Thursday, December 10, 2015

Eastern Kentucky cannot accommodate an influx of Middle Eastern refugees

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.