Christopher Coen
Melissa Sogard
nancylee1
Betsy Cooper and Katie Reisner of the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project are proponents of the idea of elimination of the annual refugee ceiling limit, an idea first proposed by academic David Martin, according to a post at the Congressional blog The Hill. The proposal is to treat the declared refugee numbers (e.g. President Obama’s limit of 80,000 refugees this fiscal year of 2011) as a target and not a ceiling. In other words, the number authorized by the President whould be a goal for refugee resettlement and not an absolute limit. This would allow the State Department and the private resettlement agencies to surpass the ceiling limit in the event of an emergency, such as the Iraqi refugee crisis or the Haitian earthquake, or any other reason of their choosing.
…Last week, the President set an 80,000-person ceiling on the number of refugees who can enter the United States next year. This is the upper boundary of our commitment – rather than the goal we commit ourselves to fulfilling. In doing so, the President missed an opportunity to rethink our responsibility to vulnerable populations, especially the 4 million Iraqis now scattered across the globe…
…On face, the refugee resettlement numbers are disappointing. Despite the scale of the Iraqi refugee crisis, the United States plans to accept only around 17,000 Iraqis into the country this year – roughly the same as last year. This means that many clients of our organization, the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, will be stuck waiting abroad…
…One simple solution requires only that President Obama rethink what we’re already doing. Five years ago, academic David Martin proposed an important fix: to treat the declared refugee numbers as targets rather than ceilings. In other words, the number authorized by the President should be a goal for refugee resettlement rather than an absolute limit – making “admissions shortfalls . . . a failure of the system.”…
…There’s reason to hope that President Obama will adopt this mantle of reform: its innovator, David Martin, is now a top Department of Homeland Security official. We strongly encourage the President to take his advice. Read more here
Yet, how does this address the capacity issue? Do we have unlimited capacity to take in refugees in any single year? This is not only the capacity of the private refugee resettlement agencies but also the capacity of local communities to accept newcomers — including the ability of local government agencies such as public health offices, the capacity of local nonprofits that offer services incoming refugees need to become self-sufficient, and the capacity of local co-sponsors and volunteers.
The federal government’s goal of assisting refugees is a worthy one, however resettlement to the U.S. is just one option. In the case of the Iraqi refugee crisis we may need an intermediate solution to resettle Iraqis who cannot safely return home. The List Project promoted the idea of bringing Iraqi refugees to Guam until we can process and resettle them. That would allow for a safe place to stay until we can slowly bring them to the U.S. as capacity allows. The notion, however, that we focus on absolute numbers without addressing capacity, funding, and other essential factors seems to me like simple-minded idealism.
