The recession is putting a damper on thousands of refugees'
dreams of being resettled in the United States by Christian organizations this
year.
More than half of the 80,000 refugees who can be admitted to
the U.S. under 2009 limits have arrived, according to the State Department. Yet
their arrival comes as unemployment levels in many cities are hitting highs not
seen for decades.
"This is going to be the highest number of arrivals since
9/11," said Daniel Kosten, vice president of marketing for World Relief. "[Yet] we have a system and a program built around employment within a certain amount of time."
Ministries that provide refugees with transition assistance
during their first months in the U.S. expect them to achieve full
self-sufficiency after 180 days, said Carol Fouke, information officer for the
Elkhart, Indiana-based Church World Service's (CWS) immigration and refugee
program. The organization has resettled close to 500,000 refugees since 1946.
"In our economy [today], it takes a couple months longer,"
said Fouke.
When refugees arrive, the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration pays a $900 placement grant to resettlement agencies. But a
recent CWS study on the recession's impact has found this amount is no longer
enough.
The study also found the 180-day goal of employment is
unrealistic for refugees in today's economic climate, who now have to rely on
sponsors to pay rent.
Kosten said the resettlement system was not designed for
refugees to be unemployed for six months, and some World Relief refugees in
Atlanta are driving 100 miles for minimum-wage jobs.
The current recession has made work scarce even for
English-speaking refugees with transferable job skills. And refugees with jobs
have not been immune from widespread layoffs, said Derek Sciba, communication
officer for World Concern, a Seattle nonprofit. Many Somali refugees resettled
in Seattle by the organization have lost jobs recently.
Unemployment in the U.S. is still a better life for those
who have spent years or decades living in refugee camps, said Heidi Moll
Schoedel, executive director of Exodus World Ministries in Bloomingdale, Illinois.
"The need for refugees to have a safe place to rebuild their
lives is constant and not something contingent on the economy," Moll Schoedel
said. "They have [an] opportunity to move forward. They have hope, and that is
something they did not have before."