← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · jeffersonian
Thread ID: 7302 | Posts: 3 | Started: 2003-06-12
2003-06-12 22:15 | User Profile
Complete Original Article Available At: [url=http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=8336]Front Page Mag.com[/url]
** An Immigration Explosion By Steve Brown and Chris Coon FrontPageMagazine.com | June 12, 2003
Current INS figures reveal an influx of Somali refugees to our nation over the last two years. While there have historically been similar safe harbor-seeking migration trends globally, the recent Somali trend is a "crash course" in American identity politics--the dual-pronged dilemma of an increasing emphasis on multi-culturalism and the negative impact of an overly generous nanny state.
The Somalis have found their chosen home in northern states with general welfare benefits. Maine, with its carte-blanche welfare program available to all comers for a minimum of five years, became a natural fit. The burgeoning crisis caused the small Portland suburb of Lewiston, home to 1,200 Somalis (out of a total population of 36,000), to make national headlines. Claiming resources were being sapped "financially, physically and emotionally," Mayor Larry Raymond plead for the migration to cease altogether.
Similar Somali migration patterns have occurred in other seemingly unlikely U.S. communities such as Holyoke, Massachusetts, and most recently in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, increasing demands for welfare, and English-as-a-second-language and special-ed curricula. Those burdens coupled with affordable housing shortages have left these small communities reeling with resource depletions and budget deficits. With an additional 12,000 Somalis expected to arrive on our shores in 2003--many to join relatives already here--the burden will only continue to surge.
To stem the rapid resource drain, struggling local communities have been willing make critical program cuts to fit dwindling budgets rather than accept federal grant assistance tied to continuing refugee assimilation mandates. In the Holyoke case, City Council passed a resolution asking the federal government to rescind its $1 million three-year grant to resettle the Somali immigrants.
For more than a decade a large segment of the Somali population has abandoned a life mired in the chaos of their east African nation for Kenyan refugee camps. Despite the flood of aid from the U.S. and other UN nations, the harsh life in these camps has been made more desperate by the rampant use of drugs such as khat, a local amphetamine, and homemade alcohol. In addition, tuberculosis, malaria and HIV infection are also prominent problems in the camps.
A recent study revealed over 80 percent of Somalis that had sought refuge in Denmark had TB. Similar reports are difficult to find here in the United States, but studies in Canada show nearly identical results. Approximations given by various health organizations agree; the Somali-Ethiopian-Kenyan region has areas with up to 90 percent TB rates. Given the communicability of tuberculosis, coupled with the close living spaces overcrowded families share both here and in the camps, the health crisis is severe.
Khat use among new arrivals has led to problems, as well. The Partnership for a Drug Free America warns ââ¬Åcompulsive use may result in manic behavior with grandiose delusions or in a paranoid type of illness, sometimes accompanied by hallucinations.ââ¬Â A recent trade ban between Kenya and Somalia caused a shortage in the smuggled amphetamine, sending thousands into painful withdrawals and leading to increased violence in the area. Many suggest the largest cause of khat related violence isn't from its abuse, but from the addictive withdrawals that accompany it and the black market that has grown up around it. Illegal to posses in America, the Somali underground has taken advantage of its rarity and unfamiliarity to local law enforcement to move the product with impunity within the communities where they have settled.
The options the displaced Somalis face are simple: stay and be kept in the hellish limbo of the refugee camps or follow many of their friends and relatives to America and get on the federal dole. Unlike the past generations of immigrants who saw America as an opportunity to carve out self-sufficiency free from an oppressive totalitarian state, famine, or economic devastation, the already dependant Somalis see an opportunity to exploit generous entitlements.
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A recent study revealed over 80 percent of Somalis that had sought refuge in Denmark had TB.
Is it any wonder that malady's once thought eradicated in the US are on the rise everywhere?
the already dependant Somalis see an opportunity to exploit generous entitlements
Yep these are the kind of hard working, good for society, immigrants we need to bring in and turn into Americans. Does this make any sense at all to anyone except Ted Kennedy?
2003-06-13 02:19 | User Profile
It makes perfect sense, J. Why should California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas be the only recipients of the cultural bounty that is multiculturalism? Since the Northern States receive considerably fewer immigrants than the rest of the US, it follows that they must make up for their earlier lack of diligence by importing quality. Bantus and their immediate offshoots are more genetically distant than Mexicans, ergo, same amount of diversity but with less livestock.
The other significant thing flowing from this development is that White Nationalists will henceforth include the states of Maine and Minnesota among those slated for possible partition in their discussions... :D
2003-06-13 14:58 | User Profile
...ergo, same amount of diversity but with less livestock.
Nifty concept. Kinda like needing only a small heard to goats, cause they smell so bad the stink rivals that of a huge hurd. The economy of scale!!! :rolleyes: