Refugee Definition and Process
It is difficult to read a newspaper today and not find a story on refugees somewhere in the world. Nonetheless, public perception of refugees can be misinformed, especially when refugees are lumped together with other types of migrants and immigrants. The United Nation's definition, which the U.S. accepts, considers a refugee "any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality... and who is unwilling or unable to return... because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion." See the end of this file for a current and complete US Department of State definition and current statistics.
Herein lies the critical difference which sets refugees apart from other migrants: refugees flee persecution, sometimes for their lives, with little if any prior planning. Hence they can best be viewed as "pushed" from their country of origin rather than "pulled" to a new land for economic or social benefit. Of course, in reality, these distinctions are seldom clear-cut, and so the refugee definition, and the concomitant claim to asylum, is very difficult to adjudicate.
In the classic scenario, once the refugee has fled, three different "durable solutions" can ensue. For one, the refugee in some, albeit few, circumstances can integrate into the community to which they have fled, referred to as the first asylum country. This is a rare event as few countries, particularly those of the third world, where most refugee are found, can accommodate their displaced neighbors either financially or socially. However, in a few specific cases like Cubans arriving on US shores or Bosnians escaping to Germany, they may be in a position to petition the host government for asylum directly.
More often, when displaced numbers reach a sufficiently large quantity to attract world attention, humanitarian relief organizations, typically led by the United Nation's High Commissioner for Refugees, with the assistance of other non-governmental organizations (NGO's) and host-country programs, provide for the basic necessities like food, shelter, clothing, and medical care, together with protection, through the establishment of a refugee camp.
Conditions in refugee camps vary greatly around the world, dependent on both local and global political factors, but typically only the basic needs of refugees can be met, and this can have a devastating psychological toll, as camp life, described as "halfway to nowhere," can endure for generations, as for example, with Palestinians.
Secondly, then, the more preferred "durable solution," is to repatriate refugees, to return them to their homelands to rebuild their lives, when conditions change. However, the United Nations has a strong mandate of "non-refoulement," or forcible repatriation, i.e., against the will of the refugee. This option, accordingly, is controversial, as seen, for example with the mass protests of returning Vietnamese from Hong Kong; however, several more successful and large scale efforts, when properly governed by world institutions, such as with the return of over one million Mozambicans from Angola, and to a lesser extent Cambodians from Thailand, demonstrate that this can be a durable solution.
The third possibility, resettlement to a third country in the West, is by far the least likely to be undertaken: only a fraction of one percent of the World's twenty million or so refugees are ever resettled in third countries. Ideally, this should be the solution of last resort, as the costs are greatest, not just fiscally but in terms of discontinuity of culture, assimilation issues, humanitarian compassion in the West, and the like. The decision to resettle should be the solution of last resort, when no other durable solutions can be found. In the final analysis, resettlement is equally a product of geopolitical politics and domestic lobbying as well as humanitarianism.
Resettlement
Refugee resettlement in the United States is best described as a government-private sector partnership. The government entities, at the federal level, includes Congress, which in conjunction with the President approves overall refugee admission numbers for each fiscal year. Under those guidelines, the Justice Department conducts overseas interviews, most frequently in refugee camps, ostensibly to evaluate the "well-founded fear" basis. The State Department provides for overseas cultural orientation for those refugees approved for resettlement.
Next, the Public Health Service arm of the Health and Human Services Dept. conducts the overseas medical examination, screening specifically for "excludable" conditions (TDH:1994):
This examination is not an exhaustive health physical. In certain circumstances, even when an excludable condition is diagnosed, a medical waiver can be granted to allow immigration, on humanitarian grounds. This condition must then be followed-up by the local health department.
Once the refugee is approved for resettlement, the linchpin of the resettlement process, the voluntary agencies, assure the case. Through contracts with the State Department, from whom they receive partial funding, these secular and church-based humanitarian organizations provide for or arrange for the requisite core services of resettlement like housing, medical attention, job training and procurement, social security and school enrollment, etc., for a finite period of time. The exact specifications of financial assistance and responsibility vary according to factors such as a direct sponsorship by the agency versus a sub-sponsorship, like a church group, a family reunion case versus a "free case," and inclusion in more specific programs such as the Cuban-Haitian program or the "Guam Kurd" program. Nevertheless, all refugees are entitled to certain social benefits.
Another federal entity, the Office of Refugee Resettlement, is charged with overseeing the resettlement of refugees, and providing additional support and services, often through State offices, for refugee assimilation, such as English as Second Language funding. This office is also involved in encouraging and sponsoring mutual assistance associations, organization composed of previously resettled refugees who aid newer arrivals in their assimilation, as well as other refugee assistance organizations.
In reality, the VOLAG moneys and programs are typically not sufficient to ensure fill assimilation for refugees, and when the slack is not picked up by other family, public, or private entities, adaptation is prolonged or unsuccessful. Also, the area of misplaced expectations looms large in the resettlement picture. Frequently, refugees hear rumors from friends, relatives, or even from television or videos about about "the good life" in countries of second asylum. Overseas orientation prior to arrival is not always sufficient to fully inform refugees of the situation in countries of second asylum, and this may account for some of the adjustment difficulties upon arrival. As survivors, some refugees come with an expectation that they are owed something; in fact, frequently, they have been pawns of a greater US interest, and may have even been promised things the resettlement program cannot provide. Furthermore, the drudgery of extended refugee camp life instills in many an inaccurate picture of the future, orientation or not. Readers are encouraged to visit the Cultural Orientation Project site for details on overseas orientation.
Alternatively, refugees can be tremendously resourceful and surprisingly savvy to the resettlement process. Bear in mind that refugees are survivors, by virtual definition, and can and will manipulate systems to their best advantage when possible. Aggressiveness is not unexpected when one commonly confronts life-threatening situations through the refugee experience.
There is tremendous diversity both between resettled groups, and moreover among individual ethnic groups. Within a group, we refer to different vintages or waves of arrivals over time, where the socioeconomic status is typically higher for the earlier refugees, those with the means or connections to flee first. It is often from these initial populations that refugee service agencies hire translators and caseworkers; it is important to keep in mind here that there can be significant class and other socioeconomic differences between these personnel and the larger refugee population. Hence caseworkers often find themselves in an awkward middle ground: they may be viewed as too uppity or Western by their compatriots while simultaneously their allegiance to the agency may be constantly questioned by their employer.
Refugee Admissions to the United States
From 1975-2000, there have been 2,284,956 refugees admitted to the US as follows:
In 1999, there were 85,006 refugees legally admitted to the US. The schedule (maximum numbers/total 90,000) for fiscal year 2000 is as follows:
Accessed 4/23/2000 and 11/9/2000 at the web site of the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration: <http://www.state.gov/www/global/prm/index.html & http://www.state.gov./www/global/prm/fy2000_budget.pdf> The latter is the better source - Thanks to Lili Cahlon for finding the error in the original figures presented here.
US Definition of "Refugee"
The term 'refugee' means: (A) any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, or (B) in such circumstances as the President after appropriate consultation (as defined in section 207 (e) of this Act) may specify, any person who is within the country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, within the country in which such person is habitually residing, and who is persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. Accessed 4/23/2000 at the web site of the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration: http://www.state.gov/www/global/prm/index.html
Author: Lance A. Rasbridge, PhD