Kentucky Becoming a Hotspot for Refugee Resettlement

Refugee Resettlement Watch
February 16, 2015

Barbara Kleine runs the Lexington Office of Kentucky Migration Ministries which is working with grants from Islamic Relief USA we learned yesterday. Kleine’s photo and bio are here: http://kyrm.org/lexington-staff/
Barbara Kleine runs the Lexington Office of Kentucky Migration Ministries which is working with grants from Islamic Relief USA we learned yesterday. Kleine’s photo and bio are here: http://kyrm.org/lexington-staff/

Yesterday we told you about the Syrian refugee family being resettled in Louisville, KY right now and here is news about Lexington, KY and the same refugee contractor.

So either Kentucky is a hot resettlement site or the contractors there like making news!  This is a story about a fundraiser Kentucky Refugee Ministries is having (ho hum), however there are two bits of information worth mentioning.

From Kentucky.com:

First an Iraqi refugee complains that “there is not enough financial support” for them!  Now, the resettlement industry would say this means we need to throw more government money their way, but how about looking at it this way:  Maybe we are bringing more refugees than we can afford!

“There is not enough financial support of an organization like this,” Alnaasree said. “There are so many refugees from all around the world, Africa, Asia, the Middle East.

“They arrive here looking for a better life, better chances, but we start to figure out the truth,” he said. “There is not enough financial support.”

Then someone needs to investigate this funding source

What about that Islamic Relief USA money we learned about here in our report on Louisville?  That was the first time I ever heard of a contractor getting “grants” from an Islamic ‘charity’ to resettle presumably Muslim refugees.  Where are the two US Senators from Kentucky on this question?

Then if your town is contemplating “welcoming” refugees or maybe you have just started in the last year or so, remember that it will become virtually impossible to stop because the contractors will call you mean spirited and racists if you deny family members of the “seed community” to come to your town in subsequent years.

Since KRM’s establishment in Lexington in 1998, 2,500 refugees from 32 countries have settled here. “Last year we had a huge year,” Kleine said, with 299 people immigrating, most joining families that were already here. KRM is expecting 250 to 260 this year.

“Most of the refugees now have a U.S. tie,” she said. “A friend or a relative.”

The largest contingent of refugees is Congolese, she said. A lot of Iraqis are still coming, and the number of Afghanis is growing. The number of Bhutanese, however, is slowing as the refugee camps in Nepal are closing down.

KRM’s goal is to find employment for the refugees and help them become self-sufficient. English classes are first on the list, along with classes on cultural adjustment and working in the U.S. It takes an average of 120 days to find work.

“Self-sufficiency” might be their “goal” in that short time, but it is virtually impossible to achieve without some very crafty reporting—like finding refugees jobs (any job!) for a brief time so they can tell the State Department that the refugee found employment!  And, besides, even if the refugee is still living in subsidized housing, getting Obamacare and food stamps they are still considered self-sufficient for refugee resettlement bookkeeping.

Sometimes I think those working hard to change America—to turn red states blue—get a perverse sense of joy out of dropping off diversity into states like Tennessee and Kentucky—watch out Alabama and Mississippi you will be next (oh, and how could I forget Wyoming too!).