Refugee Resettlement: The High Cost of Good Intentions

American Thinker ^ | Dec 19, 2017 | Peter B. Gemma

[Oshkalaboomboom]

The Refugee Act of 1980 created the official United States Refugee Admissions Program, and like any other government-funded industry, their original mission has long been forgotten. Resettlement policies have devolved into another bureaucracy, where government and non-profit agencies work to protect their jobs and expand “services.”

Currently, legitimate refugees must prove that they are persecuted for one of several reasons: political persuasion, religion, race, etc., but efforts are underway by the refugee industry to expand the definition to anyone moving anywhere for any reason. The latest designation is the “climate refugee:” people escaping changing weather patterns where they live are now “refugees” too.

To give an idea of the staying power of the refugee program, consider this: when the U.S. began taking Southeast Asian refugees in the late 1970s, the refugee agencies hired temporary workers, thinking the program would only go for a few months. Now, 40 years after the last American left Vietnam, we are still taking refugees from Southeast Asia. At least 1.5 million have come in as refugees alone, and it has detonated a chain of non-refugee immigrants.

One of the greatest misunderstandings about the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program is that anyone getting into the country as a refugee, or anyone who was granted asylum (after getting here on their own), becomes a legal, permanent resident on track to citizenship. Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, and other nations take many more refugees than the U.S., but there is no comparison: in those countries, refugees are only hosted temporarily and will never be voting citizens.

[Oshkalaboomboom]

Where I live (Spain) the Coast Guard patrols for refugee boats and rescues them, not because they want to but because the EU demands it. Once ashore the refugees are given a medical exam, a meal and are let go. No welfare, no charity, no access to medical care, nothing. Obviously most don't hang around unless they already have relatives to help them. They head right to France. Refugee problem solved.

America could learn a thing or two from Spain. Make it perfectly clear, and enforce it, that nobody not expressly invited will receive anything. No aid, no access to schooling, no access to emergency rooms and jail for anyone caught employing them. They will soon get the hint and the ones that are invited will realize how fortunate they are.

[Pollster1]

America could learn a thing or two from Spain. Make it perfectly clear, and enforce it, that nobody not expressly invited will receive anything. No aid, no access to schooling, no access to emergency rooms and jail for anyone caught employing them.

Common sense? Not a common perspective.

[kearnyirish2]

IIRC, Spain returns them to the African coast (where Spain still holds some cities); they riot there, otherwise, we wouldn’t even know they existed. I believe some of the facilities are in Ceuta.

[Little Ray]

Are you sure they don’t fill their pockets with whatever is not nailed down, before they leave?