Residents of the Boynton Terrace public housing site in Chattanooga report ongoing problems that refugees are having adapting to life in their new country. This is the same site where a woman from Burundi was raped by a neighbor in 2009 and it took five days to arrest the suspect because no translator was available to ask the victim what happened. Bridge Refugee Services helped resettle 80 of the Burundian refugees to Chattanooga in 2008. Residents now are pointing to the problem of refugee residents who have not been able to learn English since they resettled, and have been unable to adequately adapt to the new culture and community. An article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press explains the situation.

Evariste Simbananiye lives in a fully furnished apartment in Boynton Terrace but prefers squatting, as he did in his native Burundi, to sitting in a chair.

Simbananiye, 64, is among a handful of refugees from at least three countries who live in or near the public housing facility. They’ve been there since 2007, but Boynton residents say some refugees still don’t have the support they need to adjust to a new culture and language.

Another Burundi refugee has had so many apartment fires that some residents say he shouldn’t use the stove. Instead of using a pot or pan to hold his cooking food, he holds it directly over the electric burner, much as he would have done with a fire in his homeland.

Before coming to the United States under a federal resettlement program, these refugees may only have known life in a refugee camp. Once here, they often cling to their old way of life because they can’t communicate well enough to understand and adapt to cultural differences.

“They were brought here and just dumped off,” said Bennie Haynes, president of the Boynton Terrace Resident Council.

The result can be friction with neighbors, and even public safety or health problems.

One of the things Boynton Terrace residents say needs to be communicated is not to use the bathroom in public places like the elevator.

And they’re asking the Chattanooga Housing Authority or some other agency to supply a full-time language interpreter on site to help.

CHA Executive Director Betsy McCright said she wasn’t aware of the request…

…The need for better access to an interpreter isn’t new. In 2009 a woman from Burundi was raped by a neighbor. It took five days to arrest the suspect because no translator was available to ask the victim what happened, according to news reports…

…Between 2005 and 2008, Bridge brought about 80 of the Burundian refugees to Chattanooga.

Most have since relocated to other areas…Read more here

That fact, that most have moved away (know as “”secondary migration”), should not be ignored. It may mean that the refugees were not happy with this area as a resettlement site, for any number of reasons. Maybe they could not become economically self-sufficient here, felt neglected by the agency, or some other reason. We need to ask the State Department why they continue to resettle refugees to this site if there is this apparently heavy out-migration figure.

Using a FOIA request I just found another government inspection report for the International Center in Bowling Green. Refugees have reported problems with this agency and a Matching Grant program inspection report uncovered more problems.

According to this December 2011 ORR inspection report a refugee couple from Myanmar who had arrived in Bowling Green two months earlier said that they had not received any job referral services or referral to other training. Their orientation – or lack of orientation – left them with no information on how to open a bank account, how to use medical insurance and other orientation issues. Another family from Myanmar reported receiving limited employment assistance from the International Center as well. The family also reported that they were unable to read letters sent from the school – indicating a lack of help with translation.

Tyson Food Company has hired refugees for jobs that start at an hourly rate of $9.45/hr. Refugees spend 14 hours a day in shift time, long-distance transportation and waiting for transportation after their shifts. Tyson reports that there is rarely follow-up from the International Center.

A stakeholders meeting revealed a “major communication gap” between the International Center and the local Owensboro health department and school district. The health department said that this resulted in arriving refugees only receiving a standard physical examination and not the full refugee health screening. Both the health department and the school district reported that the International Center had not given adequate warning of refugees arriving in the community. Both of these institutions, as well as stakeholders in Bowling Green, expressed surprise that the resettlement program is an eight month program with up to five years of services, apparently having been told that the program was a 90 day process (they apparently get the same standard line that the resettlement agencies give to the media).

Stakeholders in Bowling Green pointed out that the refugees were not fully utilizing mainstream programs such as Head Start and senior programs which offer transportation and meals for seniors. The local Chamber of Congress had to tell the International Center’s board to reach out to the community.

At a meeting with refugees in Bowling Green the refugees reported poor quality interpretation services at the International Center. They mentioned that transportation in Bowling Green is almost impossible by bus. They reported that the International Center strongly encouraged them to take jobs at Tyson and Perdue. Perdue is not a good place to work – the pay is low and there is no recourse to the treatment the refugees received there. The company gave terminations without cause and without due process.

The ORR monitoring team visit also revealed that the Kentucky Office for Refugees, under state refugee coordinator Becky Jordan, was not conducting adequate consultation in Owensboro or Bowling Green. ORR had to recommend that the Kentucky Office for Refugees provide the International Center with technical assistance for coordination with service providers that work with refugees.

Another recommendation was to help refugees find work locally to avoid the four-hour commutes and be able to spend more time with family, as well as be able to care for sick children if both parents are commuting to jobs at Tyson or Perdue. It’s not clear that the International Center has done anything to respond to this recommendation since the City of Bowling Green is now having to make its own effort to help refugees with finding local jobs (see today’s article at Bowling Green Daily News).

