Recommendations to Strengthen Refugee Resettlement in the United States
Click here to read the recommendations:
The need for long-term protections for refugees has never been greater. The world is facing
record displacement figures of more than 84 million people forced from their homes with
enormous refugee overseas assistance needs. Of those, there are more than 31 million
refugees, 1.5 million of whom are in need of resettlement, but fewer than 1% of refugees will
ever be resettled to a third country. In 2021, most new refugees came from five countries:
Central African Republic, South Sudan, Syria, Afghanistan, and Nigeria. Further, the escalation
of conflict in Ukraine has triggered an immediate and steep rise in humanitarian needs with
millions of refugees who fled Ukraine since February 2022.
The U.S. resettlement program sustained devastating cuts and in 2021 refugee resettlement in
the United States fell to its lowest level since Congress created the modern system in 1980.
Today, resettlement agencies are beginning to rebuild the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program
(USRAP) at a time when they are simultaneously continuing to resettle Afghan evacuees. The
U.S. must both rebuild and strengthen the resettlement program and mobilize the public
resources required to do so. It is critical that the Biden administration offers bold leadership to
restore U.S. global leadership in refugee protection, as it promised in the February 2021
Executive Order. We offer the following recommendations to turn this vision into a reality: