New York Times: “Ailing Vermont Town Pins Hopes on Mideast Refugees”

In late 2015, when thirty governors from states across the country announced they didn’t want to resettle Syrian refugees, Christopher Louras, the mayor of Rutland, Vermont, sent the state’s Democratic governor a text. That text was to see if they could bring refugees to Rutland, a small town in rural Vermont. In September last year the State Department officially selected the city as a resettlement site. “I saw that as an opportunity to grow our population, bring in individuals, families, new Americans from Syria who have a strong work ethic, who were fleeing for their lives and looking to rebuild those shattered lives,” Louras tells the New York Times.

Rutland, with a population of 15,824, has lost residents since 2000. Some Rutlanders including Mayor Louras see refugee resettlement as an economic remedy to their shrinking city, while others are concerned about whether the city can absorb the newcomers. “Rutland’s demographic condition right now is not just one of a declining population, but it’s also a graying population,” says Louras, who became the mayor as a Republican, but is now an independent. “We need people.” 

The plan has divided the city. Rutland First, an organization opposed to the refugee resettlement, says that they “are a group of sympathetic and deeply concerned Rutland residents, who understand the sufferings and displacements not only of Syrians but of other in strife-torn areas of the world” but that nevertheless “do not think this decision should be based on feelings of kindness.” They explain: 

We are aware of burdens experienced by some communities who have accepted refugess as well as difficulties of those resettled. We think we must understand facts that have not been forthcoming and must consider the consequences of refugee resttlement in our City. Rutland has numerous unaddressed problems.

Members of Rutland First claim their concerns are strictly economic. “We’re kind of stuck out here, with our level of economic depression, with our level of crime and drug issues,” Timothy Cook, a doctor and an Army Reserve colonel who is part of Rutland First, says. “We’re the ones who are gonna have to foot the bill for this.” There are, of course, others who oppose Syrian resettlement. President-Elect Trump made a campaign process to suspend the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the US.

Rutland isn’t the only city welcoming refugees and immigrants for economic reasons. Cities in the Rust Belt, such as Pittsburgh and Dayton, Ohio, as well as in Maine and upstate New York, have set up services and organizations to connect immigrants and refugees with job opportunities. “Over the last couple of decades, especially in the last ten years, places have started to develop strategies to attract and retain immigrants and resettle refugees in order to boost their economic activity,” Audrey Singer, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has studied refugee resettlement in American cities, tells the New York Times. “We’ve seen a few neighborhoods kind of turn around because of immigrants and refugees moving in,” Melissa Bertolo, the coordinator for Welcome Dayton, says. She says that cities in the Rust Belt are “all looking at how immigrant integration plays a part in the revitalization of a city.”

“I think we’re right on the beginning of the cusp of serious, serious labor problems,” Art Woolf, an associate professor of economics at the University of Vermont, says. He believes that the state’s unemployment rate, at 3.6 percent, is a sign of trouble to come. “We’re low because there’s nobody available to work.” Additional population loss could potentially make it more difficult for the remaining major employers, including General Electric plants that make aircraft engine parts and the Rutland Regional Medical Center, to stay. Resettlement, says Lyle Jepson, the executive director of the Rutland Economic Development Corporation, is “supporting people when they need help.” But he says: “Frankly, we need help. We need people to join our community.”

US Implements Key Changes to the Visa Waiver Program for Certain Travelers

The US State Department last week implemented key changes to the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), used by nationals of thirty-eight countries to travel to the US on a short-term basis. Under the Visa Waiver Program Improvement and Terrorist Travel Prevention Act of 2015, travelers in certain categories are no longer eligible to travel or be admitted to the US under the VWP, also referred to as the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). These travelers include:  

• Nationals of VWP countries who have traveled to or been present in Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria on or after March 1, 2011 (with limited exceptions for travel for diplomatic or military purposes in the service of a VWP country).
• Nationals of VWP countries who are also nationals of Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria.

Effective January 21, 2016, the State Department has revoked ESTA for travelers who have previously indicated they hold dual nationality with one of the countries listed above on their ESTA applications. These individuals will still be able to apply for a visa using the regular nonimmigrant visa process at US Embassies and Consulates abroad, and applicants who need to travel for urgent business, medical, or humanitarian reasons can request that their applications be expedited. Applicants will be required to attend an in-person interview at the US Embassy/Consulate and obtain a visa in their passport before traveling to the US.

Under this new law, the Obama administration has included waivers for certain individuals who have traveled to Iran, Iraq, Sudan, or Syria on behalf of international organizations, regional organizations, and sub-national governments on official duty, or on behalf of a humanitarian NGO on official duty, or as a journalist for reporting purposes. In addition, individuals who traveled to Iran for “legitimate business-related purposes” following the conclusion of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (July 14, 2015) and individuals who traveled to Iraq again for “legitimate business-related purposes” may also be eligible for the waiver, which is determined on a case-by-case basis. Republicans have condemned these additional waivers saying that the Obama administration abused a minor provision in the law to add them with the sole intent of placating Iran.

The State Department notes that the “new law does not ban travel to the United States, or admission into the United States, and the great majority of VWP travelers will not be affected by the legislation.”

The new law has many critics. "It is wrong and un-American to punish groups without reason solely based on their nationality, national origin, religion, gender, or other protected grounds," the ACLU wrote in a letter to Congress in December when the bill was passed. Journalist Ali Gharib in the Guardian says that the new restrictions for Iranians are “motivated by hatred” and are ineffective, nonsensical, and won’t make Americans any safer.

Current ESTA holders can check their ESTA status prior to travel on the Customs and Border Protection website, which is advisable before trips are booked and made to the US.

The Ongoing Syrian Refugee Crisis

With more than half of the nation’s governors opposing the resettlement of Syrians in their states, and the House of Representatives passing legislation that would increase security checks and make it even more difficult for refugees from Syria and Iraq to enter the US, there is a wave of anti-refugee and anti-immigrant fervor sweeping parts of the country. Presidential candidates and elected officials have even suggested closing mosques, detaining Syrian refugees already in the country, and creating a government registry for Muslims. Airline passengers with Middle Eastern and “Muslim” sounding-names have experienced an increase in racial profiling after the Paris attacks, and Syrians already in the US are fearing a backlash.

With all this fear and negativity, comedian John Olivier has taken on the critics of refugee resettlement with great intelligence and verve by explaining the extensive security screening process for refugees and also importantly by sharing the story of one Syrian migrant girl. In this vein, here are a few more stories of Syrian refugees.

Radwan and Sanaa

In late 2011, as the government of President Bashar al-Assad cracked down on the rebellious city of Homs, Syria, Radwan Mughrbel and his wife Sanaa Hammadeh decided to leave their country. The war, the bombings, snipers and random violence had forced many residents indoors, and Sanaa was afraid to leave their home to shop for fresh food. The family resorted to eating moldy bread on some days, and they were especially afraid their sons, Soubei and Ahmad, who were then in their early teens, would be kidnapped. “The government would see kids on the street and take them, beat them,” she says in the New York Times. We didn’t want them to kidnap our children.”

They left Syria in November 2011, with only a single change of clothes, and spent years in Jordan trying to obtain refugee status. When the United Nations refugee agency asked where they wanted to resettle, the answer to them was clear. “America,” Radwan says. “They brought us here, and I feel safe, like nothing bad can happen to us. Now we have a beautiful life.” He became upset at the suggestion that refugees like him could be a threat. “We didn’t cross illegally,” he says. “We went through hell to get here.”

On their first morning in their new Michigan apartment, they admired the lawns and trees. “We didn’t walk around because we were afraid we would get lost,” Radwan says. “When I saw all the grass,” Sanaa adds. “I felt that I was reborn.”

Fayez and Shaza

Fayez and his wife Shaza fled from Daraa, Syria to Jordan in 2013, where they applied for refugee status in the US. After the two-year application process, they moved near Dallas this past February and are now raising two daughters—an infant and a toddler.

"I am happy because I live [in] America," Fayez, who works at Walmart, told CBS News. While the couple was concerned about their own safety after protesters at a mosque in Dallas, Fayez said in his opinion “it's impossible that any terrorist can come to America through a refugee program, which requires a six- or seven-month-long background check.”