By the way, in the curious arrangement of contractors and government oversight agencies in the US refugee resettlement program, Becky Jordan is not only the Executive Director of Catholic Charities Refugee Services in Louisville, a refugee resettlement private contractor, and Kentucky’s state refugee coordinator, she is also part of ORR’s site visit teams that inspect other refugee resettlement contractors. For example, Ms. Jordan was part of ORR site visit team that inspected Louisiana’s refugee resettlement program in February 2011. Therefore, sometimes Ms. Jordan is inspecting her colleagues at resettlement contractors in other states and some day maybe one of them will be inspecting her agency.

Assistant Secretary Anne C. Richard of the US Department of State’s refugee bureau will visit Portland, Oregon on Thursday. The head of the refugee bureau last visited Portland in September of 2010. A late notice of the visit is at the State Department’s refugee bureau website:

Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration Anne C. Richard will travel on July 19, 2012, to Portland, Oregon to participate in an event hosted by Mercy Corps to discuss the United States’ humanitarian aid and development strategy with the All China Youth Federation.

On July 20, Assistant Secretary Richard will meet with resettled refugees, local and state government officials, resettlement agencies and other community members involved in the resettlement of refugees.

Since 2009, Portland has welcomed nearly 2,700 refugees from 32 countries… Read more here

According to Assistant Secretary Richard’s account of that recent visit to Cleveland and Pittsburgh, this is what she learned from her travel:

…Local support is strong in Cleveland and Pittsburgh, but gaps still exist in the program.　

Cleveland Dentist Hayat Ali told me how nearly every refugee she treats needs dental work. Very few refugees, however, are covered by dental insurance. Several people also told me about the need for interpreters to help those refugees who do not speak English to communicate with doctors, school officials and others. School officials in Cleveland told me how the No Child Left Behind Act did not exempt the test scores of recently-arrived refugee students from school statistics, which they feared was pulling down overall results for the schools. In both cities, limited bus service can prevent refugees from reaching English classes or jobs… Read more here

I am a private citizen refugee advocate who has been assisting refugees with resettlement issues for the past three years. My comments are based on my experience helping refugees after they arrive in the United States with two exceptions: (1) It shouldn’t be as hard as it appears to be logistically for refugees to go through the process to enter the U.S. . By that I mean, not that each individual shouldn’t be scrutinized in detail, but that the process should entail the least travel through dangerous areas in their home countries, the fewest return trips to an application center, the most feedback about application status, the fewest repeat requests for information, and the speediest answer about whether refugee status will be granted. (2) The travel loan program should be converted to a travel grant program. There seems to be some sort of philosophy that it is citizen-building to saddle a refugee with debt as his/her first exposure to life in the United States. I disagree…It is regularly and repeatedly emphasized to them that failure to repay the travel loan can jeopardize their ability to get U.S. citizenship because of an adverse credit report – yet they are all too often given no information about how to seek forgiveness of a loan many of them will likely never be able to repay in time because of their personal situations. Furthermore, I think having the resettlement agencies act as collection agents for these loans is a significant conflict of interest…

My remaining comments concern my experience during the course of my activities as a refugee advocate…Resettlement agency failures to meet contracted responsibilities are not isolated incidences but are regular, daily occurrences on a widespread basis. I believe these failures occur not because of lack of resources, although that is surely true in some cases, but primarily because of a lack of leadership. Leadership in the local affiliates, leadership in the national offices of resettlement agencies, and leadership in the Domestic Resettlement Section. The failure of leadership that talks to each other more than to refugees. Leadership that cares more about what Washington thinks than what refugees think…I have encountered exactly two offices serving refugees in which a human actually answered the telephone; my experience instead has been full of voice mail not returned and even voice mail boxes completely full – this by agencies who are serving people who may not even have used a telephone before coming to the U.S. Leadership, such as that at World Relief, who cares more about its employees’ religious qualifications than their actual competence. Leadership that does not put enough of its own cash into a resettlement program but instead phonies up the value of its match (the value of which, I believe, is rarely, if ever, audited…English language instruction, crucial, of course, for new arrivals, is regularly inadequate and irrelevant to what a new arrival needs. Referrals for mental health services are regularly inadequate or nonexistent. Housing placements are regularly in dangerous neighborhoods and/or too expensive for the refugee to sustain after financial support stops. Too often refugees are completely abandoned after the initial six months placement…Too often the minimum contractually-required services are not adequately provided or not provided at all. Too often refugees become homeless…There are few people in responsible positions who have the personal and professional competence to install effective programs, who care whether their subcontractors perform well, who care whether their employees serve their clients well, who blame themselves and not their clients when things are not working well…

Particularly disappointing is the leadership of the Domestic Resettlement Section who appears to be more apologist for and defender of resettlement agencies and their local affiliates no matter what rather than the overseers and refugee advocates they should be. Complaints go unanswered; or, if answered, are answered with the condescension of a parent who knows best and must be trusted to do the right thing. Investigation may be promised but one never knows whether it happens and what the result is because that would be a violation of confidentiality. All I know is that what I complained about did not appear to change…Program audits are too infrequent and do not appear to include audits of financial responsibility…Particularly disappointing is that the Domestic Resettlement Section seems to think all is well and nothing needs to change – at least nothing they care to share with the public…

Here is a link to a documentary about refugees in Buffalo, N.Y. I think you’ll find their indomitable spirits despite all that has happened to them is most inspiring. I also recommend the press kit that is posted on the web site for an insight as to how resettlement agencies in Buffalo inspired the making of this film. Read full letter here

There have long been some unsettling practices in the refugee travel loan segment of the US refugee resettlement program. This is yet another aspect of the program that never seems to be covered by the mainstream media, which seems to rely almost entirely on refugee resettlement agencies’ press releases for their coverage of the program.

For those who are unfamiliar, the US federal government covers refugee travel costs to the US via the International Organization for Migration (IOM) – the principal intergovernmental migration organization. As a condition of travel the IOM requires that refugees, before they depart to the US, sign promissory notes to repay the costs of travel via interest-free loans. The IOM, however, has not translated promissory notes in other languages, calling into question whether refugees understand what they are signing. In addition, refugee resettlement agencies earn a 25 percent commission for acting as collection agencies for the travel loans. Agencies have regularly failed to notify refugees of their right to a deferral and/or a write off – in the event of financial hardship – and fail among the various agencies to treat refugees the same. In aprtnership with the IOM they also fail to translate the bills that they send to the refugees.

Furthermore, and more astonishingly, the agencies often fail to take the most minimal steps to work with refugees to help them repay their loans, instead threatening the refugees with draconian measures for failure to comply with promissory note terms, For example the San Diego IRC office warns refugees, “failing to comply with the established payment schedule and terms will result in legal action to collect the amount past due and payable.” Its hard to understand how any of these practices comply with these organizations’ missions as humanitarian entities.

I wrote to the State Department’s refugee office about some of these practices in a series of letters back in 2005, but the office apparently did not take any constructive steps to resolve the problems (when the official I wrote to retired, however, she referred to her office’s “party-hard” habits, including various theatrical productions). In years past I also spoke with an IOM official and he laughed at me for supposedly trying to “make a cause” out of these questionable practices. Now, in a recent comment to our website attorney Zoe Ann Olson at Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. tells (see below) about her efforts to assist refugees in Idaho whom resettlement agencies damaged their credit by reporting them to Trans-Union. She’s looking for anyone who has successfully challenged the legality of these loans.

I had a telephone meeting with IOM Head of Office, Brian Graham. IOM is addressing all of Idaho Legal Aid’s travel loan cases directly with me. We found that the agencies were not offering refugees options such as deferrals and or write off of their travel loans and were not treating refugees the same among agencies.

IOM is creating a website with information about the travel loans and eligibility criteria for deferrals and write offs. I told him that I want standard guidance and all agencies must tell refugees the rules from the beginning before they sign a promissory note.

IOM will write off the travel loans with documentation for death, repatriation, bankruptcy, permanent disability (with a Dr’s letter saying the refugee is disabled and can’t work), minor orphans. Case-by-case for incarceration, victims of violence, domestic violence victims and documented financial hardship.

Received deferrals for temporary disabilities and documented under or unemployed.

IOM is going to correct the credit report of all of my clients that were reported to TransUnion for defaulting on their loans because the agencies did not notify them of their right to a deferral and or write off and thus should never have been reported. The issue of damaged credit is still outstanding.

I explained to them that families need to be able to make their own travel arrangements especially if it is cheaper, and translate promissory notes in other languages and the bills too.

They are going to provide better orientation on the travel loan in the refugee country and here with Title VI compliant services.

They are going to redo their computer system to better monitor travel loan collection practices.

I would like to know if anyone has successfully challenged the legality of said loan. The promissory notes are governed by DC law. To collect a debt in Idaho once in default, an entity has to show the person owes the debt and that the collector (IOM) has registered in the State of Idaho to collect a debt. Our clients’ loans have been deferred or written off. Now I am working on the deferrals—hoping to get more write offs and or reduced payments for disputed loans and or hardship. On April 19 and 20, I will provide a fair housing and travel loan clinics in Boise and Twin Falls.

Thank you,

Zoe Ann Olson
Attorney at Law
Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc.

