Restructuring Georgia’s Refugee Resettlement Funding: Mechanisms to Provide Adequate and Effective Support
Currently, Georgia does not fund any programs specifically for refugees, and all of the funding for refugees within the state come from the federal budget[1]. Additionally, the refugee resettlement process funding currently exists as a one-time payment per refugee to finance the first 30–90 days in the United States[2]. Due to these two mechanisms combined, there is a lack of adequate, organized funding from the government for the refugees resettled in Georgia. Thus, most of the refugee needs are met by private organizations, allowing for discrepancies in support for refugees that are still adapting to their new lives in the U.S.
Both the Department of State and the Department of Health and Human Resources are responsible for planning federal funding for the refugee resettlement process[3]; while these organizations have large decision-making power, due to all of the changes within federal refugee policy, it may be relatively infeasible to currently address these organizations to affect state refugee policy. The UNHCR refers refugees to the U.S. for resettlement, and thus have power in deciding which refugees get resettled, but it also might be ineffectual to reach out to them to solve this state-level problem.
Another stakeholder within this policy is, of course, the refugee population in Georgia. The city of Clarkston specifically has a large population of refugees and “has received over 40,000 refugees over the past 25 years”[4]. It is important to make sure that refugee communities are central to any potential policy.
Within the state of Georgia, the Department of Human Services’ Refugee Program Unit administers the federally funded Refugee Program, and is thus one of the main stakeholders within this issue regarding state-level refugee funding. Additionally, most of the actions to support refugees after the initial lump-sum given through federal funding is coordinated between this Department and the private sector who provide “job development, placement, and specialized training opportunities, as well as contracted support service activities with a consortium of refugee voluntary agencies”[5]. Thus, in order to make effective policy change, there needs to be substantial collaboration between the Department of Human Services’ Refugee Program Unit and the private sector refugee agencies, the two main stakeholders affecting the statewide refugee policy.
Since this project would study how to restructure and centralize refugee aid during the resettlement process and would thus not involve significant additional funding, it has a great potential to be accepted by policy makers. This research would not propose a way to change the federal funding for refugees, which is contingent on many other factors outside of the realm of the state.
Additionally, despite nationwide debate regarding admitting refugees to the country, refugees are a “net asset to the state (Georgia) within six months of arrival”[6] and have “the highest early self-sufficiency rate in the country”[7]. This translates into a relatively low economic cost and actual benefits to the state of Georgia in terms of the presence of refugees, making a policy addressing this group more feasible.
[1] “Refugees in Georgia: The Facts.” Accessed September 6, 2018. http://www.welcomingrefugees.org/sites/default/files/documents/resources/CRSA-RefugeesInGATheFacts.pdf.
[2] Cepla, Zuzana. 2018. “Fact Sheet: U.S. Refugee Resettlement.” National Immigration Forum. May 14, 2018. https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-u-s-refugee-resettlement/.
[3] Ibid.
[4] “Refugee Program | Division of Family and Children Services.” n.d. Accessed September 7, 2018. https://dfcs.georgia.gov/refugee-program.
[5] “Refugee Program | Division of Family and Children Services.” n.d. Accessed September 7, 2018. https://dfcs.georgia.gov/refugee-program.
[6] “Refugees in Georgia: The Facts.” Ibid.
[7] “Refugees in Georgia: The Facts.”