Refugee advocate speaks at bookstore

WINSTED —  On Saturday, April 1, Chris George, executive director of Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services (IRIS) in New Haven, spoke at the Winsted Community Bookstore.

George said that he has been helping both refugees and immigrants find new places to live in the state for the past decade.

During his talk he spoke about the rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies across the country.

George said he is now on a mission to educate people as to the reality of refugees and the screening process.

He also spoke about what IRIS and other similar organizations are doing, but also how individuals and communities can help.

“If I’ve learned anything over these 12 years [with IRIS] it is that if people understand the refugee program and if they understand the process, the vetting process in particular, if they even have a chance to meet refugees, they will support the refugee resettlement program,” George said to the 20 people in the audience at the bookstore.

George said he has had a long career with humanitarian organizations spanning three decades that has included overseas work with Save the Children and the Peace Corps.

He has lived in Lebanon, Palestine and Oman, among other places. 

Since 2005, he has utilized his experience to facilitate the relocation of refugees to Connecticut through IRIS. 

George said that with President Donald J. Trump and others continuing to perpetuate falsehoods about the program and stoking a worldwide rhetoric of fear and hatred for refugees, he felt obligated to set the record straight as to what he does and everything that goes into resettling a refugee family in the United States.

“I think it’s the best thing this country does,” said George. “Welcoming persecuted people from all over the world in that great tradition of the Statue of Liberty and helping them start new lives. It strengthens our economy, diversifies our community, makes us strong and makes us proud. All of it came to an end on Jan. 27 when the President of the United States signed an executive order.”

During his talk, while George concentrated his focus mostly on the practical function and machinations of the refugee program, he made no secret of the fact that recent words and actions of the Trump Administration elicited his campaign to reach out to people and dispel myths and lies about refugees in the United States.

George specifically referenced a tweet by President Trump sent in February that claimed that people are “pouring in” to the United States through a refugee program.

George spent the first half an hour of his talk  describing in minute detail the process by which refugees are screened by the the U.S. government.

He said that the process takes around two years and includes vetting, background checks and forensic checks by the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and collaborative intelligence sharing with the United Nations and the governments of other countries.

George said that thousands of people are screened out of the program due to any slight discrepancy or doubt based on all this information.

“If you were a ‘bad dude’ in Damascus and you were sitting with a ‘bad dudette’ at a cafe, scheming to come to the United States to kill people, you would not say, ‘Let’s get there through the U.S. Government’s refugee resettlement vetting process,” George said. 

Once refugees are screened, George said, IRIS or one of the 350 similar organizations around the country work with another larger non-profit as well as the U.S. State Department to find homes and jobs for these families.

George said that the organizations do everything from providing furniture to teaching after-school programs.

George called this arrangement between organizations and branches of the government “the most efficient public-private partnership in this country.”

He praised Connecticut in particular, which, under Governor Dannel P. Malloy (D), is actually increasing the number of refugees it takes in next year, from 530 people in 2016 to over 900, even as cuts at the federal level reduce budget and staff. 

George said that it costs around $17,000 to bring a refugee from overseas into a new home in the United States.

He said a little over half of IRIS’s budget comes from the federal government with some money funded privately and a huge amount of resources and manhours coming from volunteers.

One way Connecticut has been exceptional, something that George said is “not happening, at this level, in any other state,” is the practice of community co-sponsorship of refugees.

He said that since October of 2015, 60 local organizations, ranging from synagogues to used car dealerships, have worked directly with IRIS to bring a refugee family to their communities, doing everything from finding housing to cooking food to meeting the family at the airport.

“It should be more,” said George, “But we’re getting there.”

George said this outpouring of support has brought the attention of people in Washington D.C, and could serve as a model for many other states as how to best welcome and provide for refugees.

Near the end of the talk a young man, who George identified as someone IRIS had helped settle in Cheshire six years ago after his family fled Iran, stood and thanked George for everything the program had done for him.

He said he was graduating from Central Connecticut State University this spring with a business degree, and that he and his family had found an incredibly welcoming community thanks to IRIS and others involved in the refugee program.

George said this story was typical of what he saw in his work.

Despite all these positives, George said that there are still plenty of unknowns in the future. 

He said that Trump’s decisions at the federal level have already resulted in major cutbacks within the refugee program, with IRIS seeing its federal allowance sliced in half. An executive order signed by Trump cutting the number of refugees taken in by the U.S. from 70,000 a year to 40,000 a year was suspended by a federal judge last month, but that decision will be challenged by the Justice Department.

“We don’t know what’s going to happen,” said George.

Regardless of any legislative or judicial action, past or future, George said he continues to have faith in the generosity and care shown by the people of Connecticut.

“There is no better way for a refugee family to start a new life in this country than to have a group of people in their neighborhood, in their community, helping them every step of the way,” George said. 

For more information on IRIS and the refugee program, go to www.irisct.org.