1-(208)-345-0106, extension 1508
Facsimile 1-(208)-342-2561
310 North 5th Street
Boise, Idaho 83702
zoeannolson [at] idaholegalaid [dot] org

My wife and I have been working with the Karen refugees in KCMO for two years. Nothing has changed with JVS they still put refugees in terrible housing conditions, they do not explain the lease arrangements with them. We have several families that face legal action now because they did not understand that they could not just break a lease and move. Also they take all Karen refugees to Bank of America to open bank accounts, without explaining anything about checking accounts, balancing a check book, etc. (my wife and I have done this). Most Karen refugees especially adults are left to take care of themselves too soon, very short or no English classes at all. Lack of helping to find jobs, do not explain WIC program with lots of families having months of expired unused WIC coupons due to lack of no knowing what to do or to do it. JVS is a waste of time for the Karen refugees, we have close to 40 families that we work with, taking to medical appointment, helping with WIC, TANF, Food stamps, Medicaid and any other needs to include transportation to appointments, even lighting their furnaces in the winter. We do this for free and do not work for any group…it is out of compassion and love for the Karen refugees…something that should be a requirement for anyone working with refugees no matter where they come from…. See December post

Researchers at San Francisco State University and the Burma Refugee Family Network (BRFN) released a report that claims almost 60 percent of Oakland’s refugees from Burma/Myanmar are living in extreme poverty, with 63% being unemployed. Those of Karenni origin from Burma fair even worse: 81 percent are unemployed, and 90 percent are living in extreme poverty. The report concludes that refugees from Burma in Oakland are at risk of becoming a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass, and that the local resettlement program has not been successful. An article at EurekAlert has the story:

Refugees who have fled Burma to live in Oakland, Calif., are at risk of becoming a permanent, poverty-stricken underclass warns a new report released today by researchers at San Francisco State University and the Burma Refugee Family Network (BRFN). The report found that almost 60 percent of Oakland’s refugees from Burma are living in extreme poverty…

…”These recent refugees from Burma are facing dire circumstances,” said Russell Jeung, associate professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University…

…Jeung and his students, together with BRFN and other community-based organizations, surveyed 194 refugees from Burma to assess the community’s needs. The researchers found that in addition to high poverty rates, these refugees face barriers to accessing employment, health care and government benefits caused by their lack of English. These barriers have been exacerbated by recent cuts in the provision of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes and a lack of appropriate interpretation services…

…The report found that among Oakland’s refugee population from Burma:

• 63 percent are unemployed. Those that are employed have sporadic, low-wage jobs.
• 57 percent live below the federal threshold for extreme poverty, earning less than $1,000 per month for an average household size of five. Most of the remainder live below the federal poverty line.
• 38 percent speak no English at all. Another 28 percent speak English poorly.
• 74 percent report that lack of English is their biggest barrier to accessing health care.
• 47 percent report that English classes are the most-needed service in their community…

…Now resettled in Oakland, refugees of Karenni origin are struggling to adapt to life in the United States: 81 percent are unemployed, 90 percent are living in extreme poverty and 90 percent have no high school education…

…”Our findings suggest that resettlement programs in Oakland are not yet successful,” Maung said. “We would like to see federal and local refugee government agencies and nonprofits working together with and supporting grassroots community organizations in order to help members of our community achieve self-sufficiency.”… Read more here

Refugees from Burma/Myanmar have also experienced muggings and robberies in Oakland, as have refugees from Bhutan/Nepal.

Chance Encounter Productions (CEP), which produced the Nickel City Smiler documentary, was invited to show their film at the “Building a Movement: Nickel City Film Series” – a series of film screenings by the Heart of the City Community Development Corporation to encourage public discussion and involvement in issues hindering strong, sustainable communities in Buffalo. Nickel City Smiler was to have been the only locally produced film to be shown. It illustrates refugees’ plight with local slum lords, crime, as well as some frustrations with the resettlement agencies.

Having nothing of it, the local refugee resettlement agencies got to work to have the film removed from the film series. CEP reports that Heart of the City later contacted them to say that the film would not be shown. CEP says that Heart of the City admitted that they based the eleventh-hour rejection on the anger that the agencies and other groups of Heart of the City had about the film, and their wish that the public not see it.

Apparently, along with placing refugees with known slum lords, not providing refugees with essential household items, forcing two refugee families to share one small apartment, and not being available to help a refugee woman while her husband was dying, these groups also have no problem engaging in censorship.

Note: The Nickel City Smiler DVD is available for purchase

Sometimes I get the feeling that many refugee resettlement agencies have never heard a criticism of them that they agreed with. This does not, of course, refer to the agencies that are doing exemplary work, but to the many agencies that continue to get caught offering less than quality services – or even neglecting and abusing refugee clients. Buffalo refugee resettlement agencies continue this tradition by attacking the documentary filmmakers who first produced a film based on information supplied by the agencies, but then did another – the Nickel City Smiler documentary – centered more from the refugees’ perspective, which included some criticisms.

What would have been a great opportunity to learn from refugees who offer their constructive criticism, and thereby gain refugees’ and the public’s trust, the agencies instead squander it with unseemly and baseless accusations.

Ariel Roberta’s second part of a three-part series in Buffalo Rising reveals more details from the story.

I had a chance to meet with the directors of three of the four resettlement agencies in Buffalo. I asked them about their view of the film, and if it represents the refugee situation fairly, and how they feel about the refugee situation in Buffalo…

As required by the [U.S. Department of State] DOS, the agencies provide assistance to refugees to help them become productive members of society. The agencies are responsible for such things as providing housing, turning on utilities, shopping for groceries, applying for community programs, enrolling children in school, and finding employment.

As required by the DOS, the agencies provide assistance to refugees to help them become productive members of society. The agencies are responsible for such things as providing housing, turning on utilities, shopping for groceries, applying for community programs, enrolling children in school, and finding employment.

According to [Catholic Charities, Jewish Family Services, Journey's End, and International Institute], they are audited regularly to make sure they are doing a good job.

“I think there’s an opportunity to cut and paste in things the way that you want,” remarked Marlene Schillinger of Jewish Family Services, when I asked about the accuracy of the film.

“There were a number of ways where [refugees] in the film were mislead,” said Molly Short, when I asked about some statements made by refugees pertaining to their resettlement agencies. Marlene said some refugees, including then 11 year old Moe Joe, were probably coached. After meeting with some Karen refugees, it is fair to say that they are a shy bunch, but to say they had been coached may be inaccurate. I had a few interesting conversations with Moe Joe, now 12, and I think he may be better versed in politics than I am. To say he was coached into talking about “street animals” in his neighborhood, and how the violence and crime in his neighborhood upsets him, is to underestimate his articulacy… Read more here

Stop and think for a moment about how many things in life you are given a manual or handbook on.

A new car…a new appliance…a rental agreement…a mortgage…a school…a contract of any kind…a new job…medical insurance, results and permissions…voter information…when you think about it, for almost anything that is important, you are given written information that allows you to make informed decisions and allows you to have something to refer back to.

In most cases of immigration however, this is not true. Although agencies are paid by the government to care for immigrants and refugees, explanatory written information is very often not provided. Rather, people unfamiliar with even the most basic functioning of this country are given oral seminars while they are in a state of fear and extreme fatigue, not to mention often ill. They are expected to take in cursory information that is foreign to them and hold onto it in their minds. Things that are given to them in writing are often not explained and their signature is required, but they are not even given a copy of what they have signed.

Sound like a losing proposition?
It is.

By doing this, agencies are setting people up for failure and increasing their fear. In addition, for someone who does not speak English or does not have a computer, it is comparable to being thrown to the wolves. In a country where unemployment is around 30% for refugees and living expenses are sky high, being thrown to wolves might seem like a relief compared with trying to cope in a strange new country filled with problems.

It is time to demand that agencies correct this and immigrants and refugees are given an area and language specific handbook or manual, stating the information they need to survive. What the agency has spent on them, the specifics of the program they came into the country on, their insurance benefits, hospital information, school information, local agency information, federal government programs information, lease information, utility information, all the knowledge the caseworkers are expected to know, should be presented in written form to people upon arrival.

Too many have been thrown to the wolves and are destitute because of it. This is unnecessary and inhumane and certainly not in keeping with the sentiment expressed in the website of the agencies.

“A willing heart, a helping hand, and a sense of serving the community with joy..” “…provide help and create hope for more than 9 million people of all faiths each year.” “… leveraging time, energy and resources to join the vulnerable in their time of need.”

Providing a useful tool in writing such as a handbook would go a long way to make these aspirations more attainable.

Please write to your government officials and demand immigrants and refugees be given what they need. Take ten minutes of your time to do this most important task.

Here is an easy way to find the information you need to do this…
http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

It looks as if the Catholic Diocese of Arlington switched from one type of disorganization to another from 2008 to 2010. A new State Department inspection report from 2008 indicates that the agency was placing refugee clients in Fredericksburg in housing with roach infestations, leaking windows and ceilings, and even demanded that a refugee sign an apartment lease without explaining it to her. She refused to sign it. A Burundian refugee father said that he appealed to the agency for six months to help him find a job but only worked about three days cleaning up shops.

Yet, two years later in 2010 local churches and volunteers were observing some very different forms of refugee neglect. Now, the agency was placing refugees in apartments without food or furniture and not giving refugees help with transportation. What is the rhyme and reason to these fluctuations?

If we assume that the State Department inspections — usually as rare as once in ten years — are at all effective, then what does it mean if noting one set of problems, and hopefully addressing them, simply leads to a sprouting of different problems?

One thing I know is that the State Department has no penalties for resettlement agencies’ failure to abide by even the minimum requirements of the government contracts. Could it be that the resettlement agency personnel sulk and pout over any criticism, and then temporarily fix the problems and then slack off on other minimum requirements? The reigning philosophy at many resettlement agencies seems to be that all problems are caused by 1) insufficient government funding (don’t raise the issue of the private funding they are supposed to raise to augment the public funding), 2) they don’t like having to do documentation of the services they claim to give refugees (who does like doing intensive paperwork?), 3) refugees are just so needy, and 4) hey, we just set up a new satellite office, so things won’t run well for a few years (what? refugees won’t even get food and a few used furnishings? why not?).

Whatever is happening, this case shows the limited effectiveness of current oversight in which 1) there are no penalties for failure to abide by contract obligations, 2) inspections are pre-announced, and 3) inspections are so rare that new problems can emerge in as a little as a few months or a year or two and the government inspectors won’t know until they come back ten years later.

