Posted on 08/26/2009 6:08:12 AM PDT by La Lydia
Dvoira Rososhanskaya wheeled her chair through the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, past the bathrooms that say "tuyalet" in Cyrillic letters and the bookcase full of Russian translations of Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. A Russian writer had just read his short stories to a group of senior citizens from the former Soviet Union, and Rososhanskaya, 87, had loved it.
"It's very important for me to be among Russian speakers," said the onetime preschool teacher from Ukraine who earned three medals digging trenches near Stalingrad during World War II. "Everything he was telling and reading from his book corresponded with things I'd gone through in my life."
Rososhanskaya is one of 42 Russian-speaking residents at the Rockville facility, which is responding to what experts believe will be a growing demand for multicultural offerings at senior centers and nursing homes as America's elderly population becomes increasingly diverse. In the Washington area, which has residents from 193 countries, there are retirement homes that cater to a single ethnic group, such as Chinese or Korean...
"Everyone is going to have to learn more about various ethnic and cultural sensitivities, because the marketplace of aging is getting more diverse," said Larry Minnix, president and chief executive of the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging. "I think, over the next five to 10 years, you're going to see a lot of attention paid to this."
About 10 percent of people 65 and older in the United States are foreign-born. The Pew Research Center estimates that by 2050, that figure will rise to 20 percent, with the total number of elderly immigrants quadrupling to about 16 million....
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Expanding the capabilities of these facilities in order to cater to a more diverse clientele will no doubt raise costs. But I don’t see that as a big problem. We’ll just kill them at a faster pace in order to help balance the books.
They read enough English to fill out the forms in order to receive SSI and Medicaid for the rest of their lives. In California over 30% of the recipients of SSI are immigrants from Asia brought over to the USA by their kids.
The Russians in New York have been dumping their parents on social services for the past 30 years or so. SSI, foods stamps, public housing, etc.
I have no problems with someone who was on our side digging ditches at Stalingrad during WWII. Those guys are kind of like the fellows who landed at Normandy on D-Day, or the firemen who went into the WTC to rescue people.
Why is Russia not caring for its own veterans? By your logic, American taxpayers are responsible for the support of every single World War II veteran who fought for our allies, including the French Resistance, regardless of their nationality. Sorry, I do not agree with that.
Those foreign countries didn’t care for their vets THEN, why would they care now?
So we kindly take the pressure off of them to do the right thing, at the expense of our taxpayers.
The Battle of Stalingrad is kind of special. You must read about it sometime, or go find one of the several (not numerous) old Russian survivors who participated and he or she can tell you about it.
People from Muncie IN, or Indianapolis IN, can tell you about what was going on there at the time ~ they were slaughtering hogs and grinding them up to make SPAM or SPAM-like products that were being shipped directly to the front in that city at incredible cost to help people like the subject of my comments dig those ditches so others could prepare to mount assaults against the Germans just yards ahead.
Two massive armies were locked into an immense battle across the bredth of a city over 100 miles in length, fighting foot by foot to stop the advance of the other.
The men and women in the Russian forces in that battle, both regulars and irregulars, have nothing to apologize for anywhere.
Yes, Stalingrad is special. But the question is: Should the US healthcare system spend scarce dollars on issues of diversity for everyone who comes in through the door? Or, if there is any special exception made for veterans of the Battle of Stalingrad, where is that exception written down?
All of us owe him a personal debt for making our lives possible.
It's the sytem that's the problem, not the recipient.
The vast majority of these beneficiaries of American largess are Asian. Regardless of their true nationality, if they are on SSI they also are covered by Medicare and by food stamps.
Lot of them are Hmong ~ they too fought our war for us.
We fought their war for them.
And the vast majority are Chinese.
Bet you imagine all East Asian people are Chinese.
I have seen the “family reunification” immigration numbers, listed by country of origin. Since you apparently haven’t bothered, here’s how it worked. A pregnant woman come to this country legally, on a tourist visa, from China, perhaps Singapore or Taiwan. She gives birth. Her child is an American citizen. She obtains legal status and permanent residency. In five years she becomes a citizen, and sponsors in her husband, who follows the same path. Once they are established here, they sponsor in their elderly parents and grandparents. Once the elderly parents establish themselves here, they bring in their sisters and brother. Eventually all these people, who have not worked the 40 quarters needed to qualify for Social Security benefits, apply for and are granted SSI. From then on, the taxpayer is held responsible for them regardless of the economic means their children and relatives have. It’s the law. Now I don’t remember voting for any candidate who ran on a platform of setting up such a retirement benefits system for the entire world, a system that brings in thousands of people whose only attachment to our country is what they can milk from it. And I wouldn’t have. But I suspect you would.
Now, are any of those "Chinese" employed and are they paying taxes?
Bonnie Erbe says it’s folks from Africa, not China ~ See: http://www.usnews.com/blogs/erbe/2008/12/11/immigration-fraud-riddles-suspended-family-reunification-program.html
Got a little secret for ya. Elderly care budgets are being cut left and right. The States are looking for any reason not to accept applications or to pay. The entire system is one step from getting IOUs from the feds. States are closing facilities and consolidating remaining facilities. The regulations are being rewritten to allow for less care and less regulation. Payment amounts are being cut and treatments are being denied. The system is collapsing.
Claims like yours require a URL to back them up. There are nearly a million references when you search for family reunification by country
Some of them are reliable, others are probably not, but China is not high on anyone's list as a source of "family reunion" folks in countries where that's one of the standards for LEGAL ENTRY.
Best stay focused on ILLEGAL ALIENS ~ they are the real problem here.
That’s the most recent wrinkle. I posted an article about that here on FR when the State Department suspended the program. Great minds think alike. Apparently the people from Africa showed a greater propensity for fraud than other groups.
The states, which have to balance their budgets, have been forced to act. Have you seen new regs in the Federal Register?
Hardly ~ they’re like everybody else. Europeans are just slicker ~ and much more inbred so they all look alike.
Which ones? There have been a number of policy changes recently both at the State and federal levels.
As far as I know, there have been no regulation changes for SSI. I thought maybe someone had seen something I missed.
SSI isn’t the only set of regulations affecting the elderly.
SSI is one of the primary federal programs that affects elderly immigrants who come here under the family reunification provisions of the law and are supported by U.S. taxpayers, which is what this thread is about.
So are the other programs besides SSI. In fact, they provide most of the funding for living in such places as nursing homes. Medicaid and Medicare and State programs are the primary funding sources, which is also what this thread is about.
What is your point? Are you arguing that SSI for elderly immigrants ISN’T the gateway to other benefit/entitlement programs? If that is your argument, I disagree. Or what?
What was your point for even bringing SSI into the picture, a narcissistic attempt to tell us you work with SSI? OK, we hear you, you work with SSI, goody for you.
I do not work for SSI, or any such agency. My point is the SSI system, which was set up to care for U.S. citizens, is being gamed and milked by immigrants.
Maybe due to the strain put on the system by the masses of foreigners exploiting our kindness. I say let them root through trash piles for sustenance before we allow them to steal the benefits that are morally due to my American grandma and all other American grandmas.
Yeah but the Russian soldiers of WWII do have to apologize for Katyn where they massacred 22,000 Poles with a bullet to the back of the head. The only difference between the Soviet and German soldiers of WWII was the color of their uniforms.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katyn_massacre
I doubt they are closely connected except that the Nazis and Commies were involved in both.
“My point is the SSI system, which was set up to care for U.S. citizens, is being gamed and milked by immigrants.”
My point is that SSI is the least of the onetary worries. Medicare and Medicaid are bleeding many times more than SSI. For instance, a nursing home is paid at $3,100/month plus medical costs. These immigrant elderlies and illegal aliens are bleeding the system dry from Americans. The entire socialized system of SSI, Medicare, and Medicaid need to be abolished.
You have gone from the specific to the general, in an attempt for whatever reason to sidetrack this thread. Your last two sentences could apply to any article that mentions immigration or the socialization of our society anywhere. You could have saved yourself time and electrons just posting that last sentence at the beginning, and having it over with. Or, you could just come out with it and say, “You are a stupid cow for even bothering to post this. It is of no interest to me,” because that is what you mean. Cada loco con su tema.
21.8% of Asian-American women over 65 living in California receive SSI compared to 4.9% of white women. For men it is 15.8% vs 4.3%
http://www.iwpr.org/pdf/California_D471.pdf
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