Refugees. Economy. Redistricting

<p>“It’s rightfully been on everyone’s minds,” said Ben Cabanaw, state refugee <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/ogm/">coordinator in the state’s Office of Global Michigan</a>, and special guest during the Institute’s monthly broadcast. “There’s a lot of details still not known as this time.”</p><p>Estimates are that more than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s attack on its neighboring country.</p><p>This month’s podcast features Host Arnold Weinfeld, IPPSR associate director, <a href="https://ippsr.msu.edu">IPPSR</a> Director Dr. <a href="https://twitter.com/mattgrossmann">Matt Grossmann</a> and MSU economist Charles Ballard. Podcasts predicted the conflict in Ukraine will likely have lingering economic effects and traced legal questions about redistricting as statewide candidates file for 2022 elections.</p><p>“We can always find that Michigan is quite connected to events that occur all over the world,” Grossmann said.</p><p>Michigan is a welcoming state, Cabanaw said, and his office within the state <a href="https://www.michigan.gov/leo">Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity</a> works with local health, education and nonprofit agencies to resettle refugees into new housing, schools, and employment.</p><p>Between last fall and this spring, his office helped Michigan to welcome about 1,800 refugees from Afghanistan and provides ongoing support services to about 3,000 people each year, he said. </p><p>Public and media interest ebbs and flows with each international crisis posing, a challenge for continuing refugee support, Cabanaw said. “We try to use this moment to educate and advocate. Michigan is traditionally a welcoming state and provides a lot of support for the programming that we do,” he said.</p><p>Michigan’s Legislature is also settling the state’s budget with tax cut proposals as a better-than-expected economy and federal pandemic relief funds yield surplus state finances. </p><p>“The recession caused by COVID turned out not to be as severe as many of us feare