Middletown Welcoming to Syrian Refugees: Mayor Drew

The heartbreaking images of what Syrian refugees were going through eventually became too much for Middletown-area church leaders and residents to bear.

At Haddam’s Christ Episocpal Church, the Rev. Mary Anne Osborn and her parishioners thought of the vacant rectory and wondered if a Syrian family in need of resettlement in the U.S. could live there.

According to the Courant, the South Congregational Church in Middletown, among other entities, were thinking along similar lines. But being smaller in size and with limited funds, all were concerned about how much they could be of assistance.

Individually, the organizations felt limited. But what if they banded together? That is how the Middletown Refugee Resettlement Coalition was born.

“The Middletown Refugee Resettlement Coalition is a diverse group of citizens and interfaith groups working to co-sponsor three refugee families,” the coalition stated in its ‘About’ section on Facebook.

Middletown’s coalition earned the designation of being the first group of people to complete the Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services’ sponsorship program. The non-profit IRIS helps resettle immigrants and refugees. If a family reaches out to IRIS and says they are ready to begin resettlement, IRIS officials say they could be residing in Middletown within two weeks.

Coalition volunteer Izzi Greenberg said one of the biggest goals is making sure families feel welcome in the Middletown-area community. She said forums will take place to facilitate discussion and bridge any gaps between Americans and Muslims.

From the Archives

• Gov. Malloy Issues Connecticut’s Position on Syrian Refugees
• Connecticut Republicans Question Syrian Refugee Plan
• Syrian Refugees Diverted to Connecticut After Being Turned Away in Indiana
• CT Group’s Steps to Take in Syrian Refugees Scrutinized After Paris Attacks
• Poll: Should Connecticut Accept Syrian Refugees? | Patch

An example of one such forum is the The Connecticut Council for Inter-religious Understanding, The Muslim Coalition of Connecticut and the Hartford Seminary’s “Honest Conversations with Muslim Neighbors” forum.

Drew told the Courant that some residents are concerned about safety but mostly, he has seen support from Middletown’s residents. In November 2015, he posted a response letter to a resident who expressed concern about Middletown’s position on refugees.

Here is an excerpt from Drew’s letter:

“Second, you ask in your first letter if we are willing to “bar the door here in Middletown” to refugees. Lost in all of the debates I have read or to which I have listened is an acknowledgment that neither cities nor states possess any legal right to reject people granted refugee status by the federal government.

What cities and states can do is refuse the use of local or state resources in the effort. For example, a governor can refuse to house refugees in a state-subsidized housing project but not in one that is federally-subsidized. Nor can a state or city refuse the right of individual homeowners, churches, or non-profit organizations to house refugees granted that status by the federal government. It simply isn’t legal for them to do so.

What you’re really seeing, then, is an attempt by many governors and mayors around the country to score politically by playing off of people’s fears. They are doing this because society writ large is unfamiliar with the granular details of this process and because it is human nature to fear the unknown. Unfortunately, there are some elected officials out there who are either leveraging that fear to elevate themselves or are actually personally driven by that fear.

Either way, it’s an issue that plays well in a 24-hour news cycle that thrives on and is fed by fear, conflict, and human drama. It’s also a debate in which many of us have been caught up that distracts us from larger and more appropriate questions.

For instance, why are some mayors, governors, and members of Congress focused on refugees but not people seeking student visas? Should we apply the same strict standards for which you’re calling to European nationals? And here is the one most pertinent, I think: if members of Congress are as concerned as they profess to be about the threat of violent extremists, why are they not taking steps to declare war, fund new military strategies, or call for some new tactical intervention?

The reason is that it is easier for them to prey on fear for personal gain. In moments like this, it is easy to fear what we don’t know. What, and particularly, whom we don’t know becomes the “other” and fear of them breeds contempt. I used to wonder how we could ever have interned Japanese Americans in camps. After listening to the discourse of the last two weeks, I no longer wonder how it happened.

In your first letter, you unfortunately conflate Muslims and Syrian refugees with violent radicals. Just this month, the FBI foiled a plot by two American men in Virginia to spark a race war by setting off bombs in African American churches and in synagogues.

Twenty years ago, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building Oklahoma City. Should you and I be conflated with them because we are white Americans?

The last thing we ever want to do is allow fear to lead us away from who we are. We can and should have both security at home and abroad in a manner consistent with our national identity. How we deal with this problem is complicated and multi-layered. The solutions aren’t simply military in nature. Yes, we need to be aggressive. But we must also realize that there are economic, historical, and cultural causes that feed violent extremism.

Should we throw open our borders immediately to all people with no restrictions or concern over who is coming here or why? Of course not. Conversely, we should never allow ourselves to be driven by fear into a new identity — particularly one that is predicated on fundamental misunderstandings of how things work and which perpetuates contempt in the service of that fear.

Sincerely, Mayor Daniel T. Drew”

Related Links

• Click here to read Drew’s letter in its entirety.
• Click here to read the full article from the Hartford Courant.
• Middletown Refugee Resettlement Coalition Facebook pageIntegrated Refugee & Immigrant Services: IRIS

Photo: Domiz refugee camp, in northern Iraq, hosts around 65 000 Syrian refugees since its opening in April 2012. ECHO continues to fund partners like IOM to ensure basic services are available. Credit: IOM Iraq via by EU Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection