Authors: Ji In Choi, Jung Ah Shin, Olivia Wang, and Tiffany Zhu
Analysis website link: http://rpubs.com/tlzhu/refugees_in_us
About: The world’s forcibly displaced population hit its record high in 2017. Globally, at the end of 2017, the global refugee population increased by 2.9 million. By the end of the year, 68.5 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution conflict, or generalized violence (https://www.unhcr.org/5b27be547.pdf). Despite the increase in demand for refugee admission and assistance, the United States specifically has taken a drastic turn away from supporting refugees. The number of refugees admitted to the United States has dropped from a recent high of 84,994 in FY 2016 to 22,874 in FY 2018 - the lowest in 40 years since 1977. The current ceiling for refugee admission has also dropped to 45,000, the lowest in the history of the current U.S. resettlement program. Coming at a time when global numbers of refugees have reached record highs, the ratio of refugees admitted to the United States to the number of refugees worldwide has never been lower. For the first time, the U.S. policy towards refugee admission is moving decisively against the trend of the total number of refugees worldwide (https://www.cgdev.org/blog/reflecting-world-refugee-day-trends-and-consequences-us-refugee-policy).
The recent years thus mark a significant shift in refugee resettlement in the U.S., as a result, this report will be examining the refugee admission trend in the U.S. over the past 10 years (2009-2018).