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Resettlement Declines, but That Doesn’t Mean Our Support Should

Resettlement Declines, but That Doesn’t Mean Our Support Should

By John Dickson

The shameful stories are popping up in newspapers across the country, from the Bergen Record in New Jersey to the Kansas City Star and the New York Times.

 The U.S. is reducing its acceptance of refugees, the world’s most vulnerable population, forced to flee from their homes because of threat of violence or persecution.  The trickle of resettlement in the U.S. is so low that the State Department is cutting funds Congress has allocated for the nine agencies responsible for refugee resettlement. 

Workers at those resettlement agencies are losing their jobs; agencies are closing down operations in locations across the country.  Household items donated and purchased for incoming refugees remain on the shelves of warehouses.  Volunteers from affiliate groups stand ready to help, but there’s nobody to help.

The actual numbers show a decline even from the cap of 45,000 (reduced from 110,000) that the Trump Administration set when it resumed refugee admissions last October.  The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) that tracks refugee statistics tells a stark story. 

In 2016, the U.S. opened its doors to 78,761 refugees; last year the number fell by a third, to 24,559.  This year, with stricter vetting procedures in place, the number could be half that, as the U.S. has accepted only 3,847 in the first quarter of the year. 

Through a bureaucratic slowdown, the President is getting what he has not been able to achieve through either Congress or the courts.

It’s not as if the needs for refugee resettlement have declined.  In fact, they are higher than ever.  UNHCR projects that approximately 1.3 million of the world’s 22.5 million refugees are in need of resettlement as the solution of last resort.  UNHCR specifically cites the continuing crisis of Syrian refugees, making the acceptance of 11 refugees from Syria this year especially heartbreaking.

Just because these numbers are dropping, though, doesn't mean that volunteer organizations like Peace Corps Community for Refugees should throw up our hands and stop what we’re doing. 

If anything, Peace Corps affiliates from Wisconsin or Cincinnati to Northern California and New Mexico are ramping up their engagement with refugee communities in the U.S. and abroad.  Despite the decline, the U.S. remains the largest resettlement destination with over 800,000 people still requiring services of English teaching, health and housing advice or employment training. 

What the English writer Samuel Johnson said in the late 1700's still rings true as a guide for our individual and national choices: “A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.”  Those people who have had to flee their homes with next to nothing present us with our current test. 

Refugee children in a camp while they await either return to their homes or resettlement.

 

If you are concerned about the decline in refugee resettlement in the U.S., please write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper, contact your elected officials, or volunteer with a refugee support organization near you.