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babylonsister

(170,964 posts)
Thu May 25, 2017, 10:12 AM May 2017

This small town in America's Deep South welcomes 1,500 refugees a year

Georgia!!


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/clarkston-georgia-refugee-resettlement-program

This small town in America's Deep South welcomes 1,500 refugees a year

How does a dusty, working-class town in Georgia not only manage to rehome thousands of refugees, but make them integral to the town’s sense of identity?

Katy Long in Clarkston, Georgia
Wednesday 24 May 2017 07.00 EDT



Clarkston, a small town in Georgia, has received over 40,000 refugees over the past 25 years. They come from every corner of the globe. This year there are more Congolese than Syrians; past waves of refugee resettlement have brought Bhutanese, Eritreans, Ethiopians, Somalis, Sudanese, Liberians, Vietnamese.

All have landed in an otherwise unremarkable city in the Deep South, population 13,000.

Look beyond the 1970s strip malls, apartment complexes and parking lots, and there are sights rarely seen elsewhere in America. Beige storefronts are topped by signs in Amharic and Nepali scripts, with evocative English translations: Balageru Food Mart, African Cultural and Injera Grocers, Numsok Oriental Grocers. Women gather nearby wearing bright African headscarves, and others cross the street in traditional Asian silk dresses, long black hair braided down their backs.

But foreigners are not the only migrants to Clarkston. The self-proclaimed “Ellis Island of the south” is now seeing not only refugees and poor immigrants arrive. Its reputation has prompted a swell of middle-class professional Americans, who – in the words of the city’s 34-year-old mayor, Ted Terry – are “in search of all the trappings of diversity”.

Terry, who has a hipster beard, checked shirt and odd socks, was welcoming a delegation from the Middle East, who had come to see how Clarkston manages its diverse refugee community.

“My goal with Clarkston is to showcase it,” he explained. “I didn’t make this place a compassionate community – yes, we enshrined it in an official way, but it was a compassionate and welcoming community long before I got here.”

How does this happen? How does a dusty, working-class city in the south not only manage to house 1,500 refugees per year, but make their welcome integral to the town’s sense of identity?

It turns out the story of Clarkston is not just about who is being welcomed: it’s also a story about who is doing the welcoming.

more...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/may/24/clarkston-georgia-refugee-resettlement-program

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This small town in America's Deep South welcomes 1,500 refugees a year (Original Post) babylonsister May 2017 OP
Fantastic...thanks for sharing! Tanuki May 2017 #1
WooHoo! Good news! Phoenix61 May 2017 #2
K&R !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is hope !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t RKP5637 May 2017 #3
Another refugee resettlement program in rural Georgia is Jubilee Partners, which has been going on Tanuki May 2017 #4
There was a very good book written about this. brer cat May 2017 #5

Phoenix61

(16,954 posts)
2. WooHoo! Good news!
Thu May 25, 2017, 10:39 AM
May 2017

Amazing what can happen when people are willing to let go of fear and recognize we are all human beings who are more alike than different.

Tanuki

(14,893 posts)
4. Another refugee resettlement program in rural Georgia is Jubilee Partners, which has been going on
Thu May 25, 2017, 10:46 AM
May 2017

since the 1970's and originated as a spin-off of the Koinonia Farm in Americus, which also started Habitat for Humanity.

http://www.jubileepartners.org/

..."We feel privileged as a Christian community to be able to host people from all over the world and from many religious and ethnic backgrounds. Jubilee becomes a safe place for the refugees where they can study English, get acquainted with their new country, rest, play, regain their health, and begin their new lives in an environment of love and support.

While at Jubilee

We work together with sponsoring agencies in Atlanta to place refugees at Jubilee who will especially benefit from the extra assistance Jubilee provides, such as people who need English, those who are making a large cultural leap, or single mothers with children. We provide a residential program to these newly-arrived refugees, who typically live at Jubilee for about two months. During that time we provide:

A comfortable house located next to our English school and playground
Intensive English language classes
Childcare for small children while parents are in classes
Assistance in obtaining Social Security cards, initial health screenings, and other medical care as needed
Transportation and assistance with weekly shopping trips
Practical, Cultural, and Information Classes, such as: Cooking, Household Care, Banking and Money Management, Working in the U.S., Apartment Living, Legal Rights and Responsibilities
Field Trips: local zoo, public library

All of these services are joyfully provided to refugees without cost to them, the sponsoring agency, or the U.S. government. We are able to do this because of the generous support of the many "partners" who support our work.

Hospitality

While all of these services are important and necessary, we believe that the greatest gift we give to the refugees is our hospitality. We welcome them to a peaceful place where they can recover from the stresses of war and refugee camps, make friends with North Americans, and feel hope for the human race again. We build strong bonds of love and understanding in both directions. It's a good process, in which we help the "broken victims go free" while they help us to "recover our sight".

Beyond Jubilee...

For many years we have collaborated with two resettlement agencies in Atlanta: the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and the Refugee Resettlement and Immigration Services Agency (RRISA). After a two month stay at Jubilee, refugees move on to Atlanta where IRC or RRISA has a furnished apartment waiting and will assist the family in finding work, enrolling in school, and the many other needs that permanent resettlement involves. In recent years many Karen and Karenni have chosen to resettle in and around our small town of Comer. We are so thankful to have long-term relationships with these neighbors. Some of these neighbors are a part of our ESOL classes and help with translation.".....

brer cat

(24,402 posts)
5. There was a very good book written about this.
Thu May 25, 2017, 10:51 AM
May 2017

Outcasts United by Warren St. James tells about the early period of this program. It's a good read.

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