All About Refugees – Part 1 – What Makes a Refugee?
The topic of immigration in the U.S. is one of enormous complexity and when you listen to discussions over policy, it seems the greatest challenge comes in a search for balance. A balance must be maintained between concerns over national security and the dreams of those looking for a better life, between the cold practicality of economics and the nation’s humanitarian ideals. Nowhere is this balancing act more evident than in the United States’ role in sheltering the world’s refugees.
Last month, President Obama set the cap on the number of refugees to be accepted in the coming year at 80,000. Is this number high or low historically? How do we decide how many refugees can find a home in the United States? To answer these questions, I decided to take a look at the history of the refugee resettlement program, as well as what role the U.S. plays today in the resettlement program. Over the next few days we’ll be posting a series of blogs that share what I discovered in my quest to understand the refugee process.
Today we’re going to take a look at what makes a refugee.
A refugee is a person who chooses to flee their country of origin because of persecution based on race, religion, nationality, or membership to a certain political or social group. Groups of refugees are often created in the wake of military struggle or in cases of genocide or ethnic cleansing. Current estimates put the number of refugees in the world at more than 15 million, with more than 6 million people considered stateless (meaning they are not claimed as nationals of any country).
While people have been fleeing persecution and genocide for basically all of human history, a formal international system for helping refugees relocate to other countries was not established until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was established in 1950. Designed initially as a temporary program to help displaced Europeans after World War II, the UNHCR has since become a permanent agency that aims to help refugees all over the world.
From the perspective of the refugee on the ground, the process of seeking asylum begins with finding a refugee camp. Located near areas of need, these camps are built by the UNHCR or some other organization and are designed to provide a temporary shelter for displaced refugees. These camps are not meant to be permanent settlements, however, and often barely meet minimum standards as far as providing food, water and shelter. From here, refugees can be given health screenings and some will apply for a resettlement program that provides transportation to a permanent home in another country. Only about 1 percent of refugees get resettled, while most others eventually return to their country of origin or remain in the refugee camp’s host country.
The U.S. has been at the forefront of refugee assistance and resettlement for years. In the decades following World War II through the Vietnam War, the country accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees, though the scope of our assistance was more limited than it is now. There was no formal agency to facilitate resettlement in the U.S. and the main focus during this time was specifically to provide asylum to large groups of people fleeing Vietnam, the Soviet Union and other areas where tensions related to the spread of Communism were high.
The process of bringing refugees to the U.S. during this period was entirely handled by the Executive Branch, which brought asylum seekers to the country using its parole authority. As a way of checking the power of the President and Attorney General, Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, which forced the President to consult with Congress on who is accepted as a refugee, as well as regulated the process through which refugees are brought to the U.S.
Check back tomorrow for a look at America’s new role in the resettlement of refugees.
Category: Refugees
