IFIRE.org

IFIRE Announcements and Discussion Forum
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 6:23 am

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Ft. Wayne wants forum to disucss impact of legal refugees
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 10:11 am 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Mon Apr 30, 2007 8:30 pm
Posts: 2037
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.

This is a printer friendly version of an article from www.news-sentinel.com
To print this article open the file menu and choose Print.


Back
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Refugee forum long overdue
PostPosted: Sun Dec 30, 2007 9:40 pm 
Offline
Site Admin

Joined: Mon Nov 27, 2006 9:48 pm
Posts: 37
It too bad we have major tax problems in Indiana along with thousands of high paying manufactoring jobs that are leaving our state, and yet we are receiving hundreds if not thousands of new immigrants every year.
The cost of medical care and educating these people are overwhelming when they show up in the large numbers that they are.
On top of all that is contained in the above article you are anti'immigrant if you question why we have to have this large increase of immigrants!
It's getting to the point that if you speakout about anything in America there will be someone to call you a name to stop your freedom of speech and this is NOT what America is all about.

Speak up and stand up or submit the decision is yours!

Greg Serbon
IFIRE :x


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 2 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 6 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group