Office of Refugee Resettlement Annual Report to Congress, where is it?

Sorry our “your state” page is so incomplete.  I just figured you could get your state information from our link to the ORR Annual Report to Congress, but I notice the link isn’t working (at least for me).  

If the new report is out would someone send me the link at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com!   Thanks!

Numbers of refugees admitted to the US in 2007

Thanks to Chris here is a link to the 2007 ORR data for the number of refugees admitted, where they are from and to what state they were resettled.   

We admitted 48,281 refugees from 62 countries in 2007.

The top 6 sending countries were:

Burma:   9776

Somalia:  6958

Iran:  5474

Soviet Republics:  4583

Burundi:  4525

Thailand: 4059

 The top three “welcoming” resettlement states:

California:  6706

Texas:  4401

Minnesota:  3198

The bottom 3 least welcoming states:

Mississippi:   1

Montana:  3

Arkansas:   6

Then, last but not least, the state that has refused to take refugees!   Wyoming

Utah Board to make sure refugees are served

The State of Utah set up an 11 member board last Monday to begin monitoring services to refugees in the state.   This article says that Utah has 20,000 refugees. 

All existing state, county and private-service providers are being asked to make a “good faith effort” to hold themselves accountable for the successful delivery of services to refugees throughout the state, DePaulis [Dir. Utah Department of Community and Culture] said. “Each government entity dealing with refugees is to report back to the new state office the steps they intend to take to fill in or reduce the gaps cited by the working group.”

Not a word was mentioned in the article about the rape and murder last month of the little Karen refugee girl by another refugee in the building.  That case seems to have disappeared into a black hole.

You can find out more information on Utah at “Your State”.   And, here is a link to all of our posts mentioning Utah where things must be hopping regarding an influx of refugees.  Apparently Utah is a welcoming state.

Your state: I’m working on it!

I’ve been so lazy about trying to get more information up on our “Your state” page (at the top of RRW).  Yesterday I had a request for some basic information about Washington state.   I discovered that not only did I not have any information at my fingertips, I had forgotten to even list Washington in the state list!

Embarrassed, I put up a few things on Washington state this morning.   I will try to do something each day on a state (if nothing else too exciting distracts me!).    

Your state, apologies

I see lots of readers have been accessing our “your state” page today and yesterday.  So sorry, that I have not worked on that in awhile.  Time is limited and the breaking news every day is so interesting that it’s hard to make myself work on the page.    I’ll try harder in the future.   In the meantime, please e-mail me at Ann@vigilantfreedom.com  and I’ll help you get started researching your state.

Job hunting? Utah looking for a director of new refugee office

 Your tax dollars:

The refugee business is booming in Utah, or so it seems.   According to today’s Deseret Morning News, Refugee services have been coordinated by one guy but now a whole office is needed to handle the flow of refugees to the state.  The new office will be funded by the federal government but it looks like state funds will be thrown into the pot.   Taxpayers of Utah need to look into this!

The state’s first director of an emerging Refugee Services Office could be in place by early next year.

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“We’re moving very quickly,” DePaulis (Utah Dept. of Community and Culture) said of organizing the office, which for now will be federally funded under the Department of Workforce Services.

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The refugee group also has requested that Huntsman allocate $200,000 in state funding for refugee services in the governor’s budget, which is set to be released Monday, DePaulis said.

But wait, the numbers of refugees are going down in Utah, not up!

“It’s been something I’ve wanted for a long time, recognizing that one person can’t do it all,” Nakamura (the present refugee coordinator)  said. “The needs of the refugees over the last five to seven years are significantly different from the needs … when the program was created.

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“In the ’80s we had a huge population coming from a handful of countries in Southeast Asia. Now, we’ve got a handful of people coming from all over the world.”

If you check the number of refugee cases handled by Nakamurra’s one-man office you will see that the number went DOWN from 2005-2006 by almost a third.   But, this is interesting!  The federal funds required to take care of the smaller caseload went up by about $1 million.

Note that the federal funding is coming from the Utah Department of Workforce Services.   This is a handy federally funded (?) state agency.  It’s one stop shopping—employment services and food stamps/medical assistance all in one place. 

Sources for State information on Refugee programs

Thanks to the sleuthing of citizens of Emporia, KS,  we are learning more things we didn’t know that should help others of you trying to understand this complicated Federal program called Refugee Resettlement.   We have maintained all along that this program is becoming increasingly contentious because local citizens are not fully briefed about the Federal plans that will change the character of their cities and towns.  Citizens then become justifiably angry because they are not given the facts and have to dig for them themselves.

This information was made available to citizens of Emporia in the last couple of days, we should have seen it sooner.   The Dept. of Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, has a division called the Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA) whose mission is described below:  

The Division of Refugee Assistance (DRA) was created to oversee and provide guidance to State-administered programs that provide assistance and services to refugees, asylees, certain Amerasian immigrants, Cuban and Haitian Entrants, and Victims of Human Trafficking (henceforth referred to collectively as “refugees”). DRA monitors program planning, provision of services, and provides technical assistance to ensure compliance with federal regulations governing the delivery of refugee assistance and services, including cash and medical assistance.

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MISSION

DRA provides direction to States to ensure that refugees are provided assistance and services through State-administered programs that enable them to become employed and economically self-sufficient as soon as possible after their arrival in the United States.

You can read a summary of social service programs and grants programs for refugees here.

Go here for recent state grant figures, number of cases managed and to find your state’s Refugee office. Our previous post on this database is here.

Sorry it’s been slow-going on “your state”

I can tell that lots of you have been going to our “your state” page and probably coming away disappointed that I haven’t managed to put more state information up.  It’s just that there is so much interesting news about refugees its hard to squeeze in the time, but I promise to get to work on it after tomorrow.    Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Notes for the folks in Emporia

I haven’t put Kansas on “Your state” yet but I promised yesterday to get you some information on Kansas and refugee resettlement, so here you go:

Go to the handy database at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement.   You will see statistics such as only 51% of refugees brought to Kansas  in 2006 found employment.  Average pay was $7.86 an hour (can’t take care of a family on that).

For the 2005 ORR Report to Congress go here.  Scroll down to Appendix A for refugee admission numbers by state.

Go to this interesting article at VDare about your Senator’s past role in the Somali refugee issue.

Your local Catholic Charities is a subcontractor of the US Conferance of Catholic Bishops.  Go here , here and here for more information.

We have covered several stories involving Somali “cultural” problems like abuse of women and female genital mutilation.  Go to our coverage here, here, here.

Also, some of you might want to read Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s rivoting book Infidel to get a better understanding of Somali Muslim culture.

**** Note to “reservist” a commentor to the Gazette who said,   “Imagine how you would feel if Iraqis or Afghanis started pouring into Emporia tomorrow.”  The Iraqis are coming, maybe not to Emporia yet, but the US is taking 12,000 Iraqi refugees this year and if Sen. Kennedy has his way the number will be even larger.  See our Iraqi category here.  We have posted 49 times on this hot topic!

Interesting statistics about your state

 Your tax dollars:

I just came across this interesting data base on each state.   It is at the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR).   One can see the number of refugee cases and how much federal grant money is being allocated to your state.   For instance you could have fun with the numbers by dividing the federal grant money by the number of refugees in the caseload for a given year.   I just ran a few numbers and learned that some states get in the vicinity of $11,000 per refugee case (and that is just the money going to the state office and does not include money going directly to the volags).  

 Here is even a better one,  West Virginia resettled one (yes, 1) refugee case in 2006 and received a federal grant totaling $100,522.  Sen. Bobby Byrd in action?

 There is other useful information too.   Check it out here.