Has your city been chosen as a "preferred" resettlement site?
Savannah, GA: Hot new resettlement site when Atlanta suburbs went into overload? Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services benefited from federal grant for Savannah!
As I mentioned, I took some reading material with me when I was away last week and had a chance to make this list of "preferred communities" from the 2010 Annual Report to Congress from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in the Department of Health and Human Services.
According to the feds, a"preferred community" is one in which newly arriving refugees have the best opportunity for "self-sufficiency and integration." I look at the list and know that many of these cities are having big problems with refugees/immigrant joblessness and poverty, and lack of integration (assimilation!).
The grants for 2010 totaled nearly $6 million. And, take note Wyoming, the grants did not go to the city or state, the grants went to the contractors, so they decide what is needed to smooth the way for refugees in your "welcoming" city!
It strikes me that this is just one more excuse to funnel your tax dollars to a contractor.
This was so much fun, I'll see if I can find more recently designated "preferred" cities!
Today's post is archived in our 'where to find information' category.
***Update*** Here you can see a list of new grantees. Note that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops gets nearly $2 million through 2016 for preferred communities, but no specific sites are listed (they probably don't want you to know that your city is among the chosen!).