LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1983, Page 306

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306 OTHER REPORTS

to Support Indian Treaties, American Indian Artists, and
North American Indian Women’s Association.

Advocacy work has centered on keeping abreast of the
Reagan administration's policy toward American Indians and
how cuts in the federal budget will affect them.

Department of Immigration and Refugee Services

During the 1981 and 1982 calendar vears the department
resettled. respectively, 8.158 and 6,955 refugees and immi-
grants from Indochina, Eastern Europe. the Middle East.
Africa, and Latin America. This brought to 62,932 the number
resettled in the United States under the auspices of the
department. or LIRS. since the start of the influx of the
Vietnamese and other Indochinese in 1975.

Last vear the composition of refugee groups changed
considerably, with those from Europe. the Middle East, and
Africa representing 22 percent of all arrivals. Their distri-
bution has continued along established patterns. with Cali-
fornia, Pennsylvania. and Minnesota leading the way. The
largest number of Europeans resettled in Colorado followed by
Florida and Texas. Minnesota and Florida took in 42 African
families. Not surprisingly, Florida was the destination for all
but one of the Latin American families.

Under the Orderly Departure Program of the Vietnamese
government and the United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees, 1.726 persons entered the United States in 1981 and
4,028 in 1982. They included the highly publicized “Amer-
asian” children. In °&2 LIRS assisted 174 of these migrants.

During the past vear officials of the U.S. Immigration and
Naturalization Service have rejected as many as 70 percent of
the refugees in camps in Thailand who made strong cases for
resettlement here in prescreening. INS officials have even
rejected those with spouses, children, or other family members
already in the United States. saving “they only want to join
their relatives.” The officials have judged such crisis situations
as escaping the brutality of the former Pol Pot regime in
Cambodia as ‘not germane. In January 1983 an investigative
team made up of General Secretary John Houck of the Lu-
theran Council: Pastor August Bernthal of Grace Lutheran
Church, Winter Haven, Fla.. who chairs the LIRS standing
committee: and President Gerhardt Hyatt of Concordia Col-
lege, St. Paul, Minn... visited the camps on behalf of an
interreligious committee which advises the U.S. coordinator
for refugee affairs in the State Department. Finding that U.S.
policy in the camps isin a “sad state of disarray,” is “capricious
and arbitrary.” and is victimizing “the same people who have
suffered so much already.” they urged that remedial steps be
taken immediately.

Fifteen classes, each having 600 refugee students, took 12-
week introductory courses in American culture and English as
a second language in a project in Hong Kong run from
November 1980 through March 1982 by LIRS and a partner
agency, the American Council for Nationalities Service, in
cooperation with UNHCR. Such training was made a require-
ment for one member of every refugee family bound for the
United States.

Holding training workshops for ESL tutors around the
country has been one of the activities of LIRS’ ESL specialist.
Another was to help train “peer tutors” for Indochinese refugee
students attending Luther College, Decorah. Iowa.

In cooperation with 19 state agencies, LIRS placed 494
unaccompanied minors from Southeast Asia in foster homes in
1981 and 409 in 1982. The department has continued to seek
more refugee numbers for minors so they can leave the camps
for foster home situations. This is especially true with the
Khmer minors stuck in holding centers on the border with
Thailand who face forcible repatriation.

About 100 social workers, therapists. clergy, and others
involved in resettling the minors gathered in Minneapolis in
the spring of 1981 to hear reports on their work and share ideas
on how to realize their objectives more effectively. LIRS and
the U.S. Catholic Conference, the only two national voluntary
agencies so involved, sponsored the conference. Psychological
testing, sexuality, courtship and marriage, mental health,
orientation of foster parents, and filling out forms were among
the topics considered.

LIRS joined 30 other agencies and organizations to form in

March 1982 the National Emergency Coalition for Haitian
Refugees. Its immediate goal was to secure freedom for 1,900
Haitian asylum-seekers in detention in the United States, and
this happened in June by order of U.S. District Court Judge
Eugene P. Spellman of Miami. LIRS had responsibility for
placing 263 of these Haitians, and it worked to recruit pro bono
legal advocates to help the Haitians at their immigration
hearings. It also turned attention to finding long-term solu-
tions to the Haitians’ plight.

Frequent and urgent reports about the growing influx of
undocumented Salvadorans and other Central Americans into
the Southwest of the United States led LIRS to commission a
special report on their situation and establish in October 1981 a
Central American Concerns Program. Its coordinator has
especially tried to get government decisionmakers to grant the
Salvadorans “extended voluntary departure status” so thev
can remain in the United States until they are able to return
safely to El Salvador. Another goal is to educate the public to
the Salvadoran situation and encourage people to join in this
advocacy. The program has been funded in part by a $100,000
grant from the Lutheran World Federation and is a strong
reflection of Lutheran concern and commitment to refugees
fleeing violence.

LIRS’ firm commitment to advocacy is reflected by the
consultations on the subject convened in November 1982 and
this April. They involved representatives from the church
bodies and Lutheran social service agencies who with Lu-
theran Council staff members are seeking to develop ‘an
operational structure for advocacy work in immigration and
refugee matters throughout the Lutheran system.”

LIRS hopes the other council partners will follow the
example of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod in observ-
ing a Refugee Concerns Sunday. As proclaimed by President
Ralph A. Bohlmann, congregations of the Synod were to use
this April 17 “as a time for reflection, so that the plight of the
dispossessed becomes the concern of all the faithful, both on
the level of seeking relief from the pain and suffering of
dislocation, and on the level of giving a cup of water to the
thirsty and welcoming the stranger into our midst.” Congrega-
tions were also urged to “make use of every opportunity to
engage in acts of witness, service, and advocacy for immi-
grants and refugees” and to “open their hearts to ‘welcome
strangers’ into the compassionate and protective custody of
their homes.”

Department of Specialized Pastoral Care
and Clinical Education

A two-year certification program, ‘‘Professional Studies in
Aging,’ has been developed by the department with the
Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan, Ann
Arbor. Geared primarily to clergy serving in gerontological
settings or having a special interest in aging, the program
includes a two-week period in residence at the institute for two
summers plus field work in the home communities of those
enrolled. Lutheran Brotherhood provided a $10,000 grant for
start-up costs, and the first ‘‘class” has 17 students.

Funding is being sought for a consultation in 1984 on
ministry with aging. It would bring together professionals of
various disciplines and would seek to sensitize people to the
needs of the aging, raise issues, call for increased services, and
integrate the different facets of ministry throughout the Lu-
theran church bodies.

A 10-member task force has looked into the state of pastoral
care in homes and institutions for the aging and is seeking to
improve the quality of such care. With funding from AAL it
issued in 1982 a booklet, “Toward Better Ministry to the Aging
in Institutional Settings,” distributed to all LCMS, ALC, LCA,
and AELC clergy through the Lutheran Council’s mailing
service, “The Interchange.”

Another AAL grant to the department made possible during
1982 a study of the level of maritime ministry in 70 seaports
throughout the United States, the identification of needs at
these seaports which are currently unmet, and suggestions of
ways Lutherans can contribute toward meeting these needs.
Findings of the study are detailed in a published report
entitled, “Enhanced Lutheran Outreach to Seafarers.”

A roundup of topics confronted at regional meetings of