Thread: Nashville braces for flood of Darfur refugees

http://www.tennessean.com/article/20110 ... r+refugees

Nashville charities, schools prepare for influx of Darfur refugees
Newcomers need English classes, jobs
By Julie Hubbard • THE TENNESSEAN • January 2, 2011


More refugees from Darfur are expected to need jobs and living quarters in Nashville in 2011, while their children enroll in Metro schools.

Both Catholic Charities of Tennessee and the school district are bracing for an influx of refugees from the Sudanese region of Darfur who fled the warfare for camps in neighboring Chad.

It could be as many as 60 to 80 families arriving beginning in summer.

The State Department recently signed an agreement to begin background checks and interviews for refugees to resettle in U.S. cities that have agencies available to help them. That includes Nashville, said Kellye Branson, director of refugee services for Catholic Charities of Tennessee.

The agency resettled 648 refugees during its last fiscal year, which ended in September, and plans to administer more than $9 million in federal funds to help them overcome language barriers, find work and become self-sufficient within the required eight-month window.

"The biggest challenge is (finding them) employment," Branson said. "There were some jobs that tended to be easy for them to get, but that competition has increased in the last year or two."

Typically, the jobs have been in hospitality or manufacturing. More employers willing to hire the refugees are needed in the year ahead, along with volunteers to help them with their English speaking skills.

The agency requires refugees to take the first job offered, and sometimes it can interfere with English Language Learner classes. Volunteers can help work with them on speaking skills at other times.

Metro schools officials started a new refugee and immigrant support services committee last year that meets monthly to aid the growing refugee population, said Nicole Chaput-Guizani, executive director for the Office of English Learners.

It launched a Newcomer Academy to help middle and high school-aged children, mostly refugees, transition into their regular schools.

A similar academy is being tried this school year for elementary-age refugees at Tusculum Elementary in the Overton cluster.

"They have no English literacy, no native language literacy and have no prior schooling," Chaput-Guizani said. "I think it is a wonderful program because it builds students' self-esteem and allows students to learn the culture of U.S. schools before they go out to (their zoned) school."

A nurse works on site while other community services come in and volunteers help support students as they learn the culture and classroom lessons.

Donations needed

Metro schools served 45 students in its Newcomer Academy in the 2009-10 school year and serves 30 there currently.

The Newcomer Academy is housed on Bransford Avenue next door to the central office.

Schools in the Overton cluster, with the highest refugee populations, always need donated uniforms and school supplies to help refugee children.

For more information, call the Catholic Charities of Tennessee at 615-259-3567 or Metro's Office of English Learners at 615-259-8608.

Nicole Young contributed to this report.
Contact Julie Hubbard at 615-726-5964 or jshubbard@tennessean.com.

"They have no English literacy, no native language literacy and have no prior schooling,"

In the land of breads and circuses that is no problem. Sit them down at a TV and play in a loop, Alice in Wonderland, and The Wizard of OZ and then they can learn the language and the political system all at the same time.

The entire non western / Asian worlds are refugees with some sort of crime and violence going on. Yet when our employment is destroying American lives we take another in another group and then the government wants to pay for them to learn the language and get them jobs? They don't help normal Americans find jobs.

I just hope they appreciate and adapt to the American way of life to at least become a desirable. But really isn't there another country not flooded with illegals already that could help them sufficiently near them? Just annoying the western countries are the only ones expected to have to take refugees from around the world.

It's outrageous to bring these people here. Does our stupid State Department think relocating Darfur to America is a solution to civil war in the Sudan? Well, it isn't. There's no point to it, none at all. And Americans better fight like hell for every job out there so they can fail on their employment criteria and be kicked right back where they came from.

And under what damn authority does this stupid administration have to waste $9 million on "language classes" for 80 "refugees"? Is this nuts or what? Let Chad take care of them. At least then they're on the same damn continent with their roots, friends, culture and family.

Originally Posted by Judy

Does our stupid State Department think relocating Darfur to America is a solution to civil war in the Sudan?

That same $9 million dollars would go a long way in Chad.

I wonder what Tennessee has too say about this?

I'll send a copy of Rosetta Stone English 1 & 2. That'll save $8,999,799.