That barely covers the $555 in rent and utilities each month for himself and his mother. Food stamps leave enough for rice and vegetables. They choose sweaters over heat.
The $445 he receives monthly from the International Rescue Committee will trickle to $187 next month and stop in July, along with the Medicaid for his sick mother.
“I see people under the bridge and I think, ‘Will that be me?’ “ he said in the halting English he learned in the camp. His Nepali ancestry put him at risk in Bhutan, and his refugee status left him shunned in Nepal.
“We are in the right place at the wrong time. This is a good country, but when we arrive here, it’s too much difficult to get a job for all people, not just us.”
About 60,000 refugees arrived in the U.S. last year – 8,000 more than in 2007. The number is expected to grow in 2009.
The State Department provides each refugee a $900 initial resettlement grant, intended to cover expenses for the first 30 days after arrival. About half goes to the overseeing agency for case management, travel and other logistics.
The solution is not to decrease the flow of refugees but to overhaul the entire system during the new administration, said Lavinia Limón, president of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants and the former head of the Office of Refugee Resettlement under the Clinton administration. She wants more resources channeled toward housing assistance as well as programs that focus on the increasingly diverse pool of refugees entering the United States.
“This is a decision to rescue people in extraordinarily dire circumstances,” she said, citing the nation’s longstanding history of moral obligation.
The U.S. took in more than 90,000 refugees in the early 1980s when the economy teetered just as precariously as now, she said.
But Limón worries that the resettlement process will remain on the back burner with a housing crisis to solve and pending confirmation of a new secretary of health and human services.
>> nation’s longstanding history of moral obligation
Obligation my eye.
This is the problem with government. They pervert our longstanding Christian CHARITY into taxpayer “obligation”.
And the recipient need not be grateful; they can instead be demanding. Because after all it’s a US “Obligation”!
“That barely covers the $555 in rent and utilities each month for himself and his mother. Food stamps leave enough for rice and vegetables. They choose sweaters over heat.”
Oh, please!!! They get about $135 each for food stamps...more than I spend a month on groceries. And I have to wear sweaters to keep the heat down too!
Welcome to America! It’s rough all over, not just for refugees.