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5 thoughts on “Study: Indiana’s growing refugee population needs language services, housing, job access”

    1. My guess is CRISP came up with it on their own – otherwise, it would have probably said something such as “group.xyz commissioned CRISP to study…” Or, someone is ashamed to say they solicited CRISP to work on it.
      .
      The state is sitting on a few bazillion dollars – I’m sure they could sponsor some classes – and not just for our new residents — why not classes (college credit?) for Indiana residents who might be interested in taking a class our new neighbors could teach – especially if it were via a college/university – then people wouldn’t be limited to just a fallback for Spanish/Japanese/Chinese. And what about helping our new neighbors start some restaurants? Back when I was going to juggling festivals, one of the fun things about the one at IU was getting a group together and going to visit Snow Lion’s Tibetan fare. I’m always open to offbeat restaurants which are very rare. Having a high school class of 395 with fewer than 10-12 classmates who weren’t as pasty white as I am, I was enthralled with Taylor’s international community.

  2. Since Americans that were born here don’t want to take advantage of all the now hiring sigs everywhere, I see this influx of refugees as a good source of workforce. Americans rather sit at the corner of a busy intersection and beg for lose change than to apply at the many different business hiring all over Marion county. Im sure these refugees would gladly take one of the many jobs available.

    1. On the south side there has been a huge influx of Burmese. They have been
      a boon to our economy.
      Without the. Marion County would be losing more population.

    2. While I certainly reserve no more than minimal sympathy to the people sitting at an intersection with a cardboard sign, one of the reasons we have such a rock-bottom labor force participation rate is because of how lucrative it has become not to work, in the wake of PPP and other such handouts. And the high work ethic of the Burmese is indeed a boon to the economy.

      But let’s not forget the four decades worth of stagnant wages, which have generally failed to keep pace with inflation in the best of times…let alone now (the worst of times, at least so far). Subjecting a labor market to a massive surge in labor, most of it coming in pursuit of jobs that pay less than median–is a great way to ensure wages stay low. There’s no need to cultivate skills with long-term workers because it’s more lucrative to bring new ones on board at rock bottom wages, then provide on-the-job training.

      It’s hard to deny that the Christian community of Myanmar is facing persecution from the Buddhist majority, and the arrivals in Indy fit the definition of “refugee” far better than those who are simply “escaping violence at home”. (How long before the violence in the US surpasses the violence at home? Some US cities–perhaps Indy among them–have worse homicide rates than many of their peer cities in Latin America.) But an unchecked and undermined immigration system, combined with an over-generous definition of the term refugee, will do nothing to help those stagnant wages. A well-calibrated relief to those suffering religious persecution is a commendable act of charity; unbridled immigration is a direct attack on the livelihoods of the American working class, many of whom are a mere 2-3 paychecks away from poverty themselves.

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