How to Speak Like You Understand Refugee Resettlement

From a former refugee resettlement employee in the US

I’m seeing and hearing much confusion. Here’s an explainer.

First, the meanings of your words

Along with a few numbers for perspective

A person forced from her home for refugee-like reasons (such as to avoid the effects of armed conflict, generalized violence, human rights violations, or natural or human-made disasters), but who is still within the borders of her country, is an “internally displaced person.”

• Syria has over 7 million IDPs within its borders.

A person with a well-founded fear of persecution who cannot safely avail herself of the protections that her country is supposed to provide its citizens, and who is outside that country of origin, is a “refugee.”

• Nearly 4.3 million refugees have had to flee Syria since the current conflict began there in 2011.

Being called a “refugee” is a political designation with requirements that were set by the 1951 Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, aka the “1951 Refugee Convention,” and later amended by the 1967 Protocol. These were multinational United Nations agreements. The United States is one of the countries that helped write them and agreed to them.

• UNHCR, aka the “UN Refugee Agency,” has 14.4 million refugees worldwide under its mandate as of 2014.
• The above number does not include an additional 5.1 million refugees registered with UNRWA — United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East; these latter refugees are living in camps in the Middle East as a result of the 1948 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars. When people talk about refugees worldwide, they usually are leaving out this group because of its specific situation.

If someone gets herself to another country (e.g. via tourist visa or border crossing) and then petitions that country for protections based on the same conditions that classify one as a refugee, she is an “asylum seeker” (or in the US, an “asylee”) as long as her claim has not been legally substantiated. If her claim becomes substantiated, the country may designate her a refugee or other form of legal status.

Because of the mass movement of Syrian refugees into neighboring countries and into some European countries, holding individual asylum interviews is impractical. In fact, most of these countries are treating the process as unnecessary, because they know why these Syrians are fleeing. The legal term is prima facie: the people are being accepted as refugees based on “first impression.”

• Asylum seekers from Syria are rare within the US, though the numbers could rise in coming years, as they did for asylees from Afghanistan between 2006 and 2011, Serbia and Montenegro around 1992, and other countries when they faced conflict.
• In the US in 2013: Asylum status was granted to 811 people from Syria. In comparison, China was the top country of origin with 8,604, and Egypt was second with 3,407.
• In the world in 2014: Germany received 39,300 applications from Syrian asylum seekers; Sweden had 30,300 applicants. They were the top two recipients, followed by Serbia and Kosovo, Netherlands, and Turkey. The United States was fifteenth down the list, receiving 1,700 applications.

Okay, now…

Here’s what the US set out to do this year

The 10,000 Syrian refugees that the federal government said it will resettle in FY 2016 are not asylees, nor are they accepted prima facie. They are refugees.

Elsewhere, you can read loads of information about the screening process that takes place before a refugee ever steps foot on American soil. Before you comment on what is and isn’t lacking, go look it up. It’s public knowledge. (Or don’t look it up, which is totally cool. But then just don’t convince yourself you know as much as the agencies that have been safely resettling refugees in the US since the mid-seventies, through the United States Refugee Act of 1980, refined following 9/11, and onto ever more stringent safeguards to this day.) Questioning the process is valid and important. Uninformed fear can be harmful.

The maximum number of refugees to be admitted every year is set by what’s called the “Presidential Determination on Refugee Admissions” — for FY 2016, the number was set at 85,000. This is the breakdown of where those refugees are supposed to come from:

• Africa 25,000
• East Asia 13,000
• Europe and Central Asia 4,000
• Latin America/Caribbean 3,000
• Near East/South Asia 34,000
• Unallocated Reserve 6,000

The “unallocated reserve” is headroom to add to regions as needed. All of these numbers are targets only. They can be shifted among regions if the Department of State deems it necessary, such as for an international emergency.

In recent years, the overall number has typically been between 70k and 80k. As the allocation number is a ceiling and not a quota, actual numbers of refugees resettled in America are occasionally much lower.

• For example, in 2006, under a presidential determination of 70,000 refugees, less than 41,300 were actually admitted. In 2002, with the same ceiling allocation, only a little more than 27,000 were admitted.
• The highest allocation was 142,000 back in 1992, before large yearly declines that lasted until 1997, when the ceiling fell to a contemporary low of 78,000 before rebounding. The ceiling wouldn’t fall that low again until 2002, following the 9/11 attacks, which began a six-year streak of setting the ceiling at 70,000. 2016 is the first time since 9/11 that the ceiling has risen above 80k, still well below early 1990s admission levels.
• The White House proposed in September 2015 to bring next year’s allocation up to 100,000 (FY 2017).

Two more things about the Presidential Determination:

The numbers are set in consultation with Congress.

Resettling these refugees is provided for in the national budget every year.

Did you catch that last one? What people keep calling “an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees” (ala, “How can we afford to resettle an additional 10,000 Syrian refugees?”) is additional Syrians, not additional refugees. See, they are additional because in the fiscal years since civil war began in Syria, only 29 (2011), 31 (2012), 36 (2013), 105 (2014), and 1,682 (2015) Syrians have been admitted to the US as refugees. But this does not increase the overall number of refugees we are taking in. In all that time, we were still budgeting for around 70,000 to 80,000 refugees annually, just like we’re budgeting for this year’s 85,000 ceiling. If the earmarked funds don’t go to a Syrian refugee, they will go to a refugee from someplace else. (The funds won’t default to a homeless veteran.) We can afford the expenditure.

Opinion: We absolutely should spend the money required to see to the needs of the homeless. Somebody in the know, please put out an explainer on how to speak like you understand homelessness in America.

The dollar amount of state income that refugees create compared to the dollar amount spent on their resettlement is something I’d like to tell you all about, but it wasn’t my area. I’m more familiar with, um, micro-microeconomics of refugee resettlement— finding jobs, understanding utility bills, learning where to insert coins to ride the light rail, that sort of thing. But I would like to include the knowledge here. If the economic impact of refugees is your area of expertise, please fill me in!

Demographics

Just a few more numbers. Hang in there.

Of all Syrian refugees admitted into the US thus far, 2% are “single men of combat age.” One… and then two. Not whatever “spine-chilling” number you heard.

This is important not because single men of combat age are itching to bomb your city (they aren’t), and not because protections are so lacking that any terrorist could wander through the vetting unnoticed (protections aren’t so lacking). It’s important because it leads us to other statistics that can be revealing about the plight of refugees, such as the stat that approximately half of the Syrian refugees in the US right now are children. About 2.5% are over age 60. Between males and females, the split is nearly half and half, with a few more males than females.

Instead of guessing a condition that feels like it could be true, you can create breakdowns of real data and peruse refugee admissions information based on nationality, destination state, religion, age, year, language, education level, and lots more. Have fun: Refugee Processing Center.

By the way, realize that we were talking about nothing more than refugees’ ages and genders. We could alternately call people in that alarming category “men of college age up to young professional age.”

All right, no more numbers.

Onto citizenship…

After living in the United States for a full year, refugees must (and asylees may) apply to become a “lawful permanent resident.” Other names you might have heard for this are “Permanent Resident Alien” and “Green Card Holder.” They’re all LPRs, in the eyes of USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration Services).

After living in the United States for five years, a refugee may apply to become a US citizen. This, following years of statuses and designations and labels, is when the term “former refugee” at last comes into play. No longer refugees, these new citizens officially have a nationality: American.

It may seem difficult to believe, but some refugees aren’t merely switching their nationality; some were entirely stateless, with no home country. Citizenship day and the swearing-in ceremony is a very big moment for now-former refugees.

[I’m looking for the #s or %s of all refugees (not just Syrians, becasuse the Syrian migration is new and still occurring in low numbers) who become naturalized US citizens.]

