Tyr-Ziu Saxnot
11-21-2015, 12:56 PM
http://www.newenglishreview.org/Jerry_Gordon/Somalis,_Shelbyville_and_Severe_Culture_Shock/
Somalis, Shelbyville and Severe Culture Shock
An Interview with Brian Mosely
by Jerry Gordon (Feb. 2008)
Shelbyville, Tennessee is a rural community located in the middle part of the state. Four years ago, the character of this community was changed irrevocably when a major employer, Tyson Foods, hired several hundred Somali émigrés to replace illegal Hispanic meat packers at a facility there. The Somalis emigrated from other centers in the heartland of the US, after coming to America under a legal humanitarian immigration program established by the 1980 Refugee Act, controlled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and by the US State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration with a budget of over $1 billion. In 2007, there were an estimated 70,000 plus Somali legal immigrants in the US. Major centers of Somali émigrés include, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Columbus, Ohio. This was facilitated in the 1990’s when the Clinton Administration, through the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, decided to vector Somalis and other humanitarian refugees away from major coastal cities and into the interior of the American heartland.
Major employers who require low skilled workers, like Tyson, took advantage of these changes. Tyson was prodded by Federal criminal cases brought against it by the US Department of Justice for hiring illegal aliens. The hiring of legal Somali immigrants was facilitated by Federal cash stipends and social assistance administered by state social services agencies with the contractual assistance of voluntary agencies like Catholic Charities, Lutheran Relief, Church World Services and others. Hence the presence of Somalis in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
We have written extensively about the problems of assimilation of émigré Somalis in cities like Nashville, Minneapolis, Lewiston, Maine and another Tyson Foods locale, Emporia, Kansas with a Somali meatpacker work force. The problems in those communities have included issues such as TB, public health, drug dealing, petty crime, in some cases massive unemployment, federal Medicare and Medicaid fraud and separation of Church and State provisions.
One of the few members of the Fourth Estate, who has covered the problem of assimilation of legal Somali humanitarian émigrés in the US, is Brian Mosely of the Shelbyville Times Gazette.
In a series of hard hitting articles in the Shelbyville Times Gazette, Mosely has vividly portrayed the problems of what happens when hundreds of Somalis with a strong tribal culture and Muslim faith come to a small community in America’s heartland. What threads through Mosley’s series is the Somalis demonstrable lack of discernable public health standards and minimal education, plus their rejection of US cultural standards of tolerance and offers from community outreach groups.
In this interview with Mosely, we discuss the background that led to the Times Gazette Somali series, the reaction of the community to his reports and opinion pieces, comments by readers, and the attempt to muzzle his free speech rights under our Constitution. The Somali series that Mosely has produced will be submitted for some Tennessee and possibly AP press awards. That is in the best tradition of American journalism. Mosely, his editor and publisher are to be commended for their efforts to keep us better informed and alert to issues that need national attention and reform.
Brian Mosely, we are pleased that you could join us for this interview.
Jerry Gordon: Tell us about your own background as a working journalist on a small town newspaper?
Brian Mosely: I have lived in this part of middle Tennessee all my life. My first job out of high school was working in the press room of our local paper. During that time, I attended Motlow State Community College and Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Mass Communication. I began working with local news media in the mid 1990’s, and writing for various newspapers in the region following that.
Jerry Gordon: Give us some background on when and how the Somalis came to Shelbyville and under whose auspices?
Brian Mosely: That is an interesting question. Catholic Charities of Tennessee handles the resettlement of Somalis in Nashville, but no local official in Bedford County could tell me with any certainty when the refugees began arriving in this small community. According to figures we received from the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS), just a total of 13 refugees have directly settled in Bedford County from Somalia -- only two in 2005-06 and 11 in 2006-07. But these figures do not include secondary migrants, which are refugees who have relocated to Shelbyville after first settling somewhere else. DHS apparently does not have a mechanism in place to track such secondary migration and therefore, no one has a clear idea when they first came here. The Somalis could be resettling from the Nashville area, or from elsewhere, but we have no sure way of knowing.
Jerry Gordon: How large is the current Somali community in Shelbyville and where did they emigrate from here in the US?
Brian Mosely: That is also another interesting question. We have heard numbers ranging from 250 all the way to 1,100 from one county official, but there is no way to be sure. The Imam of the Muslim mosque told me the number was between 250 and 300, yet representatives from Tyson said that Somalis represented over one fourth of their current workforce of 1,100 in Shelbyville. The city manager told me the number was around 500. As far as we know, there has been no census count made of the Somali population.
As from where they are migrating, that is another mystery in itself. We had assumed that many Somalis had relocated from Nashville, where a large number of refugees from different countries are being resettled, but one of my sources tells me that a great many of the Somalis came from Ohio. One problem in tracking where the refugees originated is that after they have been resettled in our country, following a short period of time, they are apparently free to go wherever they please.
In fact, the director of Catholic Charities for Tennessee said, “we resettle them here in Nashville, primarily, and from there, people move around and don't always let us know where they are, nor do they need to." She also said that Somalis are a transient population. That's not to say that they move around constantly, but let's just say that they are not afraid of change, we were told.
Jerry Gordon: As Tyson figures prominently in the introduction of Somalis to Shelbyville, would you tell us what motivated the company to bring them to the community?
Brian Mosely: To say that Tyson brought them here would be somewhat inaccurate, yet the simple action of offering hundreds of job openings at the local chicken processing plant have certainly attracted the refugees in large numbers to our small community.
However, to understand this local labor need, you have to know a bit of history involving the company and the area. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the Hispanic population in Bedford County has exploded to 12.5 percent, the highest per capita in Tennessee. Many of these immigrants came here in the 1990’s to either work in the Tyson facility, or else take up jobs in agriculture or the Walking Horse industry, which dominates this county and the surrounding region.
In 2001, the Tyson plant here in Shelbyville was one of several across the country that were caught up in a federal investigation alleging that executives and managers of Tyson were involved in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens to their foods processing facilities.
Two local managers pled guilty, one took his own life and the rest were acquitted in federal court when the case finally came to trial. But it was soon after the Tyson trial that locals began to notice the Somalis moving into the area. Many living here, including some employed at the plant, have claimed that the company was replacing the Hispanics with Somalis, since they can guarantee they are in the country legally.
According to Tyson representatives, the case-ready meats plant in Goodlettsville, TN [near Nashville] had finished staffing their second shift and began telling applicants of other job opportunities in the company, which included positions here in Shelbyville. Tyson claims that the Somalis applied for employment through one of the area Job Service offices and learned about the jobs primarily through word-of-mouth.
In a series of hard hitting articles in the Shelbyville Times Gazette, Mosely has vividly portrayed the problems of what happens when hundreds of Somalis with a strong tribal culture and Muslim faith come to a small community in America’s heartland. What threads through Mosley’s series is the Somalis demonstrable lack of discernable public health standards and minimal education, plus their rejection of US cultural standards of tolerance and offers from community outreach groups.
More muslims , brought in -not assimiliating at all and free to roam wherever they want after arrival--given jobs that local citizens needed BADLY!!!
UN AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BIG PROMOTERS OF THIS TREASON BY OUR OWN OFFICIALS.
Wake up folks, the traitor in charge of this nation seeds it more and more every way he can!!
And does with with his religious brothers--the scum muslims!!! Tyr
Somalis, Shelbyville and Severe Culture Shock
An Interview with Brian Mosely
by Jerry Gordon (Feb. 2008)
Shelbyville, Tennessee is a rural community located in the middle part of the state. Four years ago, the character of this community was changed irrevocably when a major employer, Tyson Foods, hired several hundred Somali émigrés to replace illegal Hispanic meat packers at a facility there. The Somalis emigrated from other centers in the heartland of the US, after coming to America under a legal humanitarian immigration program established by the 1980 Refugee Act, controlled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and by the US State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration with a budget of over $1 billion. In 2007, there were an estimated 70,000 plus Somali legal immigrants in the US. Major centers of Somali émigrés include, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Columbus, Ohio. This was facilitated in the 1990’s when the Clinton Administration, through the US Office of Refugee Resettlement, decided to vector Somalis and other humanitarian refugees away from major coastal cities and into the interior of the American heartland.
Major employers who require low skilled workers, like Tyson, took advantage of these changes. Tyson was prodded by Federal criminal cases brought against it by the US Department of Justice for hiring illegal aliens. The hiring of legal Somali immigrants was facilitated by Federal cash stipends and social assistance administered by state social services agencies with the contractual assistance of voluntary agencies like Catholic Charities, Lutheran Relief, Church World Services and others. Hence the presence of Somalis in Shelbyville, Tennessee.
We have written extensively about the problems of assimilation of émigré Somalis in cities like Nashville, Minneapolis, Lewiston, Maine and another Tyson Foods locale, Emporia, Kansas with a Somali meatpacker work force. The problems in those communities have included issues such as TB, public health, drug dealing, petty crime, in some cases massive unemployment, federal Medicare and Medicaid fraud and separation of Church and State provisions.
One of the few members of the Fourth Estate, who has covered the problem of assimilation of legal Somali humanitarian émigrés in the US, is Brian Mosely of the Shelbyville Times Gazette.
In a series of hard hitting articles in the Shelbyville Times Gazette, Mosely has vividly portrayed the problems of what happens when hundreds of Somalis with a strong tribal culture and Muslim faith come to a small community in America’s heartland. What threads through Mosley’s series is the Somalis demonstrable lack of discernable public health standards and minimal education, plus their rejection of US cultural standards of tolerance and offers from community outreach groups.
In this interview with Mosely, we discuss the background that led to the Times Gazette Somali series, the reaction of the community to his reports and opinion pieces, comments by readers, and the attempt to muzzle his free speech rights under our Constitution. The Somali series that Mosely has produced will be submitted for some Tennessee and possibly AP press awards. That is in the best tradition of American journalism. Mosely, his editor and publisher are to be commended for their efforts to keep us better informed and alert to issues that need national attention and reform.
Brian Mosely, we are pleased that you could join us for this interview.
Jerry Gordon: Tell us about your own background as a working journalist on a small town newspaper?
Brian Mosely: I have lived in this part of middle Tennessee all my life. My first job out of high school was working in the press room of our local paper. During that time, I attended Motlow State Community College and Middle Tennessee State University majoring in Mass Communication. I began working with local news media in the mid 1990’s, and writing for various newspapers in the region following that.
Jerry Gordon: Give us some background on when and how the Somalis came to Shelbyville and under whose auspices?
Brian Mosely: That is an interesting question. Catholic Charities of Tennessee handles the resettlement of Somalis in Nashville, but no local official in Bedford County could tell me with any certainty when the refugees began arriving in this small community. According to figures we received from the Tennessee Department of Human Services (DHS), just a total of 13 refugees have directly settled in Bedford County from Somalia -- only two in 2005-06 and 11 in 2006-07. But these figures do not include secondary migrants, which are refugees who have relocated to Shelbyville after first settling somewhere else. DHS apparently does not have a mechanism in place to track such secondary migration and therefore, no one has a clear idea when they first came here. The Somalis could be resettling from the Nashville area, or from elsewhere, but we have no sure way of knowing.
Jerry Gordon: How large is the current Somali community in Shelbyville and where did they emigrate from here in the US?
Brian Mosely: That is also another interesting question. We have heard numbers ranging from 250 all the way to 1,100 from one county official, but there is no way to be sure. The Imam of the Muslim mosque told me the number was between 250 and 300, yet representatives from Tyson said that Somalis represented over one fourth of their current workforce of 1,100 in Shelbyville. The city manager told me the number was around 500. As far as we know, there has been no census count made of the Somali population.
As from where they are migrating, that is another mystery in itself. We had assumed that many Somalis had relocated from Nashville, where a large number of refugees from different countries are being resettled, but one of my sources tells me that a great many of the Somalis came from Ohio. One problem in tracking where the refugees originated is that after they have been resettled in our country, following a short period of time, they are apparently free to go wherever they please.
In fact, the director of Catholic Charities for Tennessee said, “we resettle them here in Nashville, primarily, and from there, people move around and don't always let us know where they are, nor do they need to." She also said that Somalis are a transient population. That's not to say that they move around constantly, but let's just say that they are not afraid of change, we were told.
Jerry Gordon: As Tyson figures prominently in the introduction of Somalis to Shelbyville, would you tell us what motivated the company to bring them to the community?
Brian Mosely: To say that Tyson brought them here would be somewhat inaccurate, yet the simple action of offering hundreds of job openings at the local chicken processing plant have certainly attracted the refugees in large numbers to our small community.
However, to understand this local labor need, you have to know a bit of history involving the company and the area. Over the past 10 to 15 years, the Hispanic population in Bedford County has exploded to 12.5 percent, the highest per capita in Tennessee. Many of these immigrants came here in the 1990’s to either work in the Tyson facility, or else take up jobs in agriculture or the Walking Horse industry, which dominates this county and the surrounding region.
In 2001, the Tyson plant here in Shelbyville was one of several across the country that were caught up in a federal investigation alleging that executives and managers of Tyson were involved in a conspiracy to smuggle illegal aliens to their foods processing facilities.
Two local managers pled guilty, one took his own life and the rest were acquitted in federal court when the case finally came to trial. But it was soon after the Tyson trial that locals began to notice the Somalis moving into the area. Many living here, including some employed at the plant, have claimed that the company was replacing the Hispanics with Somalis, since they can guarantee they are in the country legally.
According to Tyson representatives, the case-ready meats plant in Goodlettsville, TN [near Nashville] had finished staffing their second shift and began telling applicants of other job opportunities in the company, which included positions here in Shelbyville. Tyson claims that the Somalis applied for employment through one of the area Job Service offices and learned about the jobs primarily through word-of-mouth.
In a series of hard hitting articles in the Shelbyville Times Gazette, Mosely has vividly portrayed the problems of what happens when hundreds of Somalis with a strong tribal culture and Muslim faith come to a small community in America’s heartland. What threads through Mosley’s series is the Somalis demonstrable lack of discernable public health standards and minimal education, plus their rejection of US cultural standards of tolerance and offers from community outreach groups.
More muslims , brought in -not assimiliating at all and free to roam wherever they want after arrival--given jobs that local citizens needed BADLY!!!
UN AND FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BIG PROMOTERS OF THIS TREASON BY OUR OWN OFFICIALS.
Wake up folks, the traitor in charge of this nation seeds it more and more every way he can!!
And does with with his religious brothers--the scum muslims!!! Tyr