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Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
24,355
31,947
Somali Refugees Are Leaving Arizona in Large Numbers; Here's Why

The keys had already been dropped off at the leasing office for La Mirada, a modest beige stucco apartment complex located on Northern Avenue in Sunnyslope.

Bilad Yusuf and her seven kids were on their way to Minnesota, less than two months after they arrived in Phoenix.

"We didn't know how to get jobs here, and even if we did, we didn't know how we'd get to them," she explained through an interpreter who translated from Somali to English.

After waiting for six years in a refugee camp, Yusuf and her family arrived in the United States this winter amidst the chaos surrounding the Trump administration's attempt to block Somali immigrants like them from entering the country.
Following a brief stop in Houston, they were transferred to Phoenix. There, stranded in the urban sprawl without a car, they found themselves lost: Where were they supposed to get groceries? How did they go about setting up long-overdue doctor's appointments? How would they pay rent after their initial stipend from the U.S. government ran out?

The Somali Association of Arizona stepped in, providing groceries and setting up doctor's appointments for the refugees. But they couldn't do anything about the fact that the fact that with limited English and no training, Yusuf and her older children weren't qualified for many jobs.

So, worried that her rent would be cut off soon, Yusuf ultimately decided they should move to Minnesota, where she, like virtually all Somalis, has family.
The hope is that there will be more job opportunities there, as well as a larger support network. But Yusuf says she'd like to return to Phoenix one day.

'If opportunity calls in Arizona, I'm coming," she said in Somali.

Mukhtar Sheikh, the program coordinator for the Somali Association of Arizona, says that Yusuf's story is a common one.

Between 1981 and 2017, Arizona took in 7,351 Somali refugees, according to Department of Economic Security statistics. But how many of those refugees actually stay in the state is another question.

Sheikh estimates that as many as half the Somali refugees resettled in Arizona end up leaving — typically for Minnesota, or other parts of the country where there's a large Somali community — because they're unable to find jobs here.

"I think Arizona is able to do more for refugees, to be honest," he says. "If Arizona invested in these families, it would actually benefit the state, because they're really hardworking."
 

Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
24,355
31,947
The guesses of where North Korea is from the people who said they want to pre-emptively nuke North Korea.
 
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Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
24,355
31,947
And they are still in the doghouse for ousting him.
Well, yes, when you crackdown on all your political opponents, then the ones who finally manage to oust you will be powerful enough to hold power for a long time. While also having a population already conditioned to accept autocracy. It's not to say that the religious nuts in charge of Iran are good, but to accept the West's role in creating this situation in the first place.
 
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Zeph

TMMAC Addict
Jan 22, 2015
24,355
31,947
The guesses of where North Korea is from the people who said they want to pre-emptively nuke North Korea.
what gets me about this is the people who picked south Sri Lanka. Not the north of Sri Lanka, the south.
 

Shinkicker

For what it's worth
Jan 30, 2016
10,417
13,883
Well, yes, when you crackdown on all your political opponents, then the ones who finally manage to oust you will be powerful enough to hold power for a long time. While also having a population already conditioned to accept autocracy. It's not to say that the religious nuts in charge of Iran is good, but to accept the West's role in creating this situation in the first place.
If we accept it, will you hush about it?
 

Qat

QoQ
Nov 3, 2015
16,385
22,488
Well, yes, when you crackdown on all your political opponents, then the ones who finally manage to oust you will be powerful enough to hold power for a long time. While also having a population already conditioned to accept autocracy. It's not to say that the religious nuts in charge of Iran is good, but to accept the West's role in creating this situation in the first place.
Of course its a far than perfect country, but yeah I feel this case is such a strong example of the US being a heinous bully and instead of understanding the hate and acting soothing, they just pile on more. While I believe that in actuality Iran would be a more preferable ally than Saudi Arabia is.
An Trump ran on bullying em more as well.