The US State Department has decided to relax a two-year-old policy that limited Iraqi refugee resettlement in the Detroit area because of the state of Michigan’s struggling economy.
An influx of Iraqi refugees have come to the area in recent years, many of whom were attracted to the Detroit area because of its large Middle Eastern population. However, authorities said two years ago only those with close relatives could resettle there, in part out of fear that they would be unable to find work.
Now, the State Department says anyone with family and friends can come to the area, said Lawrence Bartlett, the department’s deputy director of refugee admissions.
Most refugees with immediate family had been resettled and there was room to accept more, Bartlett said.
He said the decision was made after consulting with the state refugee services office, resettlement agencies and other community leaders.
“The [refugee assistance] agencies assured us they were able to provide the necessary supporting services to help with integration,” Bartlett said on Tuesday.
“A couple of years ago, they made it clear to us they were stretched,” he said.
One big reason for the change was the State Department’s decision in January to double the payments to resettlement agencies on behalf of each refugee to US$1,800.
That money is designed to help refugees with their expenses, such as food and housing, for up to 90 days.
With the increase, “we were able to take a new look at this restriction,” Bartlett said. “After consulting with agencies and state government we were requested to lift that restriction.”
The government also sought to prevent secondary migration, when refugees come on their own to Michigan after first being settled somewhere else.
Though no precise figures exist, hundreds of Iraqis independently made their way to the Detroit area since June 2008 to connect with the community’s culture despite Michigan’s soaring unemployment rate, which was 13.6 percent last month.
It was the first time in four years the state escaped the distinction of having the US’ highest unemployment rate, ceding the top spot to Nevada.
He said that making Detroit the primary resettlement place would be less disruptive to the refugees themselves because they can receive financial and other assistance directly from the local resettlement agencies.
The original restriction came as the US government began increasing the overall number of Iraqis granted refugee status.
The government resettled 2,744 people — mainly Iraqis — to the Detroit area from June 25, 2008, to June 24 last year. During the same period a year earlier, 1,643 refugees were resettled in the area.
From June 25 last year through Friday, 1,887 were resettled.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion