{"id":4174,"date":"2012-01-26T16:19:37","date_gmt":"2012-01-26T23:19:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/?p=4174"},"modified":"2012-01-26T16:19:37","modified_gmt":"2012-01-26T23:19:37","slug":"the-recession-and-its-effects-on-refugee-resettlement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/2012\/01\/26\/the-recession-and-its-effects-on-refugee-resettlement\/","title":{"rendered":"The Recession and its Effects on Refugee Resettlement"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Molly Messick \/ StateImpact Idaho<\/p>

Tomorrow's story centers on Nowela Virginie, who came to Boise three years ago after spending much of her life in a refugee camp in Tanzania.<\/p><\/div>\n

Idaho residents know well the reversal of fortune the state has seen since the start of the recession.\u00a0 The state, which not so long ago had the fastest growing economy in the nation<\/a>, has been hit hard.\u00a0 In a broadcast story tomorrow, we’ll look at how Idaho’s economic troubles have affected the state’s refugee population, focusing in on a particular family.<\/p>\n

First, a little background.\u00a0 How many refugees are resettled in Idaho each year?\u00a0 Here are the numbers, according the the Idaho Office for Refugees<\/a>, which has statewide responsibility for providing assistance and services for refugees.<\/p>\n

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Source: Idaho Office for Refugees<\/p>\n

Below are the available employment statistics.\u00a0 In 2005, 95 percent of the Idaho Office for Refugees’ employable caseload found work, a rate IOR Director Jan Reeves calls “the high-end baseline” for the years preceding the recession.\u00a0 By 2007, the employment rate had dipped.\u00a0 (It’s important to note that these numbers reflect the success of those who are receiving assistance from refugee service providers.\u00a0 These percentages do not represent the employment success of all<\/em> refugees in the state.)<\/p>\n

[spreadsheet key=”0AtNHLtezDs_XdHZIUDllQmxRUmVSSEZmUGotVlV1VXc” source=”Idaho Office for Refugees” sheet=0 filter=0 paginate=0 sortable=0]<\/p>\n

Looking at the top table, it’s easy to see that 2008, 2009 and 2010 stand out for the relatively large numbers of refugees coming to Idaho.\u00a0 Reeves says those numbers were based on assessments of the state’s capacity to resettle refugees.\u00a0 Why did the numbers go up even as employment opportunities became scarcer?\u00a0 “The projections come out in advance of the year,” he says, “so the numbers were determined, really, before the full extent of the recession was known.”<\/p>\n

Moreover, he says, deciding to reduce the number of refugees that will be resettled in a particular community is not an easy call.\u00a0 Incoming refugees want to join family members who arrived in the U.S. before them.\u00a0 And, as International Rescue Committee<\/a> Vice President Bob Carey points out, it’s important to keep in mind why refugees come to the U.S. in the first place.\u00a0 “Refugees are coming here for protection,” he says.\u00a0 “Part of the protection is long-term economic well-being, but it’s not as though refugees are being admitted to the United States for employment or economic purposes, as important as that is.\u00a0 They’re here because they have no options.”<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s story will air during Morning Edition on KBSX News 91.5<\/a>,\u00a0 you’ll also be able to listen to the story on our blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idaho residents know well the reversal of fortune the state has seen since the start of the recession.\u00a0 The state, which not so long ago had the fastest growing economy in the nation, has been hit hard.\u00a0 In a broadcast story tomorrow, we’ll look at how Idaho’s economic troubles have affected the state’s refugee population, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":4256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[46,74],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/idaho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}