Refugees and Asylum Seekers
The United States has a longstanding tradition of welcoming individuals from around the world who are seeking protection and refuge. But recent U.S. policy has grown increasingly hostile toward asylum seekers and refugees. Instead of turning vulnerable individuals away, the United States should maintain its global reputation as a leader in refugee resettlement and humanitarian protection. Doing so not only upholds American values but sustains and strengthens our communities. Data from the Council shows that refugees and asylees make tremendous contributions to our economy as earners, taxpayers, and consumers. Learn more about the contributions and challenges of asylum seekers and refugees below.
Ethiopian Refugee and Business Owner Is Grateful for Welcoming Idahoans
Kibrom Milash and wife, Tirhas. In April 2015, Kibrom Milash opened Kibrom, one of Boise, Idaho’s few Ethiopian restaurants. It was part of the Boise International Market, a place where customers could buy food and products from countries around the world. A fire gutted the market the following September, but… Read More
Iraqi Refugee Helps Bring Much-Needed Doctors to Rural Idaho
In 2015, Marwan Sweedan, a former U.S. Army medic and infection control specialist in Boise, Idaho was named a White House Champion of Change. After receiving the honor, he penned a short essay about his work helping fellow refugee and immigrant professionals find employment in the United States. “My efforts… Read More
Illinois-based Author and Professor Loves How Her Fellow Christians Have Embraced Their Immigrant Neighbors
A few years ago, when Karen Schreck looked out her bedroom window, she saw an untended garden patch in her backyard wasting away. Then a neighbor asked if she might be willing to open her yard up to a refugee couple from Burundi, who used to farm before they were… Read More
Deterrence Strategy Targeting Central American Asylum Seekers Comes at a High Human Cost
The Obama Administration has recently announced plans to double down on its strategy of rounding up and deporting Central American asylum seekers to some of the most dangerous countries in the world. This is part of the Administration’s deterrence strategy, which is specifically designed to curtail the flow of… Read More
Detained, Deceived, and Deported: Experiences of Recently Deported Central American Families
First-hand accounts from Central American women and their family members reveal the dangerous and bleak circumstances of life these women and their children faced upon return to their home countries, as well as serious problems in the deportation process. Read More
Despite Obstacles, A Majority of Child Migrants Appear in Immigration Court
Reuters reported last week that the Obama Administration would begin to round up Central American women and children, including “minors who have entered the country without a guardian and since turned 18 years of age” and begin deporting them. The news report goes on to say that “many of… Read More
Understanding the Central American Refugee Crisis
The unprecedented levels of crime and violence that have overwhelmed the Northern Triangle countries in recent years have produced a refugee situation for those directly in the line of fire, making no amount of danger or chance of deportation sufficient to dissuade those victims from leaving. Read More
Nepali Refugee Doesn’t Let Job, Business or Family Stand in Way of Volunteering: ‘We Want To Give Back’
When Jay Subedi arrived in Syracuse, New York, with his parents, wife, and baby daughter in November 2008, it was one of the coldest, snowiest seasons in recent memory. The city wasn’t just blisteringly cold, but, like the rest of the country, mired in a recession. Subedi, a native of… Read More
Lawyer Says Asylum Seekers Can Wait Years Just To See a Judge
The worst part of representing asylum-seekers in the U.S. legal system is the wait. “It’s awful,” says Jenny Rizzo, who provided pro bono legal representation to refugees in Buffalo, New York, and now serves as executive director of The Pro Bono Project in New Orleans. The system is so overburdened… Read More
Undocumented Children Face These Challenges in Accessing Public Education
Unaccompanied children arriving from Central America face many challenges – post-traumatic stress, facing a judge without an attorney, separation from their families, and the fear of being returned to their home countries, among others. Receiving the public education to which they are entitled should not be one of those challenges. Read More
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