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Refuge from Terror?
9/11 has grounded our refugee policy
by Briana Olson
While George Bush expresses "concern" for persecuted Iraqis, anestimated 14 million refugees, scattered across the globe, struggle tosurvive. Without the post-9/11 declaration of War on Terror, some40,000 of them would have found refuge in the United States.
Despite our "melting pot" mythology, the US established an officialrefugee policy only in 1980, adopting the United Nations definition ofa refugee as one who demonstrates "well-founded fear of persecution onaccount of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particularsocial group, or political opinion". Cold War ideology guided thefollowing decade of resettlement policy, which approved groups fleeingCommunist regimes over those fleeing right-wing dictators. In the1990s, African groups were increasingly approved. A network ofvoluntary agencies had evolved to help an annual 80-120,000 refugeesintegrate into American society.
A mere 27,000 refugees arrived in 2002. Increased security measures,including the Security Advisory Opinion required for males aged 15 to50, have added months to the screening process. Anyone approved before9/11 must be re-screened.
Refugees are accustomed to waiting. Many spend two to ten years incrowded camps before resettling permanently or returning, likerecently repatriated Afghanis, to countries still facing economic andpolitical instability. Though camps provide resources, they scarcelymeet the needs of their inhabitants. David Bol, a young Sudanese manliving in Seattle, described the difficulties of life in Kakuma,Kenya. Medical care was limited, and food rations, if not delayed,arrived every two weeks. "You had to wait, there was no way out", saidBol.Resisting pressure from advocacy groups and legislators to admit morethan 100,000 refugees in the coming year, President Bush approved a2003 ceiling of 70,000, including an 'Unallocated Reserve' of 20,000unlikely to be tapped. David does not expect to greet any friends fromKakuma this year. He thinks life there is tougher than when he leftover a year ago, and one of his friends decided to return to Sudan,"maybe join the army", rather than endure purgatorial camp conditions.
"Beth," an aid worker in sub-Saharan Africa who did not wish to beidentified, said that for many refugees, "The situation is desperate.Some live in danger, others are sick and without proper medicalattention could die". Refugees, some approved for US resettlementbefore 9/11, were waiting for security checks to clear in northernUganda when the Lord's Resistance Army attacked the camps. They havesince fled to Kampala, where they continue to wait. In Kenya, 17,000refugees await security clearance in hostile conditions. In Guinea,hundreds of Sierra Leonan refugees wait in insecurity.
According to Bob Johnson, director of the Seattle and Tukwila branchesof the International Rescue Committee (IRC), "the biggest impact [of911] is the relatives who were waiting for families to come". The IRCusually welcomes 500 refugees each year, but resettled only 182 peoplein 2002. The agency itself has survived by providing more social andimmigration services, but Johnson said that "nationally, some agencieshave laid off quite a few" employees. According to the Refugee CouncilUSA, some agencies have reduced their resettlement staff by up to 60percent. A study commissioned by the Office of Refugee Resettlementconcludes that economic trouble in the hospitality industries hasimpacted refugee employment, but Johnson said entry-level jobs remaineasier to find than others. "There's sort of a common myth thatrefugees displace Americans by taking jobs that Americans take, butthat's not true," he said. In the months following 9/11, refugees in the US suffered moreharassment than usual. David Bol recalled people asking him, "Why isit that you came here?" Bol remarked, "People were throwing stones atus, accusing us." Bob Johnson said fear among refugees dwindled afterthe prosecution of hate crimes, but many hesitate to visit theImmigration and Naturalization Services (soon to be swallowed byHomeland Security and reborn as the Bureau of Immigration Services andthe Bureau of Border Security). Garrison Courtney of INS stressed thatbecause refugees arrive with an immigrant visa, INS investigations donot generally target them.
When asked about the legitimacy of the terrorist threat, David Bolcontrasted his experience of everyday war to this Americangeneration's unfamiliarity with any war. He said, "People are afraidhere but that's how the world goes. There are a lot of bad peoplearound, not only in the United States but everywhere."
Will the War on Terrorism affect long-term US refugee policy? Beth declared "9/11 has virtually grounded the USrefugee program and set it back many years." Bob Johnson, in the fieldsince 1976, prefers optimism. The IRC expects to see the first of anew group, the Somali Bantus, in March. He remains hopeful that thenew screening process will eventually become smoother than the oldone. However, the possibility of war with Iraq, certain to affectresettlement, looms on the horizon.
