Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, December 1998, pages 71-72

Special Report

“Meet Your Brother With a Welcoming Smile”— Refugees in America

By Anne Marie Weiss-Armush

Six years ago, I found Rukeiya and her six small children huddled in the corner of a dark, dank apartment not far from my well-manicured neighborhood in North Dallas. Other than the bundles she carried from her previous home in a Turkish mountain camp she had received only a few mattresses, eight dishes and spoons, and a single set of small American cooking pots.

Rukeiya’s family was among 1,200 Kurdish refugees resettled during a few months around an intersection that already housed Russian Jews, Mexicans and Central Americans, and African Americans. This unanticipated arrival of Texas’ first Muslim and Middle Eastern refugees nearly overwhelmed the resettlement agencies, as much because of the sheer numbers of needy as because of their unfamiliar culture.

On the eighth day after his arrival, Rukeiya’s husband, Ahmed, was taken by public transportation to a minimum-wage night job, where he cleaned buses. As the family had been registered for food stamps and the children enrolled at school, the sponsoring agency closed its file.

Churches in America have a long tradition of working closely with refugees, but our local Muslim organizations simply didn’t know what role they might play or where they might begin to help. Yet in 1998 85 percent to 90 percent of the refugees accepted for resettlement by the State Department were either Muslim or Middle Eastern.

Since Rukeiya’s arrival, the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex has received large numbers of Somalis, Bosnians, a second wave of Kurds, and a large number of Iraqi soldiers, a pattern repeated across America. Sudanese Christians and Muslims began to reach us in September. Today, a million Somalis and nearly 5 million Afghans remain in squalid refugee camps, while brutal civil war in the former Yugoslavia has produced nearly two million refugees since 1991.

The following basic information on refugee resettlement in America will, I hope, help other communities prepare a welcome for these refugees. Further details are available in a booklet which may be requested through the Washington Report (please see final paragraph).

Funding for Refugee Resettlement

The first question usually posed by a sympathetic Muslim community is, “How can Muslims in America sponsor our suffering brothers and sisters for resettlement?”

Although most of the 11 national volags (Voluntary Resettlement Agencies) are associated with Christian organizations, and as yet there are no Muslim volags there are many ways to become actively involved in this very important humanitarian effort.

After a refugee family or individual has been approved for a U.S. visa, their names are added to a list which is assigned to one of the volags. The government pays $740 per person directly to the volag, with additional funds available in certain limited “at risk” cases.

According to Sue Ballentine, director of the Dallas office of Catholic Charities Refugee Resettlement, there has been no increase in State Department funding since the 1970s. “Refugees have never been a priority in the United States,” she says.

Most agencies are extremely secretive about their sources of funding, and some even deny receiving any government funds. The actual amount of federal monies reaching local branch offices of the volags varies, but the sponsoring religious organizations usually provide some additional funds.

In comparison to the generous reception offered refugees by European nations, State Department grants do not even cover the basics. Out of necessity families are placed in substandard housing and in most cases rent is paid for only one or possibly two months. The apartment is usually furnished with much less than minimal essentials: the mattresses on the floor previously mentioned are standard. If the agency has access to a local clothes closet, new arrivals may be able to pick a few garments. More frequently, children who have already suffered years of hunger and deprivation in the primitive conditions of a refugee camp start their new lives in America without shoes, school supplies, or winter jackets.

It comes as no surprise that the Jewish volag HIAS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Services) that welcomes Russian Jews to America is generously funded by the Jewish community in America. Thus, an ample array of services and material goods are provided. Food stamps are stretched by well-organized food pantries already serving local Jewish needy, while English-language and acculturation lessons are available within the Jewish Community Centers. Jewish refugees may also access a large variety of cultural programs that ease culture shock.

A good volag stretches its limited government funding by developing a close relationship with local religious groups and individual refugee advocates. Chicago Muslims rave about the services offered by World Relief, the service arm of the National Association of Evangelicals. The volag resettled 1,200 Bosnians in 1997 in a program that could be viewed as a model for the nation.

In Chicago, supplies for new arrivals are basic but ample, the numerous caseworkers speak the language of their clients, and dialog with the Bosnian Muslim community is ongoing. State funding has been accessed for a mental health clinic for war survivors, while cultural orientation is provided within the well-organized local Bosnian community.

Church World Services, a volag supported by several Christian congregations, forwards $660 of the federal funding to its local offices, with an additional $225 per individual donated by the churches. Its Dallas area office uses its government funds for salaries and administrative expenses, leaving only the smaller amount for rent and household goods supplied to refugee families.

In such cases, without the support of local individuals and organizations, refugees may find the shock of their resettlement nearly as harsh as the suffering they have already faced. A well-coordinated effort is urgently needed to provide these lost brothers and sisters with used furniture, bedding and kitchen utensils.

A Model for Successful Refugee Resettlement

“In order to avoid religious and cultural conflict, the first thing we did,” says Midwest Area director Tim Amstutz of Chicago’s office of World Relief, “was to seek the input and advice of existing Bosnian community leaders. We need to be building bridges. We can’t fulfill our own religious commandments unless we are communicating respectfully with all of our clients.”

