Update: Almost 1,000 additional Somalis admitted to the US in the past month, here. The number for FY2014 is now 8,278.
Almost every day someone asks us—where do I find numbers for this group of refugees admitted to the US, or that group. Let me tell you it isn’t easy!
This morning I was on the hunt for how many Somalis we admitted to the US in fiscal year 2013.
We know that for fiscal year 2014, through July 31st (in ten months), we have admitted 7,326. You can always check this site at WRAPSnet.org for the on-going resettlement in a given year.
Update: Here in Statistical Abstracts you can learn about how many refugees/asylees etc. came to your state in FY2013.
The handiest place for all numbers is the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Annual Reports to Congress, here. However, since they are always behind in producing those, the most recent numbers are not available to us or to Congress. The numbers are in tables at the end of each report.
Another good source is the Annual Flow Reports from the Department of Homeland Security. Here is one for 2012.
You can find some information at the Migration Policy Institute (a pro-immigration ‘think tank’), here.
Then there is the massive data base at Homeland Security’s Yearbook of Immigration Statistics, here.
Where did I finally find the number I was looking for?
I found it in the text of a year-end wrap-up which we previously posted by the Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement, Eskinder Negash, who said this on December 20, 2013 (posted here for the benefit of our new readers). Emphasis is mine:
Two thousand thirteen was another busy year for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR). Despite an extended moratorium on overseas refugee arrivals in October, Fiscal Year 2013 brought fairly steady arrivals each month, across all categories.
The largest group was refugees, with the United States welcoming refugees from 65 countries across the globe this past year. The highest number of overseas arrivals represented a slight switch from those of the past few years, with nearly 19,500 Iraqi refugee admissions and 16,300 Burmese refugees accounting for more than half of all refugee arrivals. They were followed by Bhutanese (9,100), Somali (7,600) and Cuban refugees (4,200), with Iran, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan, Eritrea and Ethiopia rounding out rest of the top ten admissions groups in FY2013.
The overall population served by ORR and its partners, however, grew to a projected 143,000 new arrivals in Fiscal Year 2013, including almost 72,000 refugees and Special Immigrant Visa holders, an estimated 46,000 asylees and Cuban/Haitian Entrants and Parolees; more than 500 Victims of Trafficking, and nearly 25,000 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC).
Negash: The best news! They are voting!
The numbers only tell part of the story: most of the 143,000 people ORR served last year are on a path to U.S. citizenship that began the day they arrived. Former refugees, asylees, and UAC are making positive changes in communities across the country—and will continue to do so throughout their lives—opening businesses, buying homes and raising families, and voting (and running!) in local elections. Three former refugees ran for public office in multi-cultural Clarkston, Georgia this past November—and for the first time in the city’s history, voters elected a refugee to a seat on the City Council.
We have two categories, now very full, to help you find reports, documents, statistics etc. One is ‘Where to find information’ and the other is ‘Refugee statistics.’
See also one of our most read posts from the last seven years, ‘How did we get so many Somali refugees…’ I put those numbers together by poring over each annual report that had become available. By the way, keep in mind that most Somalis in the US today came as refugees or are the children of refugees.