FigTree Header 10.14

 

Search The Fig Tree's stories of people who make a difference:

Resettling refugees helps communities welcome diverse people

 

Mark Kadel
Mark Kadel offers insights of state of refugee resettlement.

Believing each person is of intrinsic worth and knowing how communities gain as they interact with people of different cultures, Mark Kadel leads World Relief of Spokane as it resettles refugees with the assistance of 30 local congregations and 100 volunteers.

“How many companies bring 528 new people to Spokane to add to the tax base and the community’s diversity?” he asked.  “That’s the number of refugees we resettled in 2014.

“We could resettle more now that the economy has improved and there are more jobs,” said Mark, who has been director of World Relief Spokane since 2010.

For 70 years, since starting after World War II as War Relief, World Relief (WR) has been the humanitarian arm of the National Association of Evangelicals.

Globally, with the help of local churches, WR serves vulnerable people with disaster relief, health care, agricultural development, HIV clinics, microenterprise loans and refugee resettlement.

In Spokane, one of 28 offices in the U.S., the focus is on refugee resettlement and anti-human trafficking awareness.

Resettlement involves case management services, employment services, microenterprise development, matching grants, immigration legal services and citizenship education.

For 35 years, World Relief (WR) has resettled refugees on contract with the U.S. State Department Office of Population, Refugees and Migration.  Today, as one of nine organizations resettling refugees nationally, WR resettles 10 percent of the 70,000 refugees resettled in the U.S. each year.

Of 17.9 million refugees worldwide—the highest number since World War II—the U.S. resettles less than .5 percent in any given year, Mark said.

The Spokane office, which opened in 1992, is one of five agencies in Washington and is now the only agency resettling refugees locally.  After 2001, Catholic Charities stopped resettling refugees in Spokane.  Church World Service resettled refugees until the 1990s.

Between its Spokane, Kent and Tri Cities offices, World Relief resettles more than 50 percent of refugees in Washington, with 20 percent of all refugees in the state coming to Spokane.   Other Washington resettlement agencies are Lutheran Community Services, Catholic Charities, International Rescue Committee and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

“A refugee is someone forced to flee a country because of persecution based on race, religion, nationality or political opinion,” said Mark.  “Most refugees come from areas in conflict.”

The top 10 countries refugees fled in 2014 were Bhutan, Burma, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran, Eritrea, Sudan, Ethiopia and Syria.

“In 2015, we will resettle the same number as in 2014, including people from Syria and Colombia, along with people from Iraq, Afghanistan, Burma, Congo, Sudan and Cuba. Refugees from former Soviet Union states such as Armenia, Moldova, Belarus and Russia now come as part of family reunions,” said Mark.

“Today, the U.S. opens its doors to a select few, many with PhDs who speak five languages, plus doctors and engineers.  People fleeing from Burma’s jungles, however, may lack the basic skills to open doors in the U.S.  They seek an opportunity to start their lives over,” Mark said.

• In Congo, more than 6 million have been killed in 10 years.

• In Burundi, people flee ethnic cleansing, walking to safety.

• Burmese Karen fled through jungles, facing dangers because their children were recruited into the military to go into fields to check for land mines.

• Burmese Karen crossing the Thai border built schools.  When Myanmar soldiers shot mortars into their camp, they fled into the jungle and then returned to fix the camp.

• In Darfur, Christian Sudanese and Muslims in the North are fighting.  Many have lived there in deplorable conditions since the early 1990s.

• After Damascus, Syria, was bombed, Syrian families longed to go to a UN refugee camp, expecting to stay a few months.  Some have been there 17 years.  To go that long without being repatriated to a third country is not a solution, Mark said.

• The second largest refugee camp in the world is in Jordan with more than 400,000 Syrian refugees.  It lacks staff for security. 

Since 2011, 3 million Syrians have fled.  Many were internally displaced. One in seven people in Lebanon and one in 10 in Jordan are Syrian refugees. Syrians flee because, with 70 factions fighting, everyone faces persecution.

This year, Spokane’s small Muslim community helped a Syrian family of seven, who came to Spokane from Jordan.

Mark reassures people concerned that terrorists might be resettled.  He said refugees must be cleared for security and disease by five federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security and the UN High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR).

Because misinformation can lead to xenophobia, Mark informs people about the refugees.

Spokane will resettle a few of about 3,000 Syrian refugees the State Department has approved.

“Syrians have suffered immense trauma,” he said.  “The family here lived less than a mile from the Jordan border.  It took them two years to escape through military surrounding their town.”

Because refugees suffer some degree of PTSD, WR connects them with mental health professionals at Lutheran Community Services Northwest in Spokane. 

While WR is the official sponsor, its contract with the State Department requires it to recruit volunteers and community support.  It invites donations of furniture and funds.  Every dollar donated is matched two-to-one, so $1,000 becomes $3,000 to help with rent and initial living expenses.

World Relief Spokane has a $2 million annual budget from private donations and state grants. 

“Spokane is welcoming.  We offer new arrivals a meal of familiar food, settle them in apartments, and help them to adjust and move to self sufficiency,” he said.  “Many are employed and pay taxes within six months.  They qualify for a green card within a year and can apply to be citizens after five years. 

“Refugees come full of hope and thankful for the slightest help,” Mark said. 

Staff and volunteers need to explain about living in an apartment, because stoves, ovens, microwaves and refrigerators are new to many.  They also introduce refugees to supermarkets.

World Relief teaches English, life skills, resume writing, job interview tips and job skills.

“Employers call us because they love how hard refugees work,” Mark said. 

WR’s microenterprise development program helps with small loans open businesses.

It partners with Spokane Community Colleges to help refugees with professional skills be certified.  Medical degrees are not recognized, so doctors do other health care work.

“We are a nation of immigrants. Many have fled their homelands to come to the U.S. While the first generation wants to keep their language and customs, the second wants to be American,” said Mark who is eight generations removed from his German ancestors.

“Our mission is to empower local churches to serve the vulnerable,” Mark said.  “We give members tools, so they can do what the church does best: show Jesus’ unconditional love.  We partner with churches who want to do mission without leaving home.

“We are always looking for volunteers,” he said.  “Volunteers welcome refugees at the airport. Volunteerism is new to refugees.”

“It’s rewarding to see how thankful refugees are for kindness they experience.  We want them to find peace here,” he said.

Half of WR Spokane’s 35 staff, who speak 25 languages, are former refugees, foreign born or lived abroad.  Mark, his wife and family spent nine years in the 1990s as missionaries in Albania, Kosovo and Greece, helping repatriate refugees.  After the Kosovo genocide, 98 percent of the Albanians who fled later returned.

After some college, Mark worked 21 years as a baker before going to the Balkans.  In 2002, when he returned, WR in Boise hired him.  From 2007 to 2010, he served WR in North Carolina.

“I am thankful every day for the love, grace, mercy and hope my Savior gives me.  I let God work through me to love and welcome strangers,” he said.  “As we do to the least of these, we do to Jesus.”

When he is not speaking in churches, Mark and his wife attend Life Center North. 

Each year WR joins other refugee agencies to celebrate World Refugee Day on June 20.  The event includes a citizenship ceremony, and recognition of volunteers and service providers.

For information, call 484-9829, email wrspokane@wr.org or visit worldreliefspokane.org.





Copyright © May 2015 - The Fig Tree