wfn.org | Episcopal Migration Ministries rated best

[Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>]

For more information contact:
Episcopal News Service
Kathryn McCormick
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99-042
Episcopal Migration Ministries rated best in refugee resettlement
by Kathryn McCormick
(ENS) The Episcopal Migration Ministries (EMM) program has again been
designated by the U.S. State Department as the best at providing the
complicated and compassionate services needed to resettle refugees in
the United States.

The announcement was made in early March by the Department's Bureau of
Population, Refugees and Migration, which strictly monitors the nine
agencies with which it contracts to do the resettlement work. The bureau
issues ratings annually, after compiling a "resettlement score" of
statistics measuring the effectiveness of each agency's efforts.

"This is extraordinary," said Richard Parkins, director of EMM, "because
we're among the smallest of the resettlement agencies." EMM last year
placed 2,750 refugees; by contrast, the U.S. Catholic Conference placed
about 21,000.

This is the second time in three years that EMM has been ranked Number
1, he said. Last year it was ranked Number 2.

"More than any of the scores can adequately reflect," wrote Theresa
Rusch, the bureau's director of admissions, in a letter to Parkins, "the
resettlement staff at EMM has consistently demonstrated a commitment to
high quality refugee resettlement and willingness to cooperate with the
bureau on a variety of resettlement issues."

"I take particular pride in what we and our diocesan affiliates have
accomplished," Parkins said of his program's work, "because we are
minimally staffed. Such an achievement doesn't come easily to a staff as
strapped as we are or to local programs that are constantly seeking
resources."
Complicated network
With a handful of assistants, Parkins oversees a complicated network of
diocesan affiliates, including many volunteers, who reach out to a huge
array of sponsors, employers and others willing to provide support.
Together they all work efficiently and compassionately to make new homes
for people whose lives have been torn by war or political upheaval. 

All of the people helped by the Migration Ministries office fall under
criteria established by the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, Parkins explained. The definition is very specific and applies
only to persons who have left their home countries without a practical
hope of returning to resume their lives. People who have been displaced
from their homes but who are still within their home countries' borders
are not eligible for resettlement in the U.S.

Declaring that bringing refugees to the U.S. "is a team effort in every
sense of the word," Parkins said a refugee's journey to resettlement
typically begins with applications and interviews while she is still in
a refugee camp overseas. About 80 percent of the refugees are women and
their dependents, Parkins said.

Migration Ministries does the paperwork to get the refugee to the U.S.,
he said. Once here, the refugee is placed in the care of a sponsor, and
is given a job and a place to live as well as other support.

"It's all a very structured system with many requirements," Parkins
said, but he stressed that an agency is judged not simply by its ability
to follow the rules but to "do good placement." That means, he said,
"finding a good fit" for a refugee with a sponsor who is sensitive to
her needs, an employer who will help her keep her job and a community
where she can find help from a range of people, including some from the
refugee's home country. 

About half of EMM's caseload involves reuniting family members, he said.
The other half involves people who are on their own. All refugees are
helped, regardless of their religious beliefs-and, Parkins added, the
resettlement effort is both ecumenical and interfaith. 
Refugees need friends
The Episcopal Migration Ministries operation is funded primarily by the
U.S. State Department, which pays EMM $740 per refugee to cover costs.

"Obviously, that doesn't begin to cover the actual costs," Parkins said.
"We depend heavily on donations, dedicated volunteer help and diocesan
and parish support." Most of the money received by the EMM office is
passed on to its diocesan affiliates who carry out the actual
resettlement process.

Migration Ministries and its affiliates currently are working to get
more churches involved in sponsoring refugees. At this point, there are
14 to 15 million refugees worldwide, he said, "but we're working with
them one at a time, just like Jesus did most of his ministry.

"What refugees need most are friends," Parkins said. "They've been
uprooted, often they've languished in awful refugee camps. They are
victims of unimaginable violence and tragedy, and of their own despair.
We have to restore each refugee's confidence in himself or herself; help
them believe again in the possibility of compassion."
--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News and
Information of the Episcopal Church.