IFIRE supports legal immigration but with limitations on the numbers. This is interesting. What should a community do when too many refugees settle in one area and overwhelm public services? Who should assimilate to whom? I agree, it should be discussed openly and honestly, without demonizing the people who want immigration controlled.
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Article published Dec 29, 2007
Refugee forum is long overdue
People need to be given the facts. It's the only way democracy can work.
Three months ago in Hagerstown, Md., about 100 people showed up at a community forum to discuss the presence of 200 Burmese and African refugees – and how the rumored influx of more refugees would further strain the city’s resources.
Last month in Emporia, Kan., about 300 people packed a similar meeting to explore the financial and social impact of an estimated 500 refugees, most of them from Somalia.
No such public discussion has occurred in Fort Wayne, however – despite the presence of as many as 3,500 refugees from Burma and thousands more from Bosnia and Africa. With another 1,000 Burmese refugees expected to settle here in 2008 on top of 700 arrivals this year, it’s long past time to correct that shameful oversight. Public education and participation is more than justified – it’s essential.
U.S. Rep. Mark Souder and Jerry Peterson, executive director of the United Way of Allen County, understand that, and are willing to participate in community discussion similar to those in Hagerstown and Emporia – under the right conditions.
“If the discussion is about whether more refugees should be allowed to come to Fort Wayne, it would be counterproductive. They’re here, and more will come, even if unofficially,” said Souder, R-3rd. “The U.S. has already committed to take a certain number. A forum could discuss such questions as, ‘When churches sponsor refugees, what is the impact on a community?’ But we don’t want an ‘anti-immigrant’ forum.”
Neither did Emporia City Manager Matt Zimmerman, who helped organize that city’s Nov. 28 meeting.
“We were trying to do two things: address a lot of concerns about taxes and services – who pays for refugees? – and to give the public correct information to counter some of the stories they’d been hearing,” he said. “Some people had thought, ‘Oh my God, we’ll be overwhelmed. But people got their questions answered, and things are much calmer now.”
By all accounts, Fort Wayne is calm, too. But Souder fears that may change if refugees need more services than local government and private agencies can provide. More money from Washington would help, and Souder’s trying to get it. But so would increased citizen participation in a process that up to now has mostly been done to them, not with them. It was that very perception that led to the forum in Maryland.
Ann Corcoran, a rural Hagerstown housewife, said she became concerned about refugees in that city of 40,000 people when she read a newspaper story in late 2006 about how language and cultural barriers caused officials to mistake an African refugee’s morning sickness for communicable disease. The street was closed, hazardous-materials units were called in, and 12 refugees were briefly quarantined.
When her local newspaper refused to investigate refugees’ impact on the community, Corcoran did the job herself, creating a blog (refugeesettlementwatch.) to follow the issue locally and nationwide. Eventually, the publicity persuaded officials to convene a community meeting – and a week later the Virginia Council of Churches said it would no longer settle refugees in such an “unwelcoming” community.
That was never her goal, Corcoran said. But she makes no apologies. “We were getting stonewalled, treated like idiots. Democracy works best when all the facts are on the table.”
Yes, and so do private charity and the fund-raising needed to sustain it.
“In the absence of knowledge, a situation will appear alarming and frustrating. It’s important to be transparent,” said Peterson, who last week hosted a private meeting for agencies affected by the influx of refugees. The United Way is already hard-pressed to meet agencies’ needs, and does not want to reduce services to local residents. Would those residents be willing to dig a little deeper to help refugees if they better understood refugees’ needs, culture and the conditions they fled? Could be.
At the Emporia forum, that job was tackled by officials representing public health, law enforcement, education, government, social services and other concerns. Some Emporia residents disagreed with Zimmerman’s rosy assessment, of course, but Corcoran was right: Democracy works best when people are given the facts. It’s the only way democracy can work.
It should work that way in Fort Wayne, so somebody in authority should schedule a refugee forum as soon as possible.