It looks like we’re sorely overdue for a revamping of these inspections.

A mysterious bill called “The Domestic Refugee Reform and Modernization Act of 2011″ is being introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Congressman Gary C. Peters (D-Mich). Church World Service just sent out the following news release, although Congressman Peters’ website doesn’t yet have any information.

Washington — March 15, 2011 – Global humanitarian organization Church World Service applauds Congressman Gary C. Peters (D-Mich.) for introducing the Domestic Refugee Reform and Modernization Act…

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…The Domestic Refugee Reform and Modernization Act of 2011 would elevate the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services, thereby giving the office broader authority to make structural changes and to direct resources more effectively, while increasing transparency and inter-agency communication.

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The bill also would improve the process by which refugee resettlement funds are allocated to states by including in the formula a projection of refugee arrivals during the coming fiscal year in addition to figures for the past three years of arrivals. It also calls for increased data collection on secondary migration, health and mental health issues, housing needs, and long-term employment outcomes, as well as
a Government Accountability Office report on the resettlement program overall… Read more here

There is a new State Department monitoring report that we acquired via a FOIA that documents neglect of refugees. The State Department cited the Houston-based refugee resettlement agency, Alliance for Multicultural Community Services, an ECDC affiliate, for “partial-compliance” with their State Department refugee resettlement contract. Findings include:

• The Alliance had placed all three refugee families visited at home by monitors in housing with problems, including serious mold, roach infestation, and a serious plumbing problem that forced an Iraqi refugee family to move.
• A Burundian refugee woman did not know how to use either the stove or a thermostat in her apartment.
• The Burundian family’s second bedroom had no furniture, so the couple’s infant and 2-year-old toddler had to sleep in the parent’s room.
• The Burundian refugee family and a Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance failed to give them required living-room furnishings, so the families had to garbage-pick sofas and chairs from dumpsters.
• The Alliance did not give refugees pocket-money, as required.
• The Burundian refugee family — with the infant and toddler — reported that the Alliance did not give them food or supplies for their infant upon their arrival as required, and that the Alliance did not use child safety seats when transporting the family to appointments.
• The Burmese refugee family reported that the Alliance did not have interpretation at the airport upon their arrival or during orientation. The Alliance finally hired someone who spoke their Karen dialect over four months after their arrival.
• Orientation to health care services in the area appeared to be incomplete, as both the Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their children’s medical needs and uncertainty about how to handle emergencies.
• The Burundian and Burmese families expressed anxiety over their prospects for self-sufficiency.
• The Alliance did not provide any structured training plan to new employees, as required.
• Refugee client case note logs contained minimal information, and often failed to record home visits. Monitors were often unable to verify that the Alliance provided refugee clients with the minimum-required services of the State Department refugee contracts (see contract documents – the Cooperative Agreement and Operational Guidance).
• Monitors noted Insect infestation in one or more refugee apartments.
• Monitors noted that the Alliance did not give some refugee(s) a ready-to eat meal upon arrival after long intercontinental flights, as required.

Then there are these comments about the Alliance from 2010. Note that three years after this State Department monitoring the Alliance is still putting refugees in substandard housing, etc.

So, in other words, the State Department noticed all these problems and three years later many of the problems have not ceased. What does that tell us about the effectiveness of the State Department monitoring trips? The State Department does not use any penalties for resettlement agencies’ they find in “non-compliance” or “partial-compliance” with the so-called minimum requirements of the State Department refugee contracts. Resettlement agencies don’t have to give back any of the government contract money they received for agreeing to provide minimum services and then not providing them.

According to a U.S. State Department Office of Admissions’ monitoring report recently released Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Rockford is yet another refugee resettlement agency that didn’t bother to meet even the minimum requirements of its refugee contract.

The 2007 inspection report noted the following:

• There were broken or missing fire detectors in three of the four homes monitors visited.
• The stove was not working in an apartment occupied by three Burmese Chin refugee men.
• The bathtubs in two Burundian refugee families’ apartment were not functioning properly, in one case resulting in serious – if not dangerous leakage.
• A Burmese Karen refugee family reported that seepage after rainfall soaks three-quarters of the wall-to-wall living-room carpet.
• Of the four families monitors visited only one understood orientation subjects required by the Cooperative Agreement (the government refugee contract).
• A Burundian refugee family and a Burmese Chin refugee man said that no one from Catholic Charities Rockford greeted them upon arrival that spoke any language known to them.

Also see the Operational Guidance contract document which lists minimum requirements that resettlement agencies promise to give refugee clients.

The State Department finally released another inspection report of YMCA International Services, a Houston USCRI affiliate, three years after we submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. I blogged about this case last June.

This report is from January 2008 and reports that YMCA International Services was “non-complaint” with most of the terms of its government refugee contract. That’s a nice way to say “contractual fraud” and “neglect and abuse of refugees”.