World Relief’s close relationship with area churches provides sufficient supplies of furniture and household goods for all new arrivals. The well-organized 10,000-strong Bosnian community in Chicago (out of 80,000 nationwide) can therefore focus on spiritual healing and cultural issues rather than providing material goods.

According to Becir Tanovic, a Bosnian community organizer, “World Relief has been marvelous! They help without proselytizing, and employ seven Bosnian caseworkers.”

In Chicago, half of the directors in the Islamic Cultural Center are Bosnians, and in cooperation with the SDA political association and the Bosnian American Cultural Association they provide “what refugees need most: the encouragement of a community plus information on assimilation, language, culture, and work ethics.”

Handicapped Refugees

Although refugees are entitled to access special state programs for the handicapped available in most areas, these are rarely contacted by refugee agencies due to lack of interest or because they require an intensive long-lasting commitment of time.

In the early years of the Bosnian conflict, severely injured civilians and young soldiers were evacuated to the United States and European nations as Medivac cases. These refugees were admitted on tourist visas, which denied them access to the few benefits available to refugees and required them after treatment to return to homes and villages that no longer existed. Due to the persistent lobbying of the Chicago Bosnian community, the State Department finally gave Medivac cases refugee status.

But at the same time, it gradually slowed the number of approved medical cases to a trickle before halting it completely. The last Medivac Bosnian to arrive in Texas was 19-year-old Belma Islamovic, whose Mostar bedroom was hit by a Croatian rocket as she slept. The young woman lost both arms at the shoulder. Evacuated to an Abilene hospital with her mother and two younger sisters, Belma’s life was saved. Her mother stayed with her in the hospital trying to keep despair at bay while 17-year-old Selma went to work to support the family.

When the Abilene hospital released Belma with two inexpensive heavy prostheses that simply didn’t work, the young woman still could not eat, open a door, or use the toilet by herself. During the following three years her hope turned to bitterness until her case was adopted by a Dallas woman who formed a coalition of Muslim and Christian individuals committed to helping Belma.

Today, Belma is becoming proficient with one electronically operated prosthesis, while the second is in production. She is enrolled in her third semester in junior college, and does her homework on a voice-activated computer purchased by the State of Texas with technical support from Southern Methodist University.

Another young person hopefully on the way to a new life is Ahmed Al Ghazawi, a 25-year-old Iraqi who is deaf, mute, and legally blind. Ahmed’s relatives were evacuated to America precisely because of his handicaps, but shortly after arrival they “disappeared” him in a Dallas jail so that they could continue to cash his $494 monthly Social Security check.

A volunteer alerted the police, who investigated and dropped the charges. Ahmed, who is very bright but had never been taught basics such as numbers and money, is learning sign language and English script. He has attended the Helen Keller School for blind deaf-mutes, and currently is in a job-training program.

Mutual Assistance Associations

Large refugee populations who arrived in the 1980s, such as the Vietnamese and the Eritreans, have been well served by local associations called MAAs formed by earlier immigrants from those regions. In most cases, the “old-timers” are highly educated and assimilated individuals who are firmly committed to bridging the gap for new refugees.

MAAs give a voice to their ethnic groups at national conferences and have access to state funding for a variety of resettlement programs.

The Community as Watchdog

Like the immigrants who flocked to these shores earlier in this century, refugees are weak and defenseless, unaware of their legal rights and obligations, and open to prey by opportunistic landlords and employers. The current trend toward immigrant-bashing adds another dimension to the challenge.

Unfortunately, a secondary role for volunteers becomes that of the advocate who protects and defends those who have no voice. The media can play a very influential role in fostering awareness of refugees’ presence and sensitivity to their issues. Television newscasters are often delighted to run two- minute pieces that spotlight a special refugee or immigrant story, especially when there is an element that touches the heart, such as a physical handicap or if a child is involved.

Chicago’s Becir Tanovic: “We have a system”

The well-developed system which makes Chicago a model for resettlement is for the most part lacking in other Muslim populations. African-American Muslims are confronting their own cultural issues, while many immigrant Muslim centers may view assimilation with suspicion. Cooperative efforts with Christian volunteers, even those with a long track record of dedication to helping Muslim refugees, are difficult for some groups.

In spite of their traditional generosity, mosques which are facing power struggles, organizational problems, political and cultural issues, and lack of unity are reluctant to involve themselves in refugee resettlement. In addition, the increasing number of mosque construction projects today competes with humanitarian programs for funding.

Muslims have, however, become very much aware of the refugee presence in their communities. And in the six years since Rukeiya and her family arrived from the Kurdish camp in Turkey, as her son Khalil becomes the first Kurdish man to enter a Dallas college, the first steps have been taken to organize relief for Muslim and Middle Eastern refugees.

A 65-page guide booklet is available for $2 (including postage and handling) from the Washington Report. To receive your copy of How to Resettle a Refugee Family: A Guide for Mosques and Muslim Organizations please contact the AET Book Club, P.O. Box 53062, Washington, DC 20009, phone 1 (800) 368-5788 ext. 3.

For more information, you are welcome to contact the author of this article at aweiss@airmail.net