ROANOKE TIMES Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 1996 TAG: 9611120078 SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY DATELINE: BLACKSBURG SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
It's a long way from the freeways of Southern California and the arroyos of the Rio Grande to Blacksburg. But shock waves from the national controversy over public benefits for immigrants are being felt in this internationally flavored college town.
Under tighter rules established by federal welfare reform legislation, legal immigrants who apply for public assistance such as food stamps, Medicaid or Aid to Families with Dependant Children are being turned down.
New guidelines also say the eligibility of immigrant families or individuals presently receiving welfare benefits will be re-evaluated over the next five months. Thereafter it will be "very difficult" for immigrants to participate, said Caroline Crist of Montgomery County's Department of Social Services.
About 20 households will lose benefits, according to Crist, an eligibility supervisor.
"That's not fair," said Chantal Kabwe of Blacksburg. A 29-year-old native of Zaire, Kabwe's application for food stamps was recently denied.
"I've been in the United States for five years. I've been working. I paid my taxes," she said.
Experts say few of the thousands of foreigners who attend Virginia Tech receive public assistance. However, the new rules will be felt by individual legal immigrants like Kabwe.
After working in Maine and Florida, she moved here three months ago to study industrial engineering at Virginia Tech, only to encounter problems with student loans and academic eligibility.
To regroup, Kabwe said she planned to work part time and attend New River Community College. She unsuccessfully applied for food stamps as a means to supplement her income.
"It's just shocking," she said. "It's not like I planned to be jobless."
Most foreigners come to Blacksburg from countries with some kind of socialized medicine. They don't understand why America - among the world's wealthiest countries - lacks national health care, said Darlene Grega, director of Virginia Tech's Cranwell International Center.
Grega said the center has headed off problems by advising foreign students against applying for public assistance. "We didn't feel it was fair for the international students to tax the resources of our county," she added.
"I keep my ear to the ground. I know of no international students receiving food stamps."
However, Grega said spouses or family members who follow international students to Blacksburg are more difficult to track. Some have qualified for low-income benefits such as Medicaid and participated in the federal Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants and Children known as WIC.
"There will always be people that try to get through the system," she said.
Virginia Tech has increased efforts to ensure that international students don't enroll without adequate medical coverage and become a burden to local resources, she said.
Foreign students who cannot show proof of medical insurance from their home countries are automatically enrolled - and billed - as participants in Tech's student health plan.
The vast majority of international students at Tech arrive with proper medical coverage, Grega said. They are motivated to succeed, and the desire not to jeopardize their status as student immigrants is strong, she added.
Still, the change in regulations made Kabwe feel like an unwelcome stranger in a strange land. After her application was denied, she staged a one-woman sit-in.
Kabwe wrote a protest sign and sat in the lobby of the Department of Social Services in Christiansburg until police advised her to leave.
"I was so upset. It did not make any sense," she said.
Locally, it's too early to say how many more immigrants will be affected by the changes, Crist said. "Six months from now we'll be able to see."
Meanwhile, Kabwe is looking for a job and hoping to find enough money to pay the rent on the apartment she shares with two roommates.
LENGTH: Medium: 81 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: ALAN KIM\Staff. 1. Chantal Kabwe of Blacksburg had herby CNBrecent application for food stamps denied. color. 2. After her
application was denied, Chantal Kabwe staged a one-woman sit-in with
this sign in the lobby of the Department of Social Services in
Christiansburg until police advised her to leave.