Okay, please allow me to break further from the pedagogy for a moment here:

Do you have an hour of spare time? Stop in at your nearest city’s courthouse on a day when it’s holding a naturalization ceremony. Better yet, see if you can find a ceremony taking place on June 20th, which is World Refugee Day. The refugees who have escaped peril, built lives in their new hometowns, and proven their knowledge of America, who swear allegiance to the constitution of the country that sheltered them and gave them a new chance — these are not some sort of alien creatures brainwashed against you, whose cultures and attitudes and dreams are so foreign to yours that they could never assimilate in your land. You’ll see. These are proud, resilient, civic-minded, self-sufficient, grateful new Americans. Usually surrounded by suddenly beaming, welcoming old Americans.

We should back up a mo to talk about where refugees can go

Moving to the US is the last best option

Before refugees are even considered for resettlement to the US or any other country, their cases are reviewed for two other, more preferable options. It goes like this:

UNHCR is the international organization which coordinates the many agencies that cooperate to rescue refugees and IDPs in danger, provide immediate assistance, and safeguard refugees’ rights. They’re the ones setting up camps, making sure medical providers have access, letting organizations know where food and supplies are needed, registering refugees, seeing to security, collecting data, disseminating vital information, and more.

There are a few uncommon ways for refugees to apply for resettlement, but we’re going to talk about referrals from UNHCR because it’s by far the prevalent path.

1.

The first thing UNHCR officials look at is whether the refugee could be voluntarily repatriated to the country of origin.

This is the first and most preferred solution for every refugee case.

• There are times when repatriation is possible, as it was for more than 5 million Afghan refugees in Pakistan and Iran who were able to repatriate to Afghanistan staring in 2002.
• There are times when safe repatriation is impossible, such as Syria in 2015 while armed conflict is destroying towns and taking lives en masse.

If you suspect that my uses of the adverb “voluntarily” and adjective “safe” are weasel words, meant to couch the conversation in cushy wiggle room, then please look up the concept of “non-refoulement” and its related history before saying something that makes you sound like you do not understand refugee resettlement. “Voluntarily” and “safe” are critical in context of this discussion.

2.

When repatriation is not an option, UNHCR assesses local integration into the first country of asylum.

This is the next preferred solution. When the first country of asylum is able and willing to provide effective protection and maintain the universal human rights of the refugee, then the country and the refugee will undertake integration, aiming to culminate in citizenship.

• During the past decade, an estimated 1.1 million refugees successfully acquired the nationality of their first country of asylum.

Are you wondering why we can’t let all of the remaining refugees do this too?

Consider the countries that border Syria:

• Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon have respective populations of 76 million, 6.6 million, and 4.5 million.
• Owing to the ongoing conflict in Syria, 1.9 million refugees have registered in Turkey, 630,000 in Jordan, and 1.1 million in Lebanon.
• Yes, we’re going to talk about Lebanon.

Lebanon is a first country of asylum for many Syrian refugees, a country where the number of refugees it needs to sustain is 25% of its total population. And rising. The country’s resources are just the beginning of the concern.

Syrian refugees who arrived in Lebanon with healthy savings have depleted their personal resources after four years of crisis, and now 70% of Syrian refugee households in Lebanon are in poverty. Refugees there are increasingly living in debt to landlords, buying food on credit, and reducing essential expenses such as health and education. In 2014, a mere 25% of these households met the basic qualification of being “food secure.” That number dropped to 11% this year. The situation is unsustainable, and dire conditions are leading to worse: the government cut food assistance from $30 to $19 per person per month, families are sending children to work in order to afford food and shelter, landowners are exploiting refugee tenants, accusations of disrespectful treatment by aid workers and wrongdoings by authorities are arising, a recent government restriction on refugee access to the labor market hinders families from supporting themselves, children are being withdrawn from schools due in part to costs (only 5% of 15- to 17-year-olds attended school), food intake is decreasing, baby breastfeeding and infant nutrition are declining, begging is rising, and workers are accepting illegal jobs to generate income.

Similar debt circumstances are emerging in Jordan. Humanitarian aid and foreign assistance to these countries come nowhere near keeping up with the crisis.

Integrating all of these four million Syrian refugees into their first countries of asylum in Turkey, Lebanon, and Jordan is not only unfeasible, it would be inhumane.

3.

Such conditions necessitate a final consideration: resettlement to a third country.

This, finally, is the last of three durable solutions for refugees. The last resort. The end of the line. The ultimate remedy. The ace in the hole.

Here is where the direct relationship between the United States and refugees first enters the picture. The part coming up is where the conversation in the US has gotten hot, and after that is the portion that our lawmakers’ decision will directly affect.

UNHCR refers approximately 1% of all refugees for resettlement to a third country. Very few countries have formal resettlement programs. (Twenty-two, I think.) Several more countries accept refugees on a less formal basis, somewhat like the US did from 1965 until 1979, when we handled refugee admissions case by case. Then Congress passed the United States Refugee Act of 1980, which solidified a national policy consistent with the 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol, was flexible enough to accommodate emergencies, and created domestic procedures for effective and uniform absorption.

Today, the UNHCR officials who conclude resettlement requests (and decide where to make referrals) are familiar with the US’s refugee policy, regulations, and political climate. These experts know the priorities of the resettlement countries and look for the most fitting matches. Essentially, they’re an excellently-placed first filter, playing an important part in alerting countries to the remarkably few refugees who are being considered for resettlement. Once UNHCR makes a referral to the United States, Homeland Security and the Department of State take over.

Do you want to learn about all the steps involved in building case histories overseas, scrutinizing applicants, screening for security risks, biometric checks, approving and denying applications, preparing refugees for life in America, and all the US departments involved? Awesome! Here’s an infographic to get you started.

While you’re at it, you might check out the nine national “Voluntary Agencies,” state partners, local resettlement agencies, ethnic community-based organizations and mutual assistance associations, faith-based groups, and nonprofits that get involved every step along the path of each refugee’s resettlement in the United States. This is the one I worked at: Refugee Focus. Go volunteer if you can.

The United States prioritizes categories like survivors of torture, widows with young children, family reunification, and people with medical needs who require treatment we can provide. We impose no language test, no religious test, and no work skills test.

Refugee resettlement isn’t like an H1B visa with the goal of recruiting talent. Refugee resettlement is about being a member of the global community, saving lives, and standing up for victims by giving them protection and a place to call home. It is our chance to show those who have suffered that they will not be abandoned.

That the refugee resettlement program coincidentally enriches our nation and our economy is a happy consequence.

Bite-sized facts:

• UNHCR is the US’s partner in carrying out the US Refugee Admissions Program. The United States is the largest funder of UNHCR’s works around the world.
• Did you know that refugees who resettle in the US have to repay the cost of their airplane ticket? After living in the US for six months, refugees over the age of 18 begin making monthly payments to reimburse the federal government for the interest-free loan that covered transportation to America.
• The US is the top resettlement country for refugees, typically taking in around half of all resettled refugees. That half, though, is a mere one half of one percent (that’s 0.5%) of all refugees in the world. The other 99% are not resettled to any country: they find other durable solutions or remain stateless or in refugee camps.

But ISIS is scary! …

F*ck yeah. Massively scary. They’re terrorists.

Look at all the Syrians they have murdered and driven out of home and country. They attacked Beirut and Paris and Cairo, they attacked in Tunisia and Yemen and Libya, and they bombed that peace rally in Turkey, and maybe they exploded the Russian airplane in Egypt.

I’ll tell you two reasons that fear of terrorists shouldn’t make us slaves to terrorists. There are millions more. (At least 14.4 million.)

Here are two things I always remember (YMM-certainly-V):

Syrian refugees were living under direct threat from ISIS every day, in their homes, with their families. They finally got out, became refugees, and now need somewhere to live. If the best solution is for a tiny percent of them to come live in the US, then let’s have them! It’s times like this that America is at its best. Refugee resettlement is an instrument of foreign policy interest as well as a nonpartisan source of pride.

And

United States refugee resettlement is a humanitarian program. It is life-saving. In all things, we weigh risks against something else (rewards, potential, profits, etc.) to make the best possible decision. In offering a new home for refugees, we scrutinize the risks, take the steps necessary to combat those risks, and then do what America was meant to do: provide safe haven and a chance at a free and prosperous future, regardless of… you know, all the things that people get persecuted for and all the things that terrorists use to terrorize people.

Peace.

(Literally.)