CNS STORY: Refugees find pursuit of economic security derailed by recession

ECONOMY-REFUGEES Apr-9-2009 (920 words) With photo. xxxn

Refugees find pursuit of economic security derailed by recession

By Dennis Sadowski
Catholic News Service

CLEVELAND (CNS) -- Oretha Togba knows a lot about adversity.

For 13 years the 39-year-old Liberian lived in a refugee camp in neighboring Nigeria, having fled her homeland after being stalked because she was a member of the Krahn ethnic group during her country's two civil wars between 1990 and 2003.

Forced to leave behind all that she knew, Togba and her family escaped their village with little but the clothes on their back. They were among the fortunate. Thousands of others ended up maimed or injured. Even dead.

When Togba was resettled in Ohio three years ago with the help of the State Department and the Cleveland Diocese's Migration and Refugee Services program, she felt she was on her way to a better, safer life. She had a home, a job and a support community to help in her transition to self-sufficiency.

Then came September 2008 and the roiling meltdown in the financial markets. Togba lost her job in laundry services at one of Cleveland's best hotels. An illness had forced her from work for two weeks and when she called her supervisor to say she had recovered and was ready to return to work he told her not to bother because the hotel's business had dropped dramatically.

Today Togba is finding that living in Cleveland in the middle of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression is proving to be a challenge of a new type.

"Right now it's not easy," she told Catholic News Service in thickly accented English. "I just applied for unemployment again. It's very hard for me right now. Now my landlord is after me."

Togba has not given up looking for work, but she said she is not sure where else to turn after months of searching.

"Do us a favor by telling the government we're refugees in this country," Togba said. "Some of us do not even know where to go. We lived in the refugee camp and we were suffering and they brought us here for safety, for times to be better for us. But right now things are really out of hand. We cannot even control it any more."

Togba's situation illustrates the plight facing thousands of resettled refugees nationwide. Once stable work environments have disappeared. Employment for newcomers is proving to be equally difficult to find in an economy that has jettisoned 5.1 million jobs since December 2007, said officials working for state and local refugee resettlement programs.

The economic slump has caused diocesan MRS staffers to scramble to find work for the thousands of refugees lining up at the border. The State Department is planning to bring about 80,000 refugees into the country in the fiscal year ending September 30.

"The last 12 months have been rough (to find work)," said Thomas Mrosko, director of the MRS program at the Cleveland Diocese, where 280 refugees from Burma, Bhutan, Congo and Somalia were resettled in 2008. "For 100 percent of them we had a house ready when they arrived. That's not the issue. The issue is employment."

State refugee resettlement coordinators told CNS they are hearing from local agencies with which they contract for resettlement services that staff members are having to piece together two or three part-time jobs for the newcomers.

"I don't think we've ever had quite the scenario we've had as we do right now," said Kathy Cooper, director of the Virginia Office of Newcomer Services in Richmond, a position she has held since 1991. "It's just really bad. It's an economy none of us have experienced before in terms of finding jobs for refugees.

"It's not about finding a good, full-time job with good health benefits. It's not even about finding a good job. It's about finding a job," she said.

Once the refugees are resettled, there's not much else local resettlement agencies are able to do contractually. Under State Department contracts, local resettlement agencies provide assistance for up to 90 days.

But that doesn't mean the agencies stop helping, according to Richard Hogan, associate director for diocesan development for Migration and Refugee Services at the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"So what they've been doing is asking for support from the community, from parishes, seeking donations of all sorts, and using that money to pay for rent," Hogan explained.

Because the economy has taken such a toll on refugees, national resettlement agencies have turned to the State Department to seek emergency assistance for newcomers who have lost jobs and are in danger of losing their homes. Recognizing the growing need, State Department officials have authorized a one-time expenditure of $5 million for rental assistance.

The USCCB and other national organizations involved with resettling newcomers also are hopeful that Congress will approve legislation adding $30 million for refugee housing programs. The amount would be in addition to the $60 million already in the federal budget.

In an attempt to bring together the 4,000 Krahn who were resettled in the U.S., the Liberians have formed the United Tchien Association. The organization is named for the language -- Tchien -- this particular group of Krahn speak. Isaac Dweh, now a member of St. Patrick Parish in Cleveland and a former refugee camp leader, was elected president of the national association.

Dweh told CNS the association will give the Krahn a stronger voice when approaching government officials for assistance with employment, education and family reunification.

"If the government helps, everything will be fine to us," Dweh explained. "Then the development we are talking about today will continue."

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