Nidal Alhayak

Nidal Alhayak fled Syria with his wife in 2012, where he’d been tortured and imprisoned by the Assad regime, and crossed over the border to Jordan where he applied for asylum to the US. He explains the refugee application process to NPR: "There are six different interviews with the Homeland Security committee where they asked us the same questions just to check for consistency in the story…So, it would be impossible for me to make up a story or lie about it because they would vet us out and make sure everything was right."

After more than two years of the application process, he got a phone call telling him that he and his wife would be resettled in the United States. "Before I got the phone call, I was the kind of person who had given up on life. But then this phone call was like a breath of fresh air that blew life back into me," he says. "First of all, I consider myself fortunate that I made it to the United States," he says. "I consider it the number one country for democracy and freedom for humanity, worldwide." 

Nidal, who now works at a factory in Michigan and is still learning English, says he understands how some might be concerned about ISIS infiltrating the refugee program. "I totally understand their fear," he says. "I want to assure them we're not like that. We went through a lot. We went through terror ourselves. And there's no way in the world we'd do such a horrible act."

These are just a few stories out of the millions of Syrian refugees, and there are many more sharing heartbreaking tales of their escape from their country’s brutal civil war. Despite the anti-refugee sentiment popular among many political leaders, not everyone in the US wants to turn Syrians away. Aid groups are continuing to assist in resettling refugees, and doumentary filmmaker Michael Moore says they can live at his house.

Humans of New York: Migrant Crisis

As the U.N. General Assembly opens with a strong focus on Syria and the refugee crisis, and Europe and the United States continue to address the ever-growing number of refugees, it’s important to remember the human side of the story behind all the politics. And there are few better photographers for presenting the human side of any story than Humans of New York's Brandon Stanton. 

Humans of New York (HONY) was started by the Georgia native when after being fired from his job as a bond trader, he "thought it would be really cool to create an exhaustive catalogue of New York City’s inhabitants, so [he]…set out to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers and plot their photos on a map" but then his project "began to take on a much different character." Stanton started collecting quotes and short stories when he was taking the photographs, and after a lot of hard work and time spent on NYC city streets (he says that he'll "pass 1,000 people before I take a photograph"), his blog took off.

Millions of Different Hardships

With over fifteen million likes on Facebook and a New York Times bestselling book, HONY is one of the most popular street photography sites today. And now Stanton is bringing his unique focus to the refugee crisis gripping the Middle East, North Arica, and Europe. Noting that these migrants “are part of one of the largest population movements in modern history,” Stanton will be documenting their stories and the “millions of different hardships that refugees face as they search for a new home.”

The first story he shares is of Muhammad, who he first met last year in Iraqi Kurdistan. At the time, Muhammad had just fled the war in Syria and was working as a clerk in a hotel when he agreed to work as Stanton’s interpreter. Afterwards Muhammad had planned to travel to the United Kingdom with fake papers, but his plans did not work out. After one family tragedy after another, he makes a harrowing journey and finally ends up in Austria.

Muhammad says:    

The first day I was there, I walked into a bakery and met a man named Fritz Hummel. He told me that forty years ago he had visited Syria and he’d been treated well. So he gave me clothes, food, everything. He became like a father to me. He took me to the Rotary Club and introduced me to the entire group. He told them my story and asked: ‘How can we help him?’ I found a church, and they gave me a place to live. Right away I committed myself to learning the language. I practiced German for 17 hours a day. I read children’s stories all day long. I watched television. I tried to meet as many Austrians as possible. After seven months, it was time to meet with a judge to determine my status. I could speak so well at this point, that I asked the judge if we could conduct the interview in German. He couldn’t believe it. He was so impressed that I’d already learned German, that he interviewed me for only ten minutes. Then he pointed at my Syrian ID card and said: ‘Muhammad, you will never need this again. You are now an Austrian!’

New stories are being added every day.

Where the Children Sleep

Along with HONY, Swedish photographer Magnus Wennman is also currently documenting the refugee crisis with a strong focus on the individual stories of the people involved. In “Where the Children Sleep,” Wennman focuses on the migrant children sleeping on streets and in forests. He notes that “two million children are fleeing the war, within and outside of the country borders. They have left their friends, their homes, and their beds behind. A few of these children offered to show where they sleep now, when everything that once was no longer exists.”