Syrian Muslims headed to North Dakota, Nebraska and Kentucky
Kentucky refugee contractor: I think it’s time that all those Arabs we are bringing to Kentucky have their own newspaper!
Kentucky Refugee Ministries Executive Director John Koehlinger: Newspaper would “unify” Arab community in KY.
[If any readers out there are thinking, 'This photo screams lounge lizard,' you are being VERY unkind! --tma]
Unless you have been living in a cave over the last few months, you know that the US State Department is bringing about 10,000 Syrian, mostly Muslim, refugees (chosen by the UN) to the US in this fiscal year (2015 started on October 1, 2014).
Here are three news stories sent from several readers about where they will be going.
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]
[….]
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.
[….]
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.
[….]
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. ...
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