Dan, I struggle with this one — I worked in the refugee resettlement world 2010-2019 (and am still connected to my org) and watching things start to play out online again is giving severe whiplash. The “they enrich us” message can too often bleed into “these people have professions worthy of rescue” which is problematic because in general, outside of SIV, the US resettles refugees who have been in long protracted situations and will be working Min wage jobs when they first arrive, etc. One thing that makes me hopeful is that it seems more people are aware of who refugees are/how resettlement works since 2015, but it’s still a fight. And most local refugee orgs do not do advocacy super well, or at least they don’t spend money on messaging.
I also comment today personally knowing an entire family of legal permanent residents and US citizens who are currently left behind in Kabul. There are many refugee families like them — families who were already resettled, living in the US for several years and went to visit this summer, and tried desperately to get out the past week — and I’m not sure if the Biden Admin is counting them in the total of “Americans” who have been left behind. The refugee-serving community is already struggling right now under the weight of all of this.
Really appreciate Blair's points. The community of people who have been desperately struggling for humane approaches to refugee and immigration policy have been forced to remain wary of a Biden administration that has been slow and timid. If Dems could rise to the occasion and stand strongly against GOP race-baiting and Islamophobia, this might subside. But Biden does not start from a position of trust and Dem leaning folks can easily become demoralized.
Thank you for this piece, Dan. Your dire predictions are generally spot on which is why I like to read your work. Does this mean that I appreciate getting depressed ahead of time??? Hopefully it just means it's good to be prepared and have responses/arguments ready.
Immigration is the Achilles heel of the Democratic party. If the fascist GOP can make hay from a few 10's of thousands of AFG immigrants, imagine what they'll do as Global Warming forces the immigration of 100's of millions people around the world. At some point, and it soon will be inevitable, a massively overpopulated world will force the U.S. into a sinking lifeboat mentality. Dems need a strong limits and fair immigration policy if they want a chance to counter the right wing propaganda machine.
Now that an illegitimate SCOTUS will allow landlords to throw people with late rent payments out of their homes, look for a GOP propaganda point to be, Dems are throwing people out of their homes so AFG's can have them. It's going to be a tough election in 2022.
Do you have to show Miller’s ugly face? His words are bad enough.
Dan, I struggle with this one — I worked in the refugee resettlement world 2010-2019 (and am still connected to my org) and watching things start to play out online again is giving severe whiplash. The “they enrich us” message can too often bleed into “these people have professions worthy of rescue” which is problematic because in general, outside of SIV, the US resettles refugees who have been in long protracted situations and will be working Min wage jobs when they first arrive, etc. One thing that makes me hopeful is that it seems more people are aware of who refugees are/how resettlement works since 2015, but it’s still a fight. And most local refugee orgs do not do advocacy super well, or at least they don’t spend money on messaging.
I also comment today personally knowing an entire family of legal permanent residents and US citizens who are currently left behind in Kabul. There are many refugee families like them — families who were already resettled, living in the US for several years and went to visit this summer, and tried desperately to get out the past week — and I’m not sure if the Biden Admin is counting them in the total of “Americans” who have been left behind. The refugee-serving community is already struggling right now under the weight of all of this.
Really appreciate Blair's points. The community of people who have been desperately struggling for humane approaches to refugee and immigration policy have been forced to remain wary of a Biden administration that has been slow and timid. If Dems could rise to the occasion and stand strongly against GOP race-baiting and Islamophobia, this might subside. But Biden does not start from a position of trust and Dem leaning folks can easily become demoralized.
My points were kind of all over the place but you summed up a big one: We need strong, unified messaging.
Love how clear your messaging is. As politicians take this up, you should show examples of it being done well versus falling into traps.
Thank you for this piece, Dan. Your dire predictions are generally spot on which is why I like to read your work. Does this mean that I appreciate getting depressed ahead of time??? Hopefully it just means it's good to be prepared and have responses/arguments ready.
Immigration is the Achilles heel of the Democratic party. If the fascist GOP can make hay from a few 10's of thousands of AFG immigrants, imagine what they'll do as Global Warming forces the immigration of 100's of millions people around the world. At some point, and it soon will be inevitable, a massively overpopulated world will force the U.S. into a sinking lifeboat mentality. Dems need a strong limits and fair immigration policy if they want a chance to counter the right wing propaganda machine.
Now that an illegitimate SCOTUS will allow landlords to throw people with late rent payments out of their homes, look for a GOP propaganda point to be, Dems are throwing people out of their homes so AFG's can have them. It's going to be a tough election in 2022.
Apologies to everyone, there was an error when in the version that went (duplicative paragraphs), it has been fixed on the site https://messagebox.substack.com/p/the-coming-republican-demonization