U.S. Refugee Law and Refugee Experiences

1. U.S. Refugee Law and Refugee Experiences Prof. Jose Alamillo CSU Channel Islands

2. What the main differences between U.S. Immigration Policy and U.S. Refugee Policy? U.S. immigration Policy is based on economic concerns and domestic pressures, whereas U.S. Refugee policy rests on foreign policy considerations and human rights concerns. 1945-2000 U.S. admitted 4 million refugees

3. 1948 Displaced Persons Act • Failure to aid refugees from Nazism • First U.S. refugee policy • 400,000 refugees to the United States • “Displaced person” vs. “refugee”

4. 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the State of Refugees • Refugee is a person who flees their home country and crosses an international border due to a "well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

5. Refugee Policy and the Cold War • 1953 Refugee Relief Act admitted over 200,000 refugees from Europe fleeing communism • 1956-57 President Eisenhower admitted and re-settled 40,000 Hungarian refugees fleeing the Soviet military after the failed Hungarian Revolution • 1959-1973 U.S. admitted 500,000 Cuban refugees • President used new admission procedure (parole) that allows admission of refugees without congressinal approval. • During the Cold War Era U.S. refugee law became “refugee equals European anticommunism equation”

7. 1966 Cuban Refugee Adjustment Act • Cubans admitted after 1959 and living in the U.S. for one year were allowed to become permanent residents. • Welfare Assistance and Social Services • Education Programs • Health Services • $100 per month per family • Housing Assistance • .Cuban Refugee Resettlement Program

8. 1965 Immigration Act and refugee policy • Unmarried adult sons and daughters of U.S. citizens. • Spouses and children and unmarried sons and daughters of permanent resident aliens. • Members of the professions and scientists and artists of exceptional ability. • Married children of U.S. citizens. • Brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens over age twenty-one. • Skilled and unskilled workers in occupations for which there is insufficient labor supply. • Refugees given conditional entry or adjustment — chiefly people from Communist countries and the Middle East. (1970-1980: 96.8 % refugees)

10. Human Rights and Refugees, 1970s • Civil Rights Movement pushed for less Eurocentric focus in refugee affairs and more emphasis on the protection of individual rights and eradication of racism and discrimination • Anticommunist consensus collapse with Vietnam War’s failures • Congress helped make human rights concerns central to the policies of refugee affair • Admission of Soviet Jews and Vietnamese “boat people” • Chileans fleeing right-wing, non-communist government

11. 1980 Refugee Act Four Main Purposes: • provide a uniform procedure for refugee admissions (50,00 annual admission) (1 refugee out 5 immigrants) 2) to authorize federal assistance to resettle refugees and promote their self-sufficiency 3) Redefined “refugee” as any person forced to leave their country because of persecution or well founded fear…of race, religion, nationality, member of social group and political opinion” 4) Recognized the “right of asylum”; Unlike “refugee” who is seeking to come to the U.S. and “asylee” is already present in U.S. soil

12. Contemporary Refugee Issues • Human Rights movement receded in the 1980s • President Reagan used entry of refugees to highlight failings of the Soviet “Evil Empire” • Annual refugee admission decreased during Reagan • Global refugee population grew in the 1990s • Public conflated immigrants with refugees • Exclusion of Haitians and Central American from refugee status. • U.S. failure to act in the refugee crisis in Rwanda • 9/11 made it more difficult for refugees to enter U.S.

13. Source: U.S. Department of Homeland Security

14. Refugee resettlement to the United States by region, 1990-2005(Source: Migration Policy Institute)