The US State Department, under the supervision of the United Nations (UN), is bringing approximately 10,000 more Syrian, mostly Muslim, refugees to the US in 2015.
The United Nations, working with the U.S. State Department, has already shipped approximately 115,000 Iraqis to American cities since Sept. 11. Another 100,000 Somalis have been resettled in the United States since that country devolved into civil war in 1993. The Somali refugees have been described as 99.9 percent Muslim by Somali-American leaders. The Iraqi refugees have also been majority Muslim and, while the exact percentages are more difficult to track, the Iraqis coming to the States have been estimated at 62 percent Muslim.
The refugees will be dispersed between Florida, North Carolina, Georgia, North Dakota, Nebraska and Kentucky.
Here are reports from local news stations:
North Dakota from the Jamestown Sun:
Lutheran Social Services of North Dakota and its community partners, which include schools, medical facilities, law enforcement, county and volunteer agencies and churches, are anticipating a shift in the ongoing resettling of refugees here. [They are slowing the Bhutanese (Hindu) flow and switching to the Middle Easterners—ed]
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The agency has recently resettled a number of people from Afghanistan, and is planning for refugees in the coming months from Syria and Iraq, who are escaping the terrorism threat of ISIS.
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Lutheran Social Services (LSS) is projecting to place a total of about 400 refugees in North Dakota in fiscal year 2015, which began in October.
Laetitia Mizero, program director and state refugee coordinator at LSS, said 260 will settle in the Fargo area, about 95 in Grand Forks and 45 in Bismarck.
In fiscal year 2014, LSS placed 500 refugees statewide, a larger number than usual.
This next bit is really informative, and is something every community “welcoming” refugees should be paying attention to. Once they get a “seed community” started, they (the Lutherans in this case) then are paid to process in the family members.
“Ninety-eight percent of individuals who’ve arrived over the past 12 months are joining family who are already here,” she said.
Nebraska from McCook Gazette:
LINCOLN, Neb. — At least four Nebraska agencies have pledged to help some of the thousands of refugees expected to come to America as a result of persecution and genocide in Syria.
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Nebraska agencies pledging to help deal with the refugees include Lutheran Refugee Services of Lincoln, Lutheran Family Services, Catholic Social Services and the Southern Sudan Community Association.
Such refugees are eligible for a full range of public assistance programs swell as refugee assistance programs.
Kentucky from the Courier Journal:
Kentucky Refugee Ministries Executive Director John Koehlinger said Botan’s venture comes as Louisville agencies continue to resettle a large number of refugees from Iraq — a trend that started around 2008 — and prepare to aid the first refugees from Syria some time next year.
“Refugees have been coming from Iraq in large numbers for five years,” he said. “I think that the time is right for a newspaper for that community.”
Photo and source courtesy of WND
