Refugees and Asylees in the United States

For many years, the United States was the global leader in refugee resettlement. Because of restrictive new policies of the Trump administration, this is not the case anymore. This report from the Migration Policy Institute uses data from the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to sketch the demographic profile of the U.S. refugee and asylum seeker populations. While the Obama administration admitted just under 85,000 refugees into the country in 2016, the Trump administration, by contrast, allowed only 22,500 refugees in 2018 -- a record low. This drastic reduction is especially significant because, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, 68.5 million people across the globe were displaced in 2017 -- a record high. The report describes the status of refugees and asylum seekers in the U.S. including their countries of origin, places of resettlement as well as information about age, gender, and religious beliefs. The report also provides links to selected resources on refugee policy and resettlement in the U.S. (Deb D’Anastasio for The Immigrant Learning Center’s Public Education Institute)

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