Last month’s terrorist attack in France,
committed by Islamic extremists, sparked an intense debate across America on
whether or not we should accept refugees from the Middle East.
Those opposed raise the very real possibility
that some of those radical Muslim terrorists might mix in with the refugees so
they can bring their jihad against American values to American soil.
And in a stance so ironic that it would break the
sturdiest of irony meters, if such things existed, many of the same people who
scream “separation of church and state” declare that it would be
un-Christianlike of the United States to turn the refugees away.
A number of governors have opposed the placement
of refugees in their states, while others have said the refugees will be
welcome. In Kentucky, there’s a divided opinion between the outgoing and
incoming administrations. Ex-Gov. Steve Beshear – and I cannot tell you how
good it feels to be able to call him “ex-governor” – said, before he left
office, that Kentucky should allow the refugees to come here. New Gov. Matt
Bevin – and I cannot tell you happy I am to be able to say that – thinks they
should be excluded until we get a better vetting system in place to separate
the terrorists from those who are seeing refuge.
Two weeks ago, an eastern Kentuckian offered up
one of those typical liberal feel-good solutions that sounds appealing on its
face, but withers under logical scrutiny.
Dee Davis of Whitesburg, president of the Center
for Rural Strategies and publisher of The
Daily Yonder website, wrote a column that was later picked up by the Lexington Herald-Leader in which he
advocated for bringing as many refugees to rural eastern Kentucky as possible.
(Interestingly, I discovered when researching
this column that The Daily Yonder was
founded by former Herald-Leader
columnist and reporter Bill Bishop, who never saw a rural economic development
strategy that he didn’t hate.)
There are a number of problems with Mr. Davis’
recommendations that have nothing to do with terrorism or an influx of Muslim
refugees from a different culture (although I’m sure things might get pretty
heated pretty quick the first time one of the refugees wandered into a mountain
grocery store and saw the meat department chock full of bacon, ham and other
pork products.)
Does Davis live in the same eastern Kentucky as I
do? It’s doubtful, because this area is not physically or financially able to
accommodate or support an influx of refugees. There are
We’ve had refugees come here before. Probably the
most prominent was the patriarch of the Dawahare family. He came to New York
City from Syria to escape religious persecution, met and married a native of
Wise County, Va. (which borders Letcher County), eventually moved across the
mountain to Kentucky and started a business that evolved into Dawahares. The
legendary clothing store became well-known in the mountains and in Lexington
before it finally succumbed to the changing tides of the retail business.
But times are different now than when Dawahare
came here around the turn of the last century. He arrived in the mountains in
the midst of a coal boom. Coal’s in a bust cycle now. The climate that was
hospitable to his entrepreneurial efforts just isn’t there now.
Rural eastern Kentucky simply does not have the
housing to accommodate a large number of immigrants. Decent privately-owned
rental housing is scarce in many small towns, and since many of the refugees
are leaving with only the clothes they’re wearing, it’s not likely that they’re
going to be buying homes. There are already worries in one mountain county
about a possible housing shortage. One of the alternatives for extending the
Mountain Parkway from Salyersville to Prestonsburg involves widening existing
KY 114. If this option is chosen, approximately 120 families would be forced to
find new homes, and Floyd County does not have enough available housing to
accommodate those who would be displaced. Given the economic situation in many
rural counties, it’s not likely that there’s going to be a boom of new housing
construction simply to accommodate the refugees.
And if they do find housing, what are they going
to do? Mountain counties suffer from chronic joblessness. Kentucky just
released unemployment data from October, and the top (or bottom) 10 counties
are all in eastern Kentucky. A number of layoffs have been announced since that
information was compiled. Even an entrepreneur like Serur Frank Dawahare Sr.
would have a hard time selling merchandise to a clientele that has trouble
keeping their lights on and their families fed.
Can we afford to provide government benefits for
those who come here but are unemployed or underemployed? We’re constantly
reminded just how dependent the people of this region are on various government
aid programs. And that leads us back to the housing question. Pick a small
town, and you’ll probably find that most of the rental properties are
subsidized government apartment complexes. There are usually long waiting lists
for those. And, as many have pointed out, shouldn’t we be taking care of our
own before we start accepting those from elsewhere?
Then, there’s the matter of education. Because of
declining enrollments, many mountain school districts are closing older
schools. If the school systems haven’t sold the old buildings, the state is not
likely to let them reopen the facilities. The tax base in most of these
counties cannot support additional levies to fund new school construction, and
local residents in many communities don’t want their taxes raised. (In Lee
County, twice in the last two years, voters by wide margins have rejected a tax
increase for school construction). Budget cuts are forcing some school
districts to lay off teachers, and those who remain are being stretched thin to
cover essential subjects. These school systems cannot afford to hire
English-as-a-second-language teachers to work with the children of refugees.
These few items jumped immediately to the top of
my mind as soon as I read Davis’ column. While his piece seemingly purports to
answer some of the questions, upon closer inspection his reasoning falls apart.
I’m sure that with deeper scrutiny, even more compelling reasons could be found
as to why the wholesale resettling of refugees in this area simply won’t work.
If the refugees can come here, contribute to
society in a meaningful way and not be a drain on it, and assimilate into
American culture, then I’d have no problem with them arriving in this area. But
there’s no way that we can accommodate them given our current state of affairs.
This area simply doesn’t have the facilities or opportunities they need to
flourish in the United States.
