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Annual ORR Reports to Congress - 2002

• The U.S. admitted 26,807 refugees and 263 Amerasian immigrants in FY 2002. An additional 16,015 Cuban and 719 Haitian nationals were admitted as entrants, for a total of 16,734 arrivals.
  
  
• Refugees and entrants from Cuba (17,940) comprised the largest admission group, followed by arrivals from the successor republics of the Soviet Union (9,978), the successor republics of Yugoslavia (5,450), Viet Nam (3,312) and Afghanistan (1,669).
  
  
• Florida received the largest number of arrivals (15,570), followed by California (4,294), New York (2,798), Washington (2,623), and Texas (1,697).

• In FY 2002, ten non-profit organizations were responsible for the reception and initial placement of refugees through cooperative agreements with the Department of State.

• Refugee Appropriations: In FY 2002, the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) obligated $460.2 million in appropriated funds to assist refugees and Cuban and Haitian entrants. States received $160 million of this amount for the costs of providing cash and medical assistance to eligible refugees and entrants.
  
  
• Social Services: In FY 2002, ORR provided $83.4 million in formula grants to States and non-profit organizations for a broad range of services for refugees, such as English language and employment-related training.
  
  
• Targeted Assistance: In FY 2002 ORR provided $49.5 million in targeted assistance funds to supplement available services in areas with large concentrations of refugees and entrants.
  
  
• Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program: ORR awarded grants totaling $59.2 million during the past year. Under this program, ORR awards Federal funds on a matching basis to national voluntary resettlement agencies to provide assistance and services to refugees, Cuban/Haitian entrants, asylees, and victims of trafficking.
  
  
• Refugee Health: ORR provided funds to State and local health departments for refugee health assessments. Obligations for these activities and technical assistance support amounted to approximately $8.5 million in FY 2002.
  
  
• Wilson/Fish Alternative Projects: In FY 2002, statewide Wilson/Fish projects continued operation by private agencies in Kentucky, Nevada, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alabama, Vermont, Idaho, Colorado and San Diego County, CA.
  
  
• Cuban/Haitian Initiative: ORR provided $19 million in funds to increase services to Cuban/Haitian refugees and entrants in the areas of access to health, mental health, improved education for youth, crime prevention and employment.

• Congressional Consultations: Following consultations with Congress, the President set a worldwide refugee admissions ceiling at 70,000 for FY 2002.

• Southeast Asians remain the largest group admitted since ORR established its arrival database in 1983, with 648,726 refugees, including 75,742 Amerasian immigrant arrivals. Nearly 478,128 refugees from the former Soviet Union arrived in the U.S. between 1983 and 2002.
  
  
• Other refugees who have arrived in substantial numbers since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980 include Afghans, Cubans, Ethiopians, Iranians, Iraqis, Poles, Romanians, Somalis, and citizens of the republics of the former Yugoslavia.

• The fall 2002 annual survey of refugees who have been in the U.S. less than five years indicates that about 61 percent of refugees age 16 or over were employed as of September 2002, as compared with about 67 percent for the U.S. population.
  
  
• The labor force participation rate remained at about 67 percent for the sampled refugee population, slightly lower than the 68 percent for the U.S. population. The refugee unemployment rate was 6.4 percent, compared with 5.8 percent for the U.S. population.
  
  
• Approximately 69 percent of all sampled refugee households were entirely self-sufficient from cash assistance. About 19 percent received both cash assistance and earned income; another 9 percent received only public assistance.
  
  
• Approximately 69 percent of refugees in the five-year sample population received medical coverage through an employer, while 35 percent received benefits from Medicaid or Refugee Medical Assistance. About 18 percent of the sample population had no medical coverage in any of the previous 12 months.
  
  
• The average number of years of education was the highest for the refugees from Southeast Asian countries other than Vietnam (11.5 years), while the lowest was for refugees from Africa (8.9 years). About 11 percent of refugees reported they spoke English well or fluently upon arrival, but 50 percent spoke no English at all.
  
  
• The most common form of cash assistance was Supplemental Security Income, received by about 16 percent of refugee households. About 34 percent of refugee households received food stamps, and 12 percent lived in public housing.

The Director's Message

The U.S. Refugee Program experienced significant changes during the 2002 fiscal year.

Despite a reduction in refugee arrivals caused by the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Office of Refugee Resettlement continued to make important progress in several programmatic areas in the fiscal year which began on October 1, 2001.

Major accomplishments included:

• The maintenance of a viable national refugee program,
  
  
• Meeting the needs of new and recently arrived refugees with creative programming, and
  
  
• Reaching out to the existing refugee population with enhanced programming, particularly in the area of economic development.

America is viewed as the "Land of Freedom." Indeed, refugees throughout the world think in terms of their own "American Dream." However, in the post-September 11 world, American security rightly has been accorded the highest priority, and greater care in screening of admissions has led to fewer arrivals.

The Office of Refugee Resettlement worked