20 times now is:

* Iraqi refugees misled by officials abroad about how great their lives in the US will be, 

* Iraqis can’t find employment and many are highly skilled, evictions possible,

* Refugee agency ‘poor mouths’ and claims they are struggling along with meager funding, trying to do their best they tell reporters,

* Iraqis are savvy enough to know how to voice their complaints to the media, unlike refugees from camps such as the Burmese or Bhutanese,

* No resolution to the problems in sight, refugee program will soon emerge on the national stage as more refugees continue to pour into the country.

This article today from the Atlanta Journal Constitution contains a revealing bit of news.   George Rupp, former President of Columbia University and CEO of the International Rescue Committee, one of the Top Ten government contractors has gone to Atlanta and called a meeting of disgruntled refugees.

Atlanta welcomes more than 2,000 refugees every year, many of whom are fleeing terror or have lived the bulk of their years without a homeland. But amid a severe recession in this country, the struggle to begin anew is greater than ever.

Expectations dashed and pocketbooks quickly emptied, jobless refugees are left to ponder whether the lives they left behind, though mired in fear, might have served them better.

“What do I have to expect? Being homeless? This is the United States. Life should be better than that,” says an angry Zainab Ibrahim, an accountant who fled to Jordan from her native Iraq and was resettled in Atlanta last June.

She came with hope, as did her compatriots Jabber Mohammed, Abdulkadir Ahmed and Imad Yakoub, middle-class professionals who expected to find suitable employment here.

Some aired their frustrations one April afternoon at the Decatur office of the International Rescue Committee, a nonprofit agency that resettles refugees. George Rupp, president and CEO of the global organization, was visiting the Atlanta office to hear from Iraqis like Ibrahim, now dependent on the generosity of friends and family to pay her bills.

Rupp says American resettlement agencies feel a moral responsibility for Iraqi refugees because of the 2003 invasion and subsequent U.S. involvement in Iraq. It took the United States several years to open its doors to Iraqis displaced in the war that began in 2003. It’s unfortunate, Rupp says, that when they finally began arriving in America, it was in the midst of an economic downturn.

Corporate Humanitarianism

Let me tell you a little about Dr. Rupp and his struggling refugee agency.   This is from their 2007 Form 990:

The IRC took in $253,733,301 in that year and $108,201,276 came from you, the taxpayer, in the form of government grants.   Think about it— over $108 million!  That is almost half of all their funding.

Dr. Rupp’s salary and benefits package amounted to $412,540 which is more than the  President of the United States or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court makes. 

Four Vice Presidents in New York receive salary and benefits ranging from the high $100,000′s to nearly $250,000.    They spent around a half a million dollars on fundraising consultants and $444,000 on their financial audit alone.   

All this and they leave refugees living in fear of being evicted from their apartments and being homeless in the mean streets of America.    Where is the IRC’s moral responsibility?

We’re seeking emergency funding [Edit: this means from you the taxpayer] to prevent homelessness,” says Beattie of the International Rescue Committee.

She doesn’t know of a family who is on the streets yet, but is concerned about the high number of eviction notices. Refugees in Georgia are not immediately eligible for subsidized public housing, prompting some to migrate to states such as Maine where such housing is available.

Yes, just ship them off to Maine where the taxpayers can pick up the tab.  Maybe the IRC ought to cut a few salaries and help the people they feel a moral responsibility to!

Do you know how the Obama Administration is attempting to cap salaries of bank executives and other business executives that get taxpayer funding, same principle applies here, or does ‘spreading the wealth’ not apply to the work of do-gooders? 

I hope  you are reading this Mr. Parker.

Comment worth noting: I am just not sure why your site is so anti-refugee

We had a good comment overnight from a reader named Ralph Parker from Atlanta.   I say good, because although he criticizes us, he says lots of things that give us an opportunity to explain again why we are here.  We have done that on previous occasions, but unless someone is a regular reader, one wouldn’t know that.

Mr. Parker’s comment is long and so I’ll break it into segments to respond.  Mr. Parker:

I am an American advisor and volunteer with the Bhutanese refugees in Atlanta. I have worked almost every Saturday for the last 12 years with refugees from Bosnia, Russia, Kurdistan, Burmaa and Afghanistan. Refugeed really struggle here.There is a terrible system where refugees are given essentially 90 days to get their life together and in this economyy that is impossible.

We agree, refugees are struggling and since we began writing RRW in July 2007, we have written 1,842 posts and at least half of those are about refugees struggling. Frankly, the system stinks.  If you note in the right hand column of this page, we advocate the reform of the Refugee Resettlement Program.  The whole thing needs to be scrapped and replaced and no one on the inside is going to make a move to change anything (except to ask for more taxpayer money).    It has become a racket, a huge bureacracy with lots of white collar salaries, some at RELIGIOUS organizations and virtually no accountablility (until an agency screws up as in Waterbury, CT last year).

Additionally, it is only recently that the mainstream media, mostly the print media so far, has even begun to look deeper and beyond the puff piece stories of refugees making it in melting pot America.   So, someone has to speak critically, and that is us!

Mr. Parker:

An ideal situation would be to provide a years support with mandated ESOL, skill training and acculturation. The agencies struggle to find funds after RCA expires. We have had families evicted. There is no safety net. If we are going to bring them here, then we cannot expect them to pay for their airfare or become economically viable in a short time.

We agree again, the refugees must be required to attend English classes, skill training and acculturation classes.   None of that is happening, even for a short time refugees are not required to attend English classes.   We recently began recommending classes on American culture because we are seeing increasing friction, mostly from Muslim refugees, between Americans and Muslim fundamentalists who seem to be saying they want us to accomodate them.   (See Shelbyville post here and Judy’s response to Jake here.)

I don’t know the legislative history of the Refugee Act of 1980 (Kennedy, Biden) that created this program, but I will bet that the reason for requiring that refugees get to work quickly is because those Senators who objected to the Act must have said we can’t be importing poverty to America and thus broaden our own welfare class.   As a matter of fact, that is the refrain we hear most often from local citizens who object to refugees—the refugees are getting taxpayer funded welfare when we have our own poor people that need care. 

I am not saying we need to just throw more money at the refugee program.  It must be reformed and returned to a system that expects more private charity.  It is inevitable, once these so-called non-profits (the volags) hired by the federal government to care for refugees were being paid for their charitable work, less responsibility for charity is required of churches and other organizations that might have sponsored families.   That is the lesson we are learning right now generally with the Obama Administration—when government starts to take care of ones every need, people come to expect to be cared for (but I’m digressing). 

We have advocated that each refugee family be sponsored by a church or other such organization for at least a year.  This would be private charity, not taxpayer funded charity!

One thing to think about is that the Refugee Act of 1980 is still under 30 years old.  Nothing is set in stone, the whole thing can be rewritten.  As a matter of fact, I bet its due for reauthorization anyway and they (the refugee industry bureaucrats) are just  postponing it because they know it will open a whole can of worms if it is discussed in public.

But, I think Mr. Parker you are seeing and we know, that the program will implode sooner or later.  As the public becomes increasingly aware of unemployed, evicted refugees showing up in homeless shelters while the State Department keeps the spigot open to tens of thousands of additional refugees each year.

And on that airfare issue.   Do you know Mr. Parker that the ‘charitable’ groups contracted to resettle refugees get to keep half of the airfare they collect from refugees although the money originally came from the taxpayer.  The other day I noticed in an article that one struggling refugee family was expected to pay $200 a month toward their airfare bill.  That is completely set arbitrarily by the resettlement agency, not the federal government!    I do think the refugees should eventually repay the taxpayer, not the ‘charitable’ organization for the airfare, but it could be done on some scale based on the employment of the refugee.   I just raise this here to demonstrate further that this program needs to be reformed!

Mr. Parker:

We have 1100 Bhuatanes in Atlanta. These are in general the most humble and kind people who I have worked with. Nepal and Bhutan had 16 meetings to try to solve the repatriation problem. We cannot have these people languish in camps for another 18 years. Almost all the young people speak English and do well at school. There is no crime in this community. As a matter fact there is far more crime commited by young African Americans then refugees. We have many domestic issues that should be of greater concern.

I have nothing to say here, except at what point do we draw the line?  We can’t take all the world’s impoverished.  See the Numbers USA video at the top of our page here.

Mr. Parker:

I am just not sure why your site is so anti refugee. We are all refugees/immigrants of some sort. I believe people are afraid because todays refugees are not white.

I’m getting weary, we have responded to this issue of race so many times that I can’t do it again.  It has nothing to do with race.  We have a concern that some cultures are not compatible and are unwilling to become compatible with American culture.  Muslims who wish to promote Shariah law are NOT compatible whether they are white Bosnians or black Somalis.   As for the latter, I predict that one day we will come to realize that allowing the massive number of Somalis into the US, as the State Department has done over the last 25 years, will be one of America’s greatest blunders in history.   I take your word for it that the Bhutanese are nice people.

