c. 1999 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ When Vladimir and Gordana Peric and their two young sons fled war in their native Bosnia, the family found a new home, secured work and learned English with the help of Village Lutheran Church in New Jersey.

Now, the Ocean County church is prepared to again sponsor Balkan war refugees, this time Kosovar Albanians pegged for resettlement in the United States as part of a NATO plan to ease overcrowding in Macedonian refugee camps.

“It’s a matter of giving people an opportunity to live in peace, basically helping them in a time of need,” says the Rev. Roy Minnix, the pastor. “It’s a wonderful opportunity.”

Churches, mosques and individual families across the United States are contacting resettlement agencies to offer shelter and services for the refugees, who began arriving in this country Wednesday. While there appear to be plenty of sponsors eager to help the Kosovar families, veteran resettlement officials say the process is time-consuming and often trying.

Sponsorship means finding housing and employment. It means helping refugees unfamiliar with a new system apply for Social Security cards and learn how to negotiate the maze of social service agencies that can offer them assistance. It means scheduling and keeping medical and counseling appointments.

Refugees will need help with even such mundane tasks as buying groceries.

“You’re there at Day One of their Americanization process,” explained Dennis Mulligan, who oversees refugee resettlements for Lutheran Social Ministries of New Jersey.

However, refugees are entitled to government services not available to political asylum applicants and other immigrants to the United States.

They receive an initial financial grant of $576 from the State Department to help with housing and other costs of starting a new household. Ongoing support comes from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including living expenses averaging $362 per month for a family of three, said Michael Kharden, a spokesman for the agency in Washington. The cash benefits are provided for eight months.

The refugees also are eligible for employment programs, food stamps and medical assistance for up to eight months, said Patricia Maloof, director of refugee programs for the U.S. Catholic Conference in Washington.

Maloof said, however, that the government benefits coupled with assistance from sponsors is supposed to help the refugees assimilate into American society as quickly as possible.

“The goal is really self-sufficiency,” she said.

The refugees will have a year to apply for permanent residence, although officials expect most will return to their homeland.

In the case of the Peric couple from Bosnia, Village Lutheran Church helped them find and furnish a house in Lacey Township.

“I would say that the big thing would be the deposit and the first month’s rent as well as your (utilities) hookup _ we’re talking about $2,400 you should have on hand,” Minnix said.

Church members also drove the family around until Vladimir Peric passed his driver’s test. They helped them with medical and dental exams, securing Social Security cards and food stamps. The church even helped them learn English and find work.

The Perics have since returned to Bosnia. But helping the family gave church members valuable experience in refugee resettlement.

“We’ve already contacted the Lutheran Immigration Services to let them know we’re ready to help again. We wouldn’t think twice about helping another family,” Minnix said.

Resettlement agencies say they’ve heard from many individual families and groups offering their homes for the refugees.

At a Catholic refugee resettlement office in Paterson, N.J., workers already have received 15 offers of sponsorship from families not related to the refugees on top of the 80 sponsorship claims filed by Albanian-Americans. Other agencies _ Catholic, Lutheran and from other denominations _ also reported several offers from families not related to the Kosovar Albanians.

John Fredriksson, associate executive director for the Immigration and Refugee Services of America, said it’s understandable so many Americans are offering help. But he noted that it’s best to help refugees find their own homes.

“The refugees like to be welcomed,” he said. “But like most of us, they want to start their own lives. … It’s better for their mental health.”

Ideally, resettlement officials said, the transition from refugee to member of American society will be made through the help of Albanian-American families that have filed affidavits of relationship to sponsor refugee relatives.

But officials said hundreds, if not thousands, of people may be arriving without family connections, and many of them may be relocated to communities across the country that lack Albanian-American communities. Some of those _ called “free” cases in resettlement lingo _ are already set for referral to Catholic agencies in places such as Salt Lake City; Forth Worth, Texas; Hartford, Conn.; and Lansing, Mich., so that the financial responsibility is shared by many chapters.

“We have a network of 110 affiliates, and, in some cases, they are prepared to take those cases in places where relatives are not available,” said Maloof of the Catholic Conference.

Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., who will travel next week to Albania as part of a Catholic Relief Services fact-finding mission, said he is proud of the church’s efforts on behalf of refugees.

In the end, however, he said the primary goal should be to repatriate Kosovars to their homeland.

“Not to send them back would be to surrender to ethnic cleansing,” he said.

Eds: Anyone interested in sponsoring a refugee family may call the Kosovo Refugee Hotline, 1-800-727-4420.

DEA END RNS