Refugee Resettlement — We Must Do More
Can we talk about refugee resettlement? One of the most common arguments I hear against resettlement is that we should help people where they are rather than try to help them move to the U.S.
This attitude is particularly concerning as the U.S. proposes to again cut refugee resettlement, this time to only 18,000 people in 2020. Only about 1% of refugees worldwide are resettled in a third country, although those are the refugees an American or European is most likely to have met. If the U.S. cuts its resettlement program again, it will have a noticeable impact on worldwide refugee resettlement in 2020, and that is very troubling.
Most refugees never make it to a safe, secure country with decent educational and economic opportunities. Refugees nearly always flee to a neighboring country, and those neighboring countries are usually poorly equipped to really help refugees in spite of UNHCR and other foreign assistance. Different countries provide vastly different levels of services, both on an international funding level and a local services level.
I live in a country with about 250,000 registered UN refugees, plus a large population of unregistered people who have fled violence in their home countries. Resettlement is the best long-term solution for many of these registered refugees. In 2018, the UK, Canada, Sweden, and Portugal were the main countries refugees were sent to from where I live, but fewer than 2,000 were resettled. That’s 0.8%. Resettlement, unfortunately, isn’t going to happen any time soon for most refugees.
So what about helping refugees here? This country ranks in the bottom third in the world for GDP and has had serious internal conflict in the last decade. There simply aren’t many local resources to help refugees. Funding limitations in this country mean that only a quarter of refugees in need get cash assistance from the UN. UN educational assistance has been cut. Refugee children are rarely able to go to local public schools and must pay for informal schools with expensive tuition. Healthcare is technically available, but in reality, refugees can almost never access the national healthcare system. There are very few job opportunities. Finding safe housing is challenging because of prejudice against refugees. Basically, the refugees who are here right now are not getting the support they need, but they quite literally have no place else to go.
We don’t have to allow conditions to continue like this for refugees. I would love to see increased (not drastically decreased) resettlement, far more support for refugees in their host countries, and a concerted effort toward reducing conflict worldwide so refugees can go home, or so that people never become refugees in the first place. This is an informed choice we are making. Right now, we are consciously choosing not to help, and there’s no justification for that.
Erica Eastley is a member of Mormon Women for Ethical Government.