As for us being anti-refugee, I can only say perhaps you should hang around for awhile, read more here and consider what I have just said above.    This will soon be a book if I keep going!

Mr. Parker ends with this:

I would suggest you readers actually volunteer and spend time with reg\fugee families.Most are the victims of politics and just want to live in peace. The parents want and sacrifice so much for their children, which is what countless generations did before. The older people miss Bhutan while the younger only know what they hear and consider themselves Nepali. I believe of all the groups settlinh here, this will be the one with the least problems over a period of time Most agency officials concur. Please give these people a chance. their families go back 150 years in Bhutan.

Americans generally are very generous with time and money.  Each of us chooses how we donate both (time and money) and to what charitible causes.  Advocates for refugees, we have learned,  can turn off local people by attempting to bully them and guilt-trip them into supporting the refugee cause.   I noticed that when we had the controversy over refugees where I live. Decent people who give huge amounts to charity for the impoverished were made to feel guilty because they weren’t willing to embrace a foreigner.  Mr. Parker, if that is your charitable work—refugees—you are to be commended, but you can’t brow-beat others to drop what matters to them.  In other words, what makes you feel good about yourself, may not be what makes others feel good. 

And, here is something else to consider, do the feelings of local people who have been living in a culture of their own in any city or town in America have no value?  Do they have no right to say what sort of community they wish to live in?   Why does the welfare of immigrants supercede the welfare of long-time Americans?   A topic for another day!

One final thought, I believe those of you who think we are anti-refugee are so used to hearing everything about refugees couched in such politically correct and glowing terms and have heard it for such a long time that you are no longer thinking, just feeling, and thus incapable of evaluating the refugee resettlement program in its entirety.   Any criticism of the program, its goals, its structure threatens you personally.

Advocacy group says U.S. is failing to expedite Iraqi refugees who helped U.S.

A press release from Human Rights First states:

Only 4,200 Iraqis with U.S. ties have made it to the United States since 2003, though at least 20,000 have applied, and the number of U.S.-affiliated Iraqis may be as high as 146,000, according to a new report issued today by a leading human rights group.

The report, Promises to the Persecuted: The Refugee Crisis in Iraq Act of 2008, issued by Human Rights First, examines implementation of this critical legislation.

The point of the legislation was to shorten the processing time for Iraqis who had helped the U.S.  But times remain long.

“Iraqis seeking safety in the United States can wait a year or more for their applications to move through the system,” says Human Rights First’s Ruthie Epstein, who authored the report. “We pin the delays on two problems – inadequate staffing and inefficient security clearance procedures. The result is that thousands of U.S.-affiliated Iraqis are stuck in Iraq and other countries in the region, facing danger and destitution. The absene of direct access to the U.S. refugee program in Syria and Turkey, where the need is significant, exacerbates the problem.”

I posted on Human Rights First in December. At that time a spokesman was criticizing the Iraqi government’s campaign to get refugees to return home, saying the refugees saw it as propaganda.

I’ve long been puzzled by the lack of emphasis until very recently on helping the Iraqi refugees to return.  And I’ve wondered at statements from refugees that they would be killed if they returned, even after sectarian violence in Iraq was greatly reduced. Now I wonder if our correspondent Vav could help me out. Are Iraqis who helped the United States still in special danger? Could they safely return? Seeing how badly off so many Iraqi refugees are in this country, would it make sense to put more emphasis on repatriating even those Iraqis with ties to Americans?

Portland, Maine: Sudanese refugee pulls out gun and is killed by police

Another Sudanese refugee has been killed, this time by police, in Portland, ME.  From AP in the Sun Journal:

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Police officials met with members of the city’s Sudanese community to try to calm fears after police officers shot and killed an armed 26-year-old Sudanese man, the second violent death of a Sudanese immigrant in seven months.

Two Portland officers fired multiple shots at the man Saturday night when he reached into his waistband and brandished a gun, police said. In the chaotic moments after the shooting, neighbors heatedly accused police of shooting when they didn’t have to.

Some months ago we reported on this still unsolved murder case of another Sudanese refugee in Portland.  The Sudanese community was up in arms that the son of a prominant Sudanese leader was gunned down. 

In September, a Sudanese man was shot to death outside Mercy Hospital while on the job as a security guard. The case remains unsolved.

Both cases are unfortunate, but we expect that our legal system will resolve them.

However, this is the part of the story that interested me in light of our recent discussion on assimilation and multiculturalism.  I believe these ETHNIC Community based organizations (ECBO’s in immigrant industry speak) are detrimental to America.

There are an estimated 2,500 to 3,000 Sudanese refugees in Portland. Sara Epicho, general secretary of the Sudanese Community Association, said many in the community feel sad, angry and empty at the same time. Most of all, they want answers.

“This time the shooting was done by police,” she said. “And we haven’t gotten an exact picture of the situation. All of us are affected.”

Does Ms. Epicho mean all citizens of Portland are affected and saddened/angry or just the Sudanese COMMUNITY?   Why is it necessary for each ethnic group in a city to have its own watchdog group as if each group has grievances based solely on where they came from?   Instead of protecting THEIR rights they should be encouraged to join all Americans in protecting OUR rights.

This whole concept, an unbelievably divisive one, of forming Ethnic COMMUNITY groups thwarts assimilation and most outrageously is funded largely by the taxpayer as I pointed out in this post in February 2008.   Here is what I said about government-sponsored  ECBO workshops then, and I’m still saying it!

Now, here is what I wonder.  Why do we need all these ECBO’s?   Doesn’t the establishment of groups called Montagnard Human Rights Organization,  Bosnian American Association of New York City,  and the Boat People SOS simply continue to separate us in America, to  continue to accentuate our differences?  Shouldn’t we have workshops and conferences on how refugees should assimilate into America?  

Somalis, the terrorist threat, and Hillary Clinton

A useful article came into my inbox yesterday from the Northern Virginia/Richmond/DC Metro chapter of ACT! for America, giving the background of our country’s relationship with Somalia and the threat to America from Somalis. I’m going to quote extensively from this piece by Ruth King — Somalia: Why Isn’t Secretary Clinton Connecting the Dots? – but I recommend you read the whole thing.

She begins by mocking Hillary Clinton for her ignorant and superficial response to the Somali pirates, and to Somalis in general. Clinton

would not want to revisit [Bill Clinton's] disastrous policy in Somalia which contributed mightily to the chaos, instability, terrorism and carnage which prevail there today.

Nor, would she want to explain her present employer’s paralysis in the face of naked Jihadi aggression.

Nor, would she want to tackle the difficult question of why Somali-Americans “disappear” from Minnesota to go train with Somali terrorists. And, she certainly would not want to discuss the implementation of Sharia law in Somalia since we don’t have a “foreign contingency” policy with respect to Somalia a member of the all Muslim Arab League. Furthermore, her recollection of the history of the Barbary Wars…um…a long…time ago is so pathetic…So, it’s just the usual ha-ha-ha.

She goes on to relate Somalia’s “long and virtually uninterrupted history of hating America,” beginning in 1969 with a bloody coup by a major general who allied himself and received training from the Soviets. Another coup in 1991 led to a civil war, followed by a terrible drought.

President George H.W. Bush sent troops, President Clinton withdrew them, and there was more chaos and carnage. In 1993 Clinton sent troops, and this led to what Americans remember of Somalia — the incident in Mogadishu.

U.S. soldiers on the ground were left without armed vehicles or sufficient firepower from the air. The Clinton administration and then Secretary of Defense, the late Les Aspin, repeatedly denied the Special ops teams’ and the Rangers’ requests for more armored vehicles, AC-130 gunships and tanks.

The American public witnessed gruesome televised scenes of rampaging Muslim Somalis dragging and desecrating the bodies of American troops.  Congress demanded a withdrawal and Clinton did a “cut and run” operation leaving Somalia in worse shape than ever and Aidid unbowed. The end result was the perception that America can be defied by any rag tag army of terrorists.

So that is our connection with Somalia, and probably the reason we felt duty-bound to take in refugees from there. The author goes on to give a good summary of their jihadist activities, both overt and stealth.

Since 1983 we have admitted 83,991 Muslim Somali immigrants into the U.S. More then half, 43,682, came since September 11th, and of those, the majority went to Minnesota (Keith Ellison’s state).

…Somali Americans did not assimilate and have grown increasingly militant in cities where they have a significant presence. And they are of concern to law-enforcement agencies.

In March 2006, Fox News reported on the alarming number of Muslims taking truck driving lessons in Kansas City. FBI investigated the school and found that the vast majority of its students were Somalis. Trucks which carry hazardous materials are as dangerous as planes.

This story became more ominous in September 2006 when Debbie Schlussel disclosed how many Muslims (a majority were Somali) got fraudulent certificates to drive 18- wheelers.

From Arizona, August 26, 2008:The Arizona chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Somali Association of Arizona had pressured Sky Harbor International Airport for the right to wear attire that accommodates their religious needs.

Here is a news item from September 2008 in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

“In a landmark settlement that could change the way Muslims are treated in the workplace, St. Cloud-based Gold’n Plump Inc. has agreed to allow Somali workers short prayer breaks and the right to refuse handling pork at its poultry processing facilities….. The agreement follows a year-long examination by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and a class-action lawsuit brought in October 2006 on behalf of nine Somali immigrants who worked at Gold’n Plump’s poultry processing plants in Cold Spring, Minn., and Arcadia, Wis.”

In April 2007 Somali taxi drivers in Minneapolis refused to take passengers with dogs or alcohol, including a blind student with a Seeing Eye dog. Roughly three quarters of Minneapolis cab drivers are Somali Muslims and their case was strongly supported by the Muslim American Society of Minnesota.

The demands then escalated for footbaths in schools, airports and malls, culminating with the establishment of the controversial Abubakar As-Saddique Islamic Center – and the smaller but equally influential Islamic Al Dahwa Center of St. Paul, from which dozens of young Somali men have “disappeared” without a trace, and authorities believe they have joined terrorist groups in Somalia. And, of course the imams of the mosques deny any involvement with terrorism. So do all the hijab mothers.

She goes on to discuss Al-Shabab, the Somali jihadist group, and quotes Robert Spencer connecting the pirates to these terrorists. She concludes that Hillary Clinton needs to connect the dots and take the threat seriously and ”confront the great threat to America which is taking root within our shores. This includes a reevaluation of our “no profiling” immigration and refugee laws and a revamping of Homeland Security and the Patriot Act.” And she is clear that this is unlikely to happen.

Happy to be here, a Bhutanese family is resettled in Oakland, CA

This is the third in the troika of posts I mentioned yesterday about Bhutanese refugees arriving in the US (the first two are here and here).  This family has been resettled in “welcoming” Oakland, CA where we reported  just a couple of days ago that there has been an uptick in crime effecting refugees and immigrants.

First, more on the background of this Nepalese ethnic group which we will be resettling by the tens of thousands over the next five years (this article actually says we are taking the majority of the 100,000 living in camps in Nepal).   This is a lesson in the rise of ethnic nationalism, see Judy’s post on the topic more than a year ago.   From the Contra Costa Times:

Bhim Timsina had the most to say, sharing a long, bleak story about a kingdom that expelled a sixth of its people. “There became two types of people in Bhutan,” he said of his native country. His people — those of Nepali descent — were the type who had to leave.

[.....]

Timsina was 8 years old when his family was expelled from the farmland they had ox-plowed for generations, a fertile seven acres that yielded rice, millet, buckwheat, cauliflower and spinach.

Their Nepali ancestors first migrated to Bhutan’s arable southern Chirang region as farmers in the late 19th century, and it was not until the 1980s that the Timsinas found themselves unwelcome there.

They were called Lhotshampas — the “People of the South.” They dressed differently from the Drukpa ethnic majority but had for years peacefully coexisted with them. They practiced Hinduism, not Buddhism. They spoke Nepali at home, not the national Dzongkha language. They lived in the warmer lowlands, not the northern Drukpa highlands that are considered the heart of the Himalayan country.

When the Bhutanese king enacted a policy called “One Nation, One People,” it enshrined Drukpa culture and made its traditions mandatory in Bhutanese schools and public life. Lhotshampas protested, fueling government claims that their expanding population, and feared alignment with Maoist rebels, could threaten the monarchy and Drukpa way of life.

And because official documents had no record of Timsina’s parents in a 1958 census, the family and tens of thousands of others were dubbed illegal immigrants and banished in the early 1990s.

Unlike the Iraqi refugees we have been writing about who are unhappy with life generally in the US, this refugee family is making the best of the tough times.  Although stressed about finances and jobs, and for the older generation not much contact with the outside world, this family will likely make it.

At the Timsina home in East Oakland, the climate has been a mix of optimism, frugality and nervous uncertainty.

[....]

But the happiness can be elusive. As the months have passed, Timsina said he has now come to believe that much of what he learned in Nepal “relates only to Nepal. Now, I realize it is quite difficult. Going to college, it is so costly. I cannot pay for that.”

[....]

In mid-May, he will have completed his first eight months in the country, meaning his federally-funded refugee cash assistance of $359 a month will expire. Fortunately, after impressing his teachers at The English Center, he was hired to work part-time after classes as an evening receptionist.

[....]

Timsina’s father, Bedha, 60, and mother, Lachhi, 50, have a few extra months of checks and food stamps because they arrived later, but they are less likely to find a job after their help expires.

[....]

“For my existence, I will do any kind of work,” Bhim Timsina said. “But I need to aim quite high.”