Local officials address refuge program

Local politicians and residents continue to ask questions about the Refugee Resettlement Program, which will bring in citizens from around the world in to live in Spartanburg and Greenville Counties.

Jason Lee, director of the Spartanburg office of World Relief, is providing answers.

World Relief is one of nine nonprofit agencies in the U.S. that work with the federal government to resettle refugees. World Relief has 27 offices across the country and opened the Spartanburg office earlier this year. South Carolina has been involved in refugee efforts since 1992, and one agency, Lutheran Services Carolinas has worked with refugees since 1979, Lee said.

The arrival of World Relief in Spartanburg has many concerned about safety and economics. Concerned citizens met at Byrnes High School on Sunday, Sept. 20 to talk about the issue. Leaders at World Relief were not invited.

In attendance were some of Greenville and Spartanburg’s elected officials.

“I think the issues that are concerning the folks are the same issues concerning to me,” said state Sen. Tom Corbin.
Spartanburg County Councilman Bob Walker attended the Byrnes meeting. His concern is the vetting of refugees coming into the area.

“I share their concerns,” he said. “The problem we have with immigration right now is with illegal immigrants here, and we’re not stopping anybody. Were not trying to protect out homeland. They say they are vetting these people but based on what I’ve seen and heard it’s very difficult to do that.”

Following the meeting, Rep. Bill Chumley is still concerned.

“We kept hearing things about the vetting process and afterwards it became pretty clear that there’s a problem vetting these people,” he said. “I don’t think we’re being completely convinced that that’s a good process.”

In an interview with The Greer Citizen, Lee said the refugees are heavily vetted and the ones coming to South Carolina are mostly persecuted Christians. As far as safety goes, he said, “There’s never been a refugee come through the program that was arrested, convicted and sentenced for committing terrorist acts on U.S. soil. Other programs, yes. Not the refugee resettlement program of over three million.”

In Spartanburg and Greenville counties, World Relief is working with 41 refugees currently, Lee said. That number will grow, but it will not include Syrians.

“We’ve not been approved for Syrians,” Lee said. “Not that we wouldn’t help Syrians, it’s just that they’re not coming through us now or in the foreseeable future or through the other agency in our state.”

Jim Goodroe, director of missions with the Spartanburg County Baptist Network and former spokesman for refugee efforts in Spartanburg with World Relief said other areas have requested Syrians because of an already existing population.

“There are several places in the U.S. that have Syrian communities so it makes more sense to send people where there are those who speak their language.”

Lee explained that Greenville is likely to get Burmese refugees because there’s already a significant population in the county. The same is true of Ukrainians, who have been resettled in Spartanburg County since the 1990s. Lee said there are nine Ukrainian churches in the county.

He also said that the refugees that have already been settled have been motivated to pursue employment and that’s been true across the program.

He spoke of the High Point, North Carolina World Relief office. There they have a 93 percent employment placement rating for employable refugees who have been settled for 60 days.

“It’s not just what jobs do we get for refugees,” Lee began. “It’s what jobs do we turn down. There’s a plethora of employment opportunities in the Upstate, and I could count the job openings of employers in the last month that have contacted us and there’s some 500 openings just in Spartanburg.

“We’re talking 60 refugees. Of those, do we think it’s going to take jobs away from people, the 1.6 million people in the Upstate? We don’t think so. We think it will be an added benefit to the Upstate that has a large international community.”

World Relief officials and partners are trying to get the information out to the people, mostly through talks with churches.

Corbin suggested that maybe the public needs some informational meetings and opportunities to learn more.

“I believe we need to, as they say, take a breath and look at this more in depth,” Corbin said. “The people need to know more. What needs to happen is for more meetings around the county (to occur)–especially Spartanburg and Greenville counties–where people can come and receive information and give input on this and look at some of the other states and their success rates, the problems, and I think that would help us a lot.”

kmaple@greercitizen.com | 877-2076