Here are some of the highlights of the report:

• All refugee homes inspected had significant roach and/or mice infestation.
• Refugees and YMCA expressed concern about safety of refugee apartment complexes. Refugee families at the Glendale Park Apartments complex reported that people were harassing them on their way to the supermarket and their children were getting into fights on the bus (being attacked?).
• YMCA did not give refugees ready-to-eat food upon arrival.
• Records were in complete disarray.
• Home visits to refugees were almost never documented.
• A Cuban refugee couple only had a bed with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The family waited over 45 minutes at the airport for the YMCA case worker to arrive, who did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex. They had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to.use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation.
• Upon arrival YMCA gave an Iraqi refugee couple with a small child only one bed (no bed for the child) with one small, thin blanket, a plastic folding table, and two folding chairs. The bed was extremely uncomfortable, if not unsafe, with protruding mattress springs. The YMCA employee who picked them up at the airport did not speak their language. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English. The couple did not feel safe in the apartment complex as they had heard of local robberies and the police had come to their door warning them to
  use caution in the parking lot. YMCA took 3½ months to give the family community and cultural orientation. There was no ready-to-eat food upon arrival. The family used money they brought from Iraq to buy food until they received their food stamps. Neighbors told them the apartment complex was “risky” and they wanted to move. The family received an electrical bill that began one month before they arrived, but YMCA told them they must pay it. No one from YMCA visited the family until three months after their arrival, and YMCA did not give them a community orientation so they did not even know how to use the bus system.
• YMCA placed a Burmese refugee family that arrived in December in an apartment that had a large hole in a ground-floor bedroom window, and the management still had not repaired it two weeks later. The bed YMCA gave them was so uncomfortable that they slept on the floor. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation in English and hand signals. It was two months before someone from YMCA visited them at home.
• YMCA placed a Burundian refugee couple in an apartment complex surrounded by barbed wire. The only furniture upon arrival was four plastic folding chairs and five beds. For their first two months the family ate their meals on the floor. They pulled couches from the trash. No one from YMCA spoke their language at the airport. YMCA did the housing and personal safety orientation using hand signals. The family needed clothes but YMCA did not offer to help them.
• YMCA caseworkers were enthusiastic! Yipeeee!
• The State Department monitors had to order YMCA to check all fiscal year 2007 refugee cases and compensate refugees for all missing money.
• YMCA fired the Refugee Program Director, Gabriel Gebray, yet allowed the agency’s Executive Director, Jeff Watkins, to keep his job. He apparently got off scott-free.

Here is a question: if an Executive Director of an organization claimed he had no idea how his refugee clients were being neglected, what does that tell you about his performance? Don’t Executive Directors ever look at the records or talk to refugee clients?

I know ignorance is bliss but is it an excuse to not be accountable?

Jewish Family Service

Following key approvals of permits by the city last week, East Madison is about to see the start of its third major active construction project. An important provider of social services throughout the region, Capitol Hill’s Jewish Family Service this month start work on a $3.6 million project to build a 19,000 square foot expansion on the parking lot adjacent to their current offices at 1601 16th Ave… Read more here

Yet, according to the most recently available State Department monitoring/inspection report for Jewish Family Service of Seattle the agency did not give refugees the minimum-required services required by a State Department contract. The agency did not bother to visit many of the refugee clients at home, even though they are only required to visit one time within 30 days of the refugees’ arrival. Monitors found one refugee man sleeping on the floor of a living room because the agency had not provided a bed. The agency claimed the refugee’s brother said he had an extra bed for the refugee, but since they had not visited the refugee they did not realize that this was not the case. The same refugee also said the agency never gave him an orientation and that they did not have anyone on staff who spoke his language, Farsi. He also said that he had a kidney stone but was not receiving adequate services, partly because each time he went to the hospital he saw someone different. Apparently Jewish Family Service of Seattle was not monitoring his case adequately.

Monitors also noticed that the agency had one of the lowest employment rates for refugees in the country. It also became clear during the monitoring review that more than half of the cases had not received a home visit, although many of the files contained a cursory home visit form that thay had completed only a week or two before the visit, despite the fact that many of the refugees had arrived four to five months earlier. Monitors later learned that they had completed these ”home visit” forms not during a home visit but during a phone conversation with the refugee.

Members of a local World Relief-affiliated church, as well as its pastor, claim the woman’s home was not a safe place for her children. The Court, as well, would supposedly have had to see proof of serious abuse and/or neglect (Court records remain sealed). One claim was that she left the children home alone, but a World Relief-affiliated church previously moved her to a place outside Boise, where no one from her ethnic community lived. How would she have been able to, e.g. drag all six kids to the grocery store with her? (Did she leave them in the care of the oldest child? I’m speculating.) Yet, the refugee woman should have been able to show the Court some change or improvement — assisted by social services, classes in child care, mental health services, and/or other help. What happened?

Well, they placed this refugee woman in psycho-social rehabilitation sessions at Mountain States Group in Boise, which works with many refugees (via its EMM-affiliated Agency for New Americans), yet these sessions took place mostly without interpreters, through pantomime. (The woman speaks Kirundi, the national language of Burundi). Pantomime, obviously, would have been useless.

“….at least two federal civil-rights complaints [have been filed] against Idaho health providers for failure to provide adequate interpretation, which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is investigating….If those charges are substantiated, they could call into question the validity of her psychological diagnoses and land the case in federal court.Health and Welfare’s Bureau of Facility Standards has already agreed that Niyonzima received inadequate help from interpreters at St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and the agency’s Medicaid certification bureau reported to McMillan that psycho-social rehabilitation sessions at Mountain States Group, which provides services to many refugees in Boise, were done in large part without interpreters, through pantomime. Staff at St. Al’s even remarked to the Health and Welfare reviewer that Niyonzima reported hallucinations–at the urging of her church friends–but when an interpreter was eventually called in, it turned out she was complaining of nightmares.

The psycho-social rehabilitation sessions may also have prevented her from visitation with her children while they remained in foster-care. Federal child welfare laws call for termination of parental rights if the children have remained in foster care for 15 out of any 22 consecutive months.

Kathy Tidwell, director at the Child Welfare Center at Boise State’s School of Social Work and founder of Tidwell Social Work Services, which works with Boise’s growing refugee community, said that federal child welfare laws provide strict time limits for terminating parental rights. If children are in foster care for 15 out of 22 months, the case goes to termination. “For many refugees who come here not speaking English, who come as women from countries where the expectations of women are very different, who have trauma histories … 15 months may not be enough time,” she said.

How would this refugee woman have been able to resolve the problems she was having in 22 months if she was receiving incompetent mental health care, and/or was misdiagnosed, and/or if she didn’t even need mental health care?

The question is, why wasn’t World Relief helping to make sure this woman was receiving responsible health care and mental health services? If they had simply monitored her case, they could have identified problems and contacted hospital and mental health services administrators to advocate for proper interpretation services. They also could have monitored the legal proceedings to make sure this refugee woman received competent legal representation. Why did it take someone from a non-World Relief-affiliated church, who met her randomly by just knocking on doors, to step in and help this woman?

The resettlement agencies who give the resettlement program a bad name always say that they are not responsible for refugees after their first 3 months, 4, months, 6 months, or 8 months (take your pick), but the reality is that the resettlement agencies are supposedly the local refugee experts, and after all, they are the ones who resettled her to the area claiming it was an appropriate resettlement site. They should catch these cases where circumstances leave their former refugee clients vulnerable.

The state refugee coordinator is also there to watch what is happening to refugees in the state (in this case Jan Reeves came in the revolving door via Mountain States Group, Inc.). State officials have the power to go into agencies and view their records to find out what is happening to refugees. They can also interview refugees with an interpreter if necessary to find out directly the problems the refugee is experiencing, and not just rely on occasionally looking at agencies’ records and only speaking to resettlement agency staff members.

This case reminds me of the Liberian teenager in Fargo who was meanly mislabeled as aggressive, crazy, and low-intelligence simply because no one bothered to find competent interpretation services for her (see our post here).

By the way, the Burundian refugee woman in Boise should not have lived with church members after initially arriving in Boise. The State Department’s Admissions Office has repeatedly warned World Relief affiliates (here, here and here) that this practice is prohibited. Of course the State Department’s warnings to resettlement agencies, and other slaps on the wrist, have long been ineffective. Most resettlement agencies just do as they wish as there are no real consequences to breaking contract requirements and regulations. Certainly there are no monetary consequences.

Finally, I would like to point out the accountability-shifting in this case that is so rampant in refugee resettlement. In this case the World Relief-affiliated church (a member of the church who was a World Relief volunteer brought the refugee to the church) that worked with this refugee woman claims that their church took no actions; that it was people in the church operating under their own volition.

At [Common Ground Covenant Church in Meridian] –a small evangelical church …several other families, including the pastor, Tom Bowen, began to assist Niyonzima as well….the pastor and three women from the church came to her house and asked her how they could help……..Pastor Bowen said..”[Niyonzima] had approached our church in helping with her kids, and then when she had asked us to no longer do that, we really weren’t involved,”…stressing that it was individuals from the church, not Common Ground, providing the assistance.

But is that really the case since even the church’s pastor was involved? A bigger problem is the resettlement agencies who always blame government oversight agencies. Then we have the State Department that won’t investigate these cases. They claim that we should report problem cases to the VOLAGS or to the state refugee coordinators. Yet, state refugee coordinators in turn tell us that they don’t have to answer to anyone but their governors, the federal oversight agencies, etc. Other state refugee coordinators tell us that we should not ask them to investigate problems, that instead we should ask the board of directors of refugee resettlement agencies to investigate.

So where does the buck ever stop? It seems like just a few people accept accountability in the refugee resettlement field. It is always the responsibility of someone else. This problem is the result of a culture of non-accountability, which I believe is systemic in refugee resettlement. It must change.