The reactions came swiftly this month after Clarkston Mayor Ted Terry spoke out in favor of resettling more Syrian refugees in his tiny DeKalb County town amid the humanitarian crisis raging across Europe.
In one of the many emails Terry received, an Atlanta woman called him ignorant, complained the refugees would cost taxpayers and warned they could become “homegrown terrorists.” A Clarkston man sent an email to Terry two days later, telling him his heart was in the right place and calling him a hero.
The flood of emails and social media posts Terry shared with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution illustrate how sharply divided Georgia is in responding to the plight of tens of thousands of Syrians, Afghans and other refugees, some drowning as they try to cross Mediterranean and others facing sealed borders as they arrive in Eastern Europe. The situation has become increasingly desperate in Hungary, where migrants have clashed with police firing water cannons and tear gas.
Over the years, Clarkston has emerged as a magnet for refugees. Elected mayor in 2013, Terry called it “a compassionate city.”
“We are trying to lead by example. Hopefully others will say, ‘We agree with that,’” said the Democrat and Georgia AFL-CIO state campaign director.
Terry is continuing to receive emotional reactions as President Barack Obama — under pressure to join Europe in responding to the crisis — is proposing resettling 10,000 more Syrians in the U.S. over the next year. That would be in addition to the 1,658 who have been resettled nationwide — 46 of them in Georgia — since 2011, when civil war began tearing at Syria. Gov. Nathan Deal’s administration has asked federal officials not to boost the number of refugees coming to Georgia.
Critics say the U.S. needs to do far more. They point out Germany alone is expecting to receive 800,000 asylum seekers this year.
“The U.S. has a moral obligation to respond in a far more robust way,” said J.D. McCrary, the executive director of the International Rescue Committee’s Atlanta office, which has been helping resettle Syrian refugees in Georgia. “We urge the White House to increase the number of refugees to be resettled in the U.S. and for Georgia to welcome them to the safety of their new home.”
McCrary’s agency and New American Pathways — another refugee aid group operating in Atlanta — confirmed they have received calls from numerous Georgians offering to open their homes up to refugees amid the crisis. While touched by the offers, McCrary and other humanitarian officials are patiently explaining to the callers that it is not that simple.
The resettlement process can take months or even years and involves intensive security screenings with multiple federal agencies. Refugees go through more background checks than any other category of traveler to the U.S., according to the State Department. Working with state and federal officials, resettlement agencies attempt to place refugees in close proximity to relatives, affordable housing, public transportation and jobs.
Deal, meanwhile, is urging a cautious approach, saying he wants to make sure Georgia is not taking a disproportionate share of refugees. The Republican’s administration has asked the State Department for no increases in refugees going into next year. So far this fiscal year, Georgia — which has a population of 10 million — has welcomed 2,495 of the nearly 62,000 refugees who have resettled in the U.S.
The Deal administration’s approach is not new. Last year, state officials sided with Athens-Clarke County Mayor Nancy Denson, a Democrat, in opposing the resettlement of refugees in her college town of 120,000. McCrary’s agency was proposing placing as many as 150 refugees there. Denson said the refugee crisis “totally breaks my heart.” But citing her city’s poverty rate of 37 percent, she said Athens does not have the resources to welcome refugees.
“Our resources are stretched very thin,” she said. “We struggle to take care of the needs of people who are already here. I don’t see that we have the capacity to add any significant numbers to that.”
In talking about the crisis last week, Deal said he has long fielded complaints from local officials about refugees burdening their communities. He singled out Clarkston.
“When they decide where they bring in individuals,” Deal said, “they need to do a better job of making sure they haven’t put an over-concentration of people from different countries, some of whom have been natural enemies of each other. Trying to put them side-by-side in a small community like Clarkston is not doing a service to those individuals.”
Terry called Deal’s comments “outdated.” In 2013, then-Clarkston Mayor Emanuel Ransom said he had asked the federal government to reduce the number of refugees settling in his city, saying they were straining the city’s resources. Terry said Clarkston — which has a population of nearly 8,000 — has embraced a more welcoming approach since then.
“Clarkston is ready to step up and do our part to welcome more Syrians, more Iraqis, more Afghans to our city,” Terry told the AJC last week, causing his email inbox and social media feeds to fill up. “Our Christian and Muslim brothers and sisters from the Levant need our help. And I respectfully call on our state and federal leaders to answer the call.”
Terry sees the issue in both humanitarian and economic terms, saying refugees create a net-gain for Georgia by attracting millions of dollars in federal aid and private donations. Many, he added, have created businesses in the Atlanta area and pay taxes.
To illustrate his point, Terry recently had lunch at Clarkston’s Abyssinia Café and Bakery, an Ethiopian restaurant run by a former refugee, Eskinder Tsegaye. Tsegaye fled his native country nearly 30 years ago and resettled in the U.S. He started out washing dishes at a Wendy’s chain restaurant for $3.15 an hour. Now he owns his own restaurant, employs a waitress and pays city, state and federal taxes. His daughter is studying at Georgia Perimeter College to go into the biomedical field.
“As a superpower,” Tsegaye said of the U.S., “they should accept more refugees and at the same time look at what is causing this. We should do more.”
One of Tsegaye’s customers, Samson Weoldemicheal, sat at the restaurant’s bar, nodding in agreement. A Eritrean refugee who came to the U.S. five years ago, Weoldemicheal now works at a local bakery. He said people are fleeing his native country because of its oppressive government and forced conscription. He pointed out Eritreans are joining Syrian, Afghan and Iraqi refugees in the risky trips across the Mediterranean to Europe.
“I want America to do more,” he said, “and concentrate on the Eritrean refugees.”
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