[Hollytree]

As if we need more unskilled labor?

This is the right way to do it...

'The GPS Roadmap for Making Immigration Work' – Global Public Square - CNN.com Blogs

[j_dennis_84]

As a Burlington Vermont local, i will say that there is plenty of resentment to the refugees. I work in one of the many shelters here in Burlington, and i can tell you i see so many refugee families who come and go. they always leave shelter with a voucher. While other Vermont born families max out their time in shelter and leave with nothing and no place to go. if you ever see a nice new minivan around the old north end... you can bet its a refugee driving it. how do they get a new vehicle? oh, thru state programs. If you cant tell, i resent them myself. I work hard, born and raised in this state, but until this past February i had no car, and i pay 1100 a month for a crap 2 bedroom apt. oh, and i work. While they get everything handed to them. Most also act like they don't speak any English, unless they need something. This post is hardly constructive, but man i feel better now. I just wish our state treated us as good as the refugees.

[MTK1]

They know where the good benefits are. Free rent, cable tv, heat, and food. I can confirm that while your dreading that heating bill their thermostats are set to 80 with 3 windows wide open with the state picking up the tab...

[xz2y]

Originally Posted by VTisforMe

I see that you are from the Great Lakes area (MN?) and not Vermont, so I'm curious why you care at all. Also, for those who keep mentioning the weather in Vermont, that might be a big shock to someone moving from somewhere else in the US, but given the cultural differences of life in VT and life in Somalia, our weather is the least of their barriers to overcome.

Your questions and comments (and I have read them all) seem to be either troll baiting or thinly-veiled racism. I'm not sure why you care or what your concern is. If you care so much, befriend one of them and ask them how they tolerate the weather, etc.

Nobody who is in this country legally is "taking jobs" from anyone else, since they have the same right to work. That's almost as bad as people insinuating that flatlanders are "taking jobs" from "real" or "native" Vermonters.

I'm interested in the topic of immigration in many parts of the country, as a cultural interest. I have traveled to many countries in the world, including some developing nations, and I find it interesting to discuss the immigration patterns in the US from a cultural viewpoint. This forum allows for questions from any member regardless of where they reside, on any topic. That's the point of participating constructively in a forum. I disagree with your assessment of my posts as "troll baiting or thinly-veiled racism." I find those comments incendiary and totally out of line.

[looking4home]

I would think refugees from a dysfunctional society would seek comfort and solace amongst like-minded people, not appreciate being thrown in with taciturn, New Englanders who don't even want flatlanders, never mind people form another conntinent! Like most government feel-good/do-good programs, not a lot of thought or common sense has gone into decision-making, and it's taxpaying residents who ultimately end up paying for their mistakes.

[BickleTravis]

Originally Posted by adriatic

The resettlement agencies are required to spread refugees around the country so one state or area/city doesn't bear a disproportionate financial burden, etc.....maybe also so they will have employment opportunities....if you settle all 500,000 refugees and asylees we take every year only in "traditional" areas where they have family, you would have too many people in one area who need jobs, and perhaps don't have the requisite job skills or language skills yet. Kind of a share the burden approach. Of course, they can move away after a time if they want, but chances are they have made friends and feel at home or have a job in their new location and decide to stay. If they all went only to where their kin were or to similar climates, we would have too great a refugee population in L.A., NYC, Miami, Washington DC (many many somalis there), and Chicago. I've been to northern Somalia and Djibouti and Ethiopia, visiting the refugee camps. Mixed feelings about that area and the reasons they are refugees (in part, from their own cultural tradition of endless clan rivalry, and men chewing "chat" to get high every day, starting at 12 noon until the end of the day. Hard on the women).

The Somalis are coming here from out of state and moving directly into taxpayer funded hotel rooms. This is a fact.

[minibrings]

I say let them starve and suffer at home. When i saw the horrors of the holocaust museum i was glad my grsndfathers hard earned money did not go to saving any people in the camps. And im a church going christian mind you and i think Jesus should have charged every sick person he healed money as im sure he would be against god fearing christians like ourselves caring for our neighbors... As this country has NEVER taken in refugees ever in past history? And a black person in the north end shoukd not be allowed to drive anythin newish

This is what i gathered as the general gist on this and another thread on Somali immigrants in Columbus. When did americans as a society get so hateful?

[j_dennis_84]

Originally Posted by minibrings

I say let them starve and suffer at home. When i saw the horrors of the holocaust museum i was glad my grsndfathers hard earned money did not go to saving any people in the camps. And im a church going christian mind you and i think Jesus should have charged every sick person he healed money as im sure he would be against god fearing christians like ourselves caring for our neighbors... As this country has NEVER taken in refugees ever in past history? And a black person in the north end shoukd not be allowed to drive anythin newish

This is what i gathered as the general gist on this and another thread on Somali immigrants in Columbus. When did americans as a society get so hateful?

what part of my post said anything about ANY black person driving anything newish? i can tell a refugee when i see them... please dont turn this into a racial issue. I dont care if they were refugees from scotland... point is, they are flocking more and more here in burlington vermont, mainly to be around other people they know. Its disgusting to see they all get free housing and free vehicals while others who are born here are trying to scrape by working minimum wage jobs trying to afford overly priced apartments. if they were made to struggle like the rest, i wouldn't give a crap. and when my girlfriend (shes black) drives around the old north end in our new car with our bi-racial daughter, i dont confuse her with a refugee so again, please dont try and play a race card here. and as a vermonter.. i more than welcome "flatlanders" or anyone who would like to join me here in this pretty, but crazy cold and redneck filled state i live in.

[VTisforMe]

Originally Posted by xz2y

I'm interested in the topic of immigration in many parts of the country, as a cultural interest. I have traveled to many countries in the world, including some developing nations, and I find it interesting to discuss the immigration patterns in the US from a cultural viewpoint. This forum allows for questions from any member regardless of where they reside, on any topic. That's the point of participating constructively in a forum. I disagree with your assessment of my posts as "troll baiting or thinly-veiled racism." I find those comments incendiary and totally out of line.

Ok, I'll bite. You're just a curious life learner and you are doing your research through a very unscientific forum where you solicit opinions of anonymous people who are hardly experts on any of these topics. Please point me to the various postings you have made in other forums (or this one) asking how the Bosnians are fitting in here, or how the Bosnians tolerate the weather. It is quite colder here in winter than there, after all.

[VTisforMe]

Originally Posted by j_dennis_84

what part of my post said anything about ANY black person driving anything newish? i can tell a refugee when i see them... please dont turn this into a racial issue. I dont care if they were refugees from scotland... point is, they are flocking more and more here in burlington vermont, mainly to be around other people they know. Its disgusting to see they all get free housing and free vehicals while others who are born here are trying to scrape by working minimum wage jobs trying to afford overly priced apartments. if they were made to struggle like the rest, i wouldn't give a crap. and when my girlfriend (shes black) drives around the old north end in our new car with our bi-racial daughter, i dont confuse her with a refugee so again, please dont try and play a race card here. and as a vermonter.. i more than welcome "flatlanders" or anyone who would like to join me here in this pretty, but crazy cold and redneck filled state i live in.

If you are going to state the following things as facts, please provide citations to back up your statements on:
1) people flocking here more and more
2) they all get free housing and free vehicals (sic)

So, it seems as if you think that Somali immigrants are basically living the life of Riley here, no struggles at all, not with language, climate, racism, lack of education, etc.

Can you tell the Bosnian refugees when you see them too? I hate to keep bringing up the Bosnians, but it's a similar situation only they're not quite as immediately visible. Are you disgusted by them too?