Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
5 Facts about refugees in America
5 Facts about refugees in America
Dec 31, 2025 8:41 PM

Today is World Refugee Day, an annual observance created by the United Nations to memorate the strength, courage and perseverance of millions of refugees.” Here are five facts you should know about refugees and refugee policy in the United States.

1. The U.S. government defines “refugee” as 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.

2. Thefirst refugee legislation in the United Stateswas theDisplaced Persons Act of 1948, which brought 400,000 Eastern Europeans to the U.S. Other refugee-related legislation included theRefugee Relief Act of 1953(which brought in 214,000 refugees munism) and theFair Share Refugee Act of 1960(which mostly brought those still living in displaced persons camps after World War II). The U.S. government also used the Attorney General’shumanitarian parole authorityto bring refugees into the country, beginning in 1956 with Hungarian nationals and ending with hundreds of thousands of Indochinese refugees in the 1970s.

3. The number of refugees admitted into the U.S. each year is decided by the President. Before the beginning of each fiscal year, the President, in consultationwith Congress, establishes anoverall refugee admissions ceilingas well as regional allocations. So far in So far during the 2017 fiscal year, 45,732 people have been admitted. The total number of refugees authorized for admission in 2015—the last year for which official statistics are available—was 69,920. The largest regional allocation was from Burma (18,386), Iraq (12,676), Somalia (8,858), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (7,876).

4. Since 1975, the U.S. has resettled more than3 million refugees, with nearly 77 percentbeing either Indochinese or citizens of the former Soviet Union. Since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980, annual admissions figures have ranged from a high of 207,116 in 1980, to a low of 27,100 in 2002. In 2013, theleading countries of nationalityfor refugee admissions were Iraq (28 percent), Burma (23 percent), Bhutan (13 percent), and Somalia (11 percent). Seventy-five percent of refugee admissions in 2013 were from these four countries. Other leading countries included Cuba (6.0 percent), Iran (3.7 percent), Democratic Republic of Congo (3.7 percent), and Sudan (3.1 percent).

5. TheOffice of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)is the federal government agency charged withproviding benefits and servicesto assist the resettlement and localintegration of refugee populations. Some of the ORR programs include Refugee CashAssistance and Refugee Medical Assistance (for up to 8 months); Refugee Social Services, such as job and language training (for up to 5 years); and temporary custody and care to panied refugee children. But according to a recent paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, by the time refugees who entered the U.S. as adults have been here for 20 years, they will have paid, on average, $21,000 more in taxes to all levels of government than they received in benefits over that time span.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
Louisiana’s Valuable Commodity: Prisoners
Why is Louisiana the world’s prison capital? Are the residents of the Bayou State more criminal than other people around the world? Is the state’s law enforcement exceptionally skilled at catching bad guys? Or could the inflated prison population be, at least in part, the result of theperverse economic incentives of crony capitalism? The hidden engine behind the state’s well-oiled prison machine is cold, hard cash. A majority of Louisiana inmates are housed in for-profit facilities, which must be supplied...
Defending the Free Market review: More than Mere Economics
On his Koinonia blog, Rev. Gregory Jensen reviews Rev. Robert Sirico’s new book, Defending the Free Market: The Moral Case for a Free Economy. Jensen: “Daring though the argument is, especially for a Catholic priest, it is also essential that it be made since for too many people (including business people), free market economic theory and policies are little more than a justification for greed. While not denying the excesses of capitalism and real sins of capitalists, Fr Sirico wisely...
Free Acton Institute eBooks on Judaism, Law and the Market Economy (May 20-24)
Beginning today, the conference “Religion and Liberty — A Match Made in Heaven?” gets underway in Jerusalem. Sponsored by the Jerusalem Institute for Market Studies (JIMS), the Acton Institute and others, the event asks questions such as, “Is capitalism not only efficient but also moral?” In conjunction with this May 20-24 conference, Acton is offering its two Jewish monographs through Amazon Kindle at no charge. The two titles: Judaism, Law & The Free Market: An Analysis by Joseph Lifshitz. [Kindle...
Discerning God’s Call
For the next two weeks I’m privileged to be teaching a course on Christian ethics and contemporary culture at Farel Reformed Theological Seminary in Montreal, Quebec. This morning’s class focused on the issue of calling and the Christian life. We discussed some of the ways in which God’s call to follow es to different individuals in a variety of circumstances and in a variety of means. As background, we read Alissa Wilkinson’s short essay, “Vocation Takes Patience.” Discerning God’s call...
That the Name of God Should Be Forgotten
The Russian Orthodox naval cathedral in Kronstadt, reconsecrated in April From Interfax: Moscow, May 15 — On Tuesday, there will be 80 years since the Soviet government issued a decree on “atheistic five-year plan.” Stalin set a goal: the name of God should be forgotten on the territory of the whole country to May 1, 1937, the article posted by the Foma website says. Over 5 million militant atheists were living in the country then. Anti-religious universities — special educational...
Catholic Diocese of Washington, DC and Forty Other Groups Sue Obama Administration
At least forty Catholic dioceses and organizations in the United States have filed suit against the Obama Administration for violation of First Amendment rights. According to , The suits filed by the Catholic organizations focus on the regulation that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced last August and finalized in January that requires virtually all health-care plans in the United States to cover sterilizations and all Food and Drug Administration-approved contraceptives, including those that can cause abortions. The...
Faith and Science In a Fallen World
Reading as many blogs as I do, I’m always grateful when I stumble on a great blog post that is not only thoughtful, but relates to some aspect of our work here at Acton. Jason Summers over at Q Ideas has written an interesting piece titled Where Angels Cannot Tread: Science in a Fallen World. In his discussion of science, he notes humanity is uniquely equipped by God to engage with science. I believe that we Christians especially should listen...
The Spiritual Temptation of the Welfare State
The conditions under which the government transfers wealth are different than the conditions under which the church transfers wealth, says James R. Rodgers. Yet many Christian leaders are tempted to use the power of the state to dowhat is required of the church: Ginning up donations, however, is the hard road. Given the imperative that the needy should be fed, how much easier it is to step around the church and the power of the Gospel, and instead to make...
Mark Zuckerberg and the Biblical Meaning of Success
There aretwo great lies our culture promotes among children in school, students in college, and professionals in the business world, says Hugh Whelchel: (1)“If you work hard enough, you can be anything you want to be.” (2) “You can be the best in the world. If you try hard enough, you could be the next Zuckerberg.” Whelchel explains why these lies have “catastrophically damaged our view of work and vocation, because they have distorted our biblical view of success.” If...
If Christ is Lord, Everything Matters
Recently we had an excellent discussion on twitter about the following idea that @JakeBishop8 shared: “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter.” In response to this idea we retweeted, another Jake (@JakeBelder) jumped in with: “If Christ is Lord over all, is it right to say there are things that don’t really matter?” What ensued was a great interaction between two “Jakes” about what matters in God’s Kingdom....
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved