I haven’t had much time to post lately, but still get many requests for help and questions about the refugee resettlement program.   Although we have posted this before, here is a link to the Code of Federal Regulations that are supposed to be followed by the agencies and contractors that run the program (45 CFR 400) Refugee Resettlement Program.  One area that is most often the subject of complaints from citizens is the consultation requirement sections.   Here is just one post I’ve written about the consultation process (or lack of it!).

This post is archived in our ‘where to find information’ category.  You might find other interesting and useful information there if you are new to the program.

I look forward to returning full time to researching and writing about refugees when the election season is behind us.

The handiest place to keep track of how many refugees are coming to the US in this fiscal year  and where they are coming from is the Cultural Orientation Resource Center.

The Obama Administration is shooting for the highest number of refugees since before 9/11 this fiscal year (2010) which began on Oct. 1, 2009 and ends on September 30, 2010.   Get ready for a big push because they have just reached 47,977 and so they have a long way to go.   As a matter of fact, if it goes as it has in the past, new refugees will be pouring into your cities just as school starts swamping health departments and schools at the last minute as refugee lobbyists insist on reaching the ceiling set by Obama’s State Department.

Here are the top 6 sending countries as of May 31st:

Iraq:  11,977

Burma:  10,513

Bhutan:  8,675

Cuba:  3,351

Iran:  2,745

Somalia:  2,657

Here we have the International Organization for Migration trumpeting that 11,000 refugees from Asia have been resettled (mostly in the US) in the first 4 months of 2010 (in the middle of the great recession).  Jobless claims continue to rise.

From IOM:

Thailand – IOM’s major Asian refugee resettlement operations in Thailand, Malaysia and Nepal resettled nearly 11,000 refugees in the first four months of 2010 – over 80 per cent of them to new homes in the United States. [That means that 8800-9000 came to the US-ed].

Of the total, some 4,550 were Bhutanese from camps in eastern Nepal, 3,900 were Karen and Karenni refugees from Myanmar from camps in northwestern Thailand, and the remaining 2,400 were refugees from Myanmar living in Malaysia.

Over the period, IOM Nepal moved 3,830 Bhutanese refugees accepted for resettlement to the US, 374 to Australia, 239 to Canada, 108 to New Zealand, 7 to the Netherlands and 2 to Denmark.

Almost all them were Bhutanese of Nepali origin, known as Lhotsampas, who have lived in camps in the Jhapa and Morang regions of Nepal for nearly two decades, following Bhutan’s decision to revoke their citizenship and expel them in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

[…..]

While IOM plays no part in selecting which refugees* are accepted for resettlement, its global responsibilities in refugee resettlement include medical screening, pre-departure cultural orientation and travel arrangements.

*The United Nations picks most of our refugees.