Since I started working in refugee resettlement, one of the many issues that has bothered me, is refugee travel loans. Here is a description provided by the United States Conference for Catholic Bishops (they are heavily involved in resettlement):
Refugees traveling to the United States are issued loans by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to pay for the costs of their transportation from overseas to U.S. resettlement sites and for various medical and screening costs. The funds to cover the transportation were provided to IOM by the Department of State’s Bureau for Refugee Programs.
A promissory note is signed by every refugee 18 years and over. This note confirms the refugees agreement to make regular monthly payments to the sponsoring agency – the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). These payments will be used to reimburse the U.S. government for the funds it provided to IOM for refugee transportation.
This just grates on me. The vast majority of refugees arrive in the US with the clothes on their backs, and nothing else. Many come here having lost family members to conflict, disease or displacement. Some have been tortured and can barely cope. Others have spent fifteen or twenty years living in a refugee camp, without any way to develop skills or live independently. Then they arrive here, and the International Organization for Migration saddles them with a huge loan to repay (but don’t worry, it’s interest free!), which they should begin payments on within six months. What the hell?! Like refugees don’t already have enough to deal with while they are acclimating, trying to find jobs, learn English, and survive on extremely low benefits which run out rapidly!
The apparent wisdom behind this loan program, is that the repayment money allows the “U.S. government to continue assisting more refugees.” If the US government is so impoverished that the only way they can assist future refugees, is off the backs of newly arrived migrants, then something is seriously wrong with program funding.
According to the director of my resettlement agency, the default rate on these loans in very low-less than 10%. This makes sense, given that when you default, the Credit Reporting Agency is informed, and you will have a negative credit history until such time as you repay the loan. Way to make new arrivals feel welcome in America!
If anyone has an informed argument as to why refugees should be made to repay these loans, I would truly love to hear it.
It strikes me that coming to the U.S. is a big economic boon to migrants, be they refugees or otherwise. That refugees get a loan to help make the trip puts them one step ahead of all other migrants, who have to pay for their own transportation BEFORE they come. So it makes sense to ask refugees, over time, to pay their own transportation bills.
First of all, refugees are not like other migrants, so you shouldn’t compare their circumstances.
I just met with a refugee client today. He arrived with his wife and six children two months ago. He is already being hassled to repay his travel loan, and is going without meals to save the money to repay on time.
If you’ve never lived as a refugee or spent time working in resettlement, it would make sense that travel loans would seem like a reasonable idea. I can tell you from experience, that they’re not. When people have to go hungry to fulfill their obligation, when they have to forgo buying shoes and clothes for their children, it’s not reasonable
Refugees are not migrants by definition,The term “refugee” means (A) any person who is outside any country of such person’s nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or nwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of
race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.
Not at all like other immigrants or migrants.
Tom (please see my next note)
I have questions but no answers about IOM, IRC, the “Note” and collection efforts.
Does anyone have a copy of the “Note” that they can forward me?
Under what authority is IOM trying to collect these alleged debts?
If this was an ordinary debt, the actions of IOM are far outside what a Debt Collector can do (at least in Massachusetts) and whether it is a promisory note or a personal guarantee, it seems like, in many cases, collection (and reporting to credit agencies) is likely bared by the statute of limitation. I would also question wheteher or not a valid contract can be formed in a refugee camp.
Please do not construe the above as legal advice, anyone contemplating taking action on the IOM loan debt issue should consult his own attorney about his situation.
Tom
i’m a refugee and ive been here for 16 months now and i am paying my loan on time, never been late, and am happy that i got the opportunity to get that loan and come here to the states otherwise i would been stuck in turkey were they charge us more money and fees for the time we spent there, plus alots of refugees will bring some money with them, AND BY THE WAY no one will run outta food here in the states cuz they will keep gitting food stamps as long as their income is low !
This is in response to Ryan. I have been off of my blog for some time now, and only check it sporadically, so you will probably not see this response. However, I did think it was important to reply. There is no simple response to your glib comment, so this is basically a followup statement fleshing out how I feel about this issue, and responding to the specifics of what your wrote. I hope this will cause you to pause and reflect.
Your situation sounds highly unique in comparison to the vast majority of refugees I have worked with. I am glad that you were able to come to America with some money in hand, make a smooth transition, and begin repaying your loan on time. I am also glad that you have had no trouble feeding yourself. However, this is not typical for many refugees. You cannot assume based on your own situation that everyone else has had an easy go of it.
Over the past ten years, I have worked with hundreds of refugees from countries including but not limited to Somalia, Iraq, Burundi, Kosovo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Burma, Eritrea, and Sudan and the overwhelming majority have struggled to repay these loans (however, as noted above the vast majority do repay them). The loan repayment causes a huge financial strain on refugees at a time when they are trying to transition into a new culture and pay for bare necessities. I believe it places an undue burden on people who are already in an overwhelming situation.
To speak to the hunger aspect of this issue, even when refugees (or others) receive food stamps, there is a strict limit each month for how much they receive. The larger the family, the smaller the amount per person. While I have worked with some refugees who come here alone, it is also quite common to see extremely large families with six, seven, and even nine children. For those families, the food stamps budget is never enough.
You can go down to your local DHHS office (or look online) and inquire about rates for a family of six and I think you would be shocked at how little such a family is afforded to eat on for one month. Many families that can’t get enough to eat within their food stamps budget have to turn to charities for help. In these tough economic times, many charities are severely limiting how much food people can take from their pantries, in order to stretch the limited amount of donations. There are also many food pantries with nearly bare shelves and others that have closed their doors.
Just chasing down additional food resources is incredibly difficult for many refugees. Accessing money for bus fares to get to food pantries that aren’t within walking distance, finding time to stand in long lines after work with kids in tow, getting help to fill out forms in a language you don’t understand and/or finding the time to track down papers that prove you are at an income level low enough to get access to charitable food donations, which is a requirement at some nonprofit food pantries, can be daunting. These are all issues that cause some refugees to go hungry rather than utilize such resources. If you don’t have the extra money for bus fare to get to a food pantry, it’s pretty tough to get that extra food you need, isn’t it?
Two years ago, a local charity offered to donate turkeys for Thanksgiving to low income people. Our agency thought we might try to get some for our clients. Then we found out that this charity was demanding so many different forms of proof that the clients were low income (it simply wasn’t good enough that they were listed as refugees through us, which would obviously make them low income) that the leg-work required to get these turkeys would have cost our agency several entire days work from two case managers, to locate all of the paperwork and submit it. This was precious time from case managers that we couldn’t spare. Our clients didn’t get the turkeys. If our agency couldn’t stand up to beraeucratic hoops like these, then imagine how it is for people who are new to this country.
You seem to say that it is impossible to go hungry in America, and I would argue that that is definitely not the case. The Department of Agriculture released a report in November of 2010 that found that, “About 14.7 percent of U.S. households were “food insecure” in 2009, meaning they had difficulty feeding one or more of their members at some point last year due to a lack of financial resources, according to the report. That equates to 17.4 million households total, or roughly 45 million people.”
We are now moving into 2012 and the financial situation has only gotten worse since the USDA report was issued. I can guarantee you that there are hungry people here in America, because I have met them, and sadly, many of them are children. So in conclusion, I would ask you to reserve judgement on the travel loans, based on your own case, and seek out the facts instead. Thanks.