WHY AMERICA SHOULD TAKE IN MORE REFUGEES
By Vincent Lyn
The United States has long offered safe haven to people fleeing violence, tyranny and persecution. After four years of record-low arrivals under the Trump Administration, President Joe Biden has an opportunity to rebuild America’s bipartisan tradition of welcoming refugees. This is not just a lifesaving humanitarian imperative at a time when more people worldwide are uprooted by war and crisis than ever before. Refugee resettlement also enriches our economy and enhances our national security. Here’s what you need to know.
The president consults with Congress and sets an annual target for refugee admissions. By law, this ceiling shall be “justified by humanitarian concern or otherwise in national interest.” The setting of the refugee admissions ceiling by the president is called the Presidential Determination, or PD for short, and is issued before the new fiscal year (FY) begins on Oct. 1.
This system was established by the 1980 Refugee Act. Prior to the Trump Administration, the average annual ceiling exceeded 95,000. Presidents of both parties have set even higher ceilings: President Ronald Reagan’s highest ceiling was 140,000 and President Barack Obama set a refugee admissions target of 110,000 for 2017. While President Donald Trump was still in office, his administration set the PD for fiscal year 2021 to just 15,000 — the lowest number since the creation of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in 1980. It marked the fourth year in a row that the administration set the cap on refugee resettlement at a historic low.
Luckily, President Biden signed an Emergency Revised Presidential Determination to raise the FY 2021 goal to 62,500. The president’s decision comes after he removed discriminatory admissions categories set by the previous administrations targeting people from Africa and the Middle East. It also comes after Americans across the country called on the administration to restore America’s legacy of welcome. While the Trump Administration’s record-low admissions goal remained in place, families were separated and thousands were left waiting in limbo.
“President Biden’s decision is good for America and good for refugees,” said IRC president and CEO David Miliband. “In El Salvador, you don’t know if you’ll make it home alive at the end of the day,” Valentina, a refugee resettled in Dallas, Texas, told the IRC.
Traditionally, the U.S. admissions ceiling has been set commensurate with global humanitarian need and U.S. strategic interests. All around the world, people are fleeing war-torn countries at record levels. In 2019, an average of 24,000 people had to flee their homes each day. A full one percent of all of humanity is forcibly displaced. Some 26 million of these individuals are refugees, meaning they have had to cross an international border in their quest for safety.
There’s no end in sight to the refugee crisis, as conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia and northeast Nigeria continue to deteriorate. Violence and instability in Venezuela, as well as gang violence in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico have also put millions in danger. Only those refugees most at risk — just one percent of the total — have a chance to resettle in the U.S. or another welcoming country. Most are fleeing religious persecution, political oppression or terror. Many are widows, orphans or victims of rape or torture. Some are in danger because they worked alongside American troops in their countries. Others are persecuted based on their ethnic group, gender identity or sexual orientation.
Presidents from both parties have ensured that America leads in times of crisis. They’ve supported refugees who seek liberty and have rejected ideologies opposed to American values. These presidents recognized that refugee resettlement represents the best of the values America strives to uphold: the right to equal treatment,; the commitment not to discriminate and the determination to uphold human dignity. Both Republicans and Democrats have raised admissions for refugees fleeing communist uprisings, religious persecution and tyranny in countries like Vietnam, Cuba, the former Soviet Union, Kosovo, Myanmar and Iran. Today, the U.S. must provide unwavering welcome for people fleeing the worst protracted displacement crises of our day, like those in Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan.
Welcoming refugees helps U.S. allies that are hosting more than their fair share. Currently, the world’s poorest countries host the majority of the world’s refugees: 85% are hosted in middle and low-income countries that are likely already impacted by acute food insecurity and malnutrition.
If the U.S. refuses to show global leadership, we risk other countries closing their borders, shutting down refugee camps, and forcing refugees to return. This would have catastrophic consequences for regional stability and security — including the security of U.S. missions in those regions. But if the U.S. continues to lead on resettlement, this encourages other countries to do more.
The hardest way to come to the U.S. is as a refugee. Every refugee is hand selected for resettlement by the Department of Homeland Security and screened by U.S. security agencies in an exhaustive process. Hundreds of communities across the country welcome refugees with open arms. Thousands of volunteers from faith and community groups help refugees adapt to the American way of life. The number of Americans volunteering to assist refugees far exceeds the number of refugees actually arriving.
“I don’t think we can quantify the impact that refugee resettlement has had on Boise,” says Pastor Jenny Hirst of Boise, Idaho. “From businesses to innovative ideas… that all makes us better people. And that’s what we need to express loud and clear to those in our country — it’s not a taking away, it’s adding to who we are.” In addition, hundreds of employers around the country work closely with resettlement agencies to hire refugees because they are reliable and hard-working.
Refugees are entrepreneurs, consumers and taxpayers, contributing to economic growth and creating jobs. Entrepreneurship among refugees is nearly 50 percent higher than among people born in the U.S. During the COVID-19 pandemic, refugees have worked in the essential industries keeping our communities afloat. One in five of the refugees resettled in the U.S. by the International Rescue Committee in 2020 immediately took positions in healthcare or the food industry. The U.S. refugee resettlement program is designed to help refugees achieve self-sufficiency quickly. In 2019, 85 percent of clients in an IRC employment program were economically self-sufficient within six months. And refugees pay on average $21,000 more in taxes than they receive in government benefits.
Aside from the fundamental moral responsibility we have to welcome refugees during the worst global displacement crisis in history, there are a lot of practical, political, and economic reasons why America needs to open its doors to refugees.
Refugees create things we rely on.
The next time you search for something online or use a Google app, think about what would have happened if we had refused to welcome co-founder of Google and refugee Sergey Brin. Are you a gamer? Or maybe you’re a foodie who loves Sriracha…You can thank U.S. refugee resettlement for welcoming Ralph Baer, who is credited with inventing video games, and David Tran who was the taste-bud genius behind Sriracha.
From the first individuals who fled to America seeking religious freedom to the words that are printed on the statue of liberty today, our reputation as a land of refuge for the persecuted is something that defines America. Closing our doors to refugees would reflect flagrant disregard for this legacy and for American principles.
Refugees prop up the economy. In 2015, refugees documented in this report earned a collective $77.2 billion in household income. They also contributed $20.9 billion in taxes. That left them with $56.3 billion in disposable income, or spending power, to use at U.S. businesses.
Refugees are inextricably woven into the fabric of American culture. From musical icons like Regina Spektor to intellectual giant Albert Einstein, refugees have been a crucial part of our cultural narrative. Closing our doors to refugees would stifle our vibrant national identity. Refugees go on to be leaders. Madeleine Albright and Henry Kissinger are perhaps the most famous U.S. leaders with a refugee background, but today, refugees continue to do amazing things for their communities as local leaders and representatives in Congress. In fact, Wilmot Collins, a Liberian-born American politician serving as the first black mayor of Helena, Montana and former board member of LIRS. He defeated four-term incumbent mayor James E. Smith in the 2017 mayoral election on November 7, 2017 with 51% of the vote.
America is aging out of work. According to a report by PEW Research, the number of working-age adults — from the Baby Boomer generation — is projected to decline by 8.2 million workers over the next several decades. Contributing to this, in addition to the loss of Baby Boomers in the workforce, is the decline in birth rates in the U.S. since the 1970s. The vast majority of U.S. refugees are of working age, offering a vital boost to an America society that is quickly aging out of the workforce.
Our immigrant roots have served as the moral backbone of America, fostering a society that has welcomed diversity in our communities and honored differences of both faith and culture. In fact, in a letter to a Dutch Colleague George Washington was quoted as saying: “I had always hoped that this land might become a safe and agreeable Asylum to the virtuous and persecuted part of mankind, to whatever nation they might belong.”
In their first few years in the U.S., refugees are quick to fill gaps in the labor market in industries that are struggling to find workers. On the flip side, refugees boast an unprecedented rate of entrepreneurship and as a result, actually generate jobs in many sectors. In fact recent reports show that refugees create jobs — at a rate 30 percent higher than U.S.-born citizens. Jonathan Amissa, a business owner and refugee from Cameroon living in Boise. “I want the world to know that even with the pain and the struggle, and with the obstacles we’ve been through, we can still be part of a community that welcomes us, we are refugees but we also have potential and goals.”
The United States currently takes in less than half of 1 percent of the world’s refugees. Compared with our Western neighbors, the United States is resettling significantly fewer refugees as it correlates to our economic and infrastructural capacity. And this fact has implications on our foreign relations with allied countries like Turkey, that bear the brunt of the refugee displacement crisis.
In 1939, when LIRS was first founded, the United States turned away more than 900 Jews fleeing Hitler’s Germany because of worries that some might be Nazi conspirators or Communists. More than a quarter of those refugees died in the Holocaust. Today, fear of terrorism is similarly being used to justify shutting our doors to refugees — and the stakes are equally high. But the threat simply isn’t there.
Vincent Lyn
CEO/Founder at We Can Save Children
Director of Creative Development at African Views Organization
Economic & Social Council at United Nations
Middle East Correspondent at Wall Street News Agency
Rescue & Recovery Specialist at International Confederation of Police & Security Experts