Hawai'i Shows Its Support for the People of the FSM

Senator J. Kalani English Wants to "…Make Life Better for Micronesians in the U.S."

The Kaselehlie Press / STPNS
July 23, 2007

By Bill Jaynes
for The Kaselehlie Press

POHNPEI, Federated States of Micronesia (STPNS) --

Pohnpei, FSM - Senator J. Kalani English of the Senate of the State of Hawai'i was in the FSM during inauguration weekend for two main reasons. Senator English is passionate about Hawaii's relationship with other Pacific Island nations and how they can all work together. He said he was here to attend the inauguration of the new President, Vice President, and the Congress of the FSM in order to extend the best wishes of Hawai'i to the FSM. He said that he felt it was a good symbolic gesture to be in the FSM at this time, both for the FSM, and for the Pacific region.

Senator English serves as the Chair of the Senate's Committee on Transportation and International Affairs.

Though Senator English had made plans to come to the FSM before The Honolulu Advertiser ran a front page article entitled "Micronesians Fill Hawai'i Shelters", on Micronesian shelter use in their July 8, Sunday issue, the widely read article certainly aided him with the second part of his agenda. He wanted to talk with government leaders about how the FSM and Hawai'i could best work together to make life better for Micronesians in the U.S and perhaps, though he didn't specifically say so, not quite so hard for Hawai'i State finances.

English said that officials in Hawai'i think that the number of FSM citizens living in Hawai'i is in the neighborhood of 15,000. U.S. Census questionnaires differentiate nationalities but only insofar as to say respondents are Pacific Islanders. There is no way to indicate on the form whether a respondent is from a Freely Associated State (FAS) or not. He said that he asked President Mori in a meeting with him to try to help to determine more closely how many FSM citizens are living in Hawai'i.

Freely Associated States are countries in the Pacific that have financial and immigration arrangements with the U.S arranged under a treaty. The citizens of FAS countries have immigration arrangements to live and work in the United States with relatively few restrictions. The problem is that because of their immigration status in the U.S. they fall, at least in Hawai'i, into what might be called an area of "bureaucratic misunderstanding."

An insightful study was recently undertaken by the Office of Community Services in Hawaii under the directorship of Sam Aiona that covered, among other things, what government Social Service programs are available to people who enter the U.S. in one of three different ways. The analysis covered those who choose Hawai'i as their residence.

A person can enter the U.S. as an "Immigrant". A person with immigrant status is a person that has pre-applied and has been given approval to pursue citizenship in the U.S. They obtain a green card and a Visa while they are in their home country and they have a U.S. sponsor. People who arrive in Hawai'i in this way are eligible for Legal Aid, Supplementary Security Income (SSI), Housing Aid, and Hawaii's MedQuest though U.S. law has said since 1996 that Immigrants to the U.S. cannot access any government sponsored Social Service program for the first five years. After they have spent five years in the U.S. they are eligible for all other Social Service programs by the Federal Government.

50,000 to 60,000 people enter the U.S. each year as a "Refugee". A refugee has applied for and received notification from the U.S. Government that they have been accepted for entry into the U.S. as a refugee. They have undergone a health and background check in their home country and when they are arrive in the U.S. undergo a second health and background check when they are referred to the U.S. State Department. Once all of the agencies they must see have approved them, a refugee is eligible, for the first eight months of residence to receive Food Stamps, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), General Assistance, Federal Medicaid, and can utilize the Section 8 housing program. They can additionally access without the 8 month limit, all of the programs that people who enter under an immigrant status can utilize when they first arrive.

People who enter the U.S. who are from Freely Associated States have applied for and received a passport from their home country. They have filed an I-94 form, and have applied for a U.S. Social Security number while they are in their home country. When they arrive in Hawai'i they are eligible only for TANF, MedQuest, and Housing aid. Under the current bureaucratic misunderstandings, this may be all that Freely Associated Citizens will qualify for unless they change their status to "immigrant". Under current FSM law that would require them to give up their FSM citizenship and would also require them to start all over as if they had just entered the country for the first time with immigrant status.

Perhaps it's no wonder that Micronesians who find the high cost of housing in Hawai'i too much to bear clamor to gain any advantage they can to obtain one of the few benefits they can get in the U.S.

Senator English said that homelessness is really the last of a series of tragedies that can occur in people's lives and that Hawai'i is working with the community to try to find a way to get a safety net out for them before it is actually needed. Right now the safety net for FSM citizens is small and nearly all of the cost for it is born by the State. Senator English said that the annual cost is between $30 and $40 million.

Hawaii's current policy is a leftover from the Federal policy that went to the States for their own discretion in 1998. It says that first priority for housing benefits should go to homeless people. One way people can prove that they are homeless is to access homeless shelters and Micronesians are doing that. Not all of them, but a good number of them.

The Honolulu Advertiser article said that the number of Micronesians using the State's homeless shelter system increased by nearly three times between 2001 and 2006 and that Micronesians, who make up only 1% of Hawaii's population are now utilizing 20% of the state's total homeless shelter population.

In May when we interviewed Hawaii's Governor Linda Lingle and former Chief of Staff Bob Awana, we were told that in 2006, 90% of the residents of the Lighthouse Homeless Shelter, a large, relatively new shelter in Honolulu, were from the FSM. The materials that Senator English brought with him to the FSM to share with government officials here confirm that statistic.

Micronesians in Hawai'i who can help are not sitting on their hands and watching it happen. The Nations of Micronesia meeting minutes from the May 23rd meeting listed as attendees a who's who of people concerned with helping Micronesians to get a toe hold in their new community. The minutes, which spanned several pages of one line action suggestions showed that Micronesians and Hawaiians are working together to develop action plans to help people from Freely Associated States to understand their new, different, and sometimes difficult surroundings. Discussions ranged from one stop social services delivery with interpreters from each country and state to whether or not census forms could be developed in the various languages of the islands. There was discussion of how the group could get the message out to FAS people that there would be no harm in reporting accurately on the census since it would actually help with funding programs they might need.

Both the House of Representatives and the Senate in Hawai'i passed a resolution requiring the Attorney General to establish a Task Force to investigate and coordinate the provision of medical and social service to migrant from Freely Associated States (FAS). The Task Force is to include a representative from government and private agencies in the areas of health, education, and labor and industry. It also called for a representative from The Micronesian Community Network and Micronesians United.

Senator English's committee, in concert with Senator Suzanne Chun Oakland's committee on Human Services and Public Housing recommended a House concurrent resolution. The resolution requested the Center for Pacific Island Studies, the only congressionally recognized national resource center for the study of the Pacific Islands, housed at the University of Hawai'i, to establish a task force to identify and address the needs of Pacific Islanders living in Hawai'i.

Senator English says that he believes that regional directors of Federal programs may not be aware that the amended Compact of Free Association calls for access to FSM citizens to Federal programs. He said that the Compact is a treaty and should, under the law be given priority over other policies. He's trying to get that message to the right people in Washington D.C.

He said, "It's not like we don't want to provide the service. It's just that we need as much help as we can."

© 2007 The Kaselehlie Press Pohnpei, Federated States of Micronesia.

Original article URL: http://www.stpns.net/view_article.html?articleId=54342138702105282

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