Sponsors affected

Resettlement doesn’t change just the lives of refugees. There are many faith groups and other organizations the sponsor them. Jean Silk is the part-time coordinator of Jewish Community Alliance for Refugee Resettlement, composed of five congregations: Beth ElKeser Israel of New Haven, Temple Emanuel and Congregation Or Shalom of Orange, Congregation Mishkan Israel of Hamden and Congregation B’nai Jacob of Woodbridge.

They’ve sponsored three families, from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Syria. When they learned that one of the Congolese refugees had a wife and child on their way to Indianapolis, they worked to unite the family here.

“Everything about working with refugees is reciprocal learning,” she said. “We’re learning with each of them as they come to understand what it means to make a new home here, which is different for every person.”

There was a tense time when the most recent Syrian family got on a plane in Istanbul on Jan. 26, a day before Trump’s executive order. “I knew they were in the sky … but I didn’t know if they would be allowed to come to New Haven.” When they arrived, “It was the happiest moment ever. All we can say to them is how happy we are they’re here … We’re working with them to make a new life.”

Sister Jennifer Schaaf is among the group at St. Thomas More Chapel in New Haven that helped bring a Syrian family to New Haven in August. In an email, she said, “There are close to 70 people who have been directly in contact with the family, whether to help them with transportation, reading books in English with all the members of the family, taking them for outings, shopping for clothes and food, or translating for them in official meetings. Many others have contributed financially or assisted in behind the scenes work, like setting up the apartment and getting school supplies ready for their arrival.”

George said there are other implications of the executive order. “A fourmonth suspension is going to weaken the nonprofit network of refugee-resettlement agencies across the country. … If the number of refugees we resettle drops from 500 to 250, that’s a drop of more than $200,000 in our federal funding.”

George added, “The refugees who are here are terrified because they have a feeling that these executive orders are an indicator … that the country has dramatically changed from a welcoming, compassionate place to one that is guided by fear and selfish, and their imagination has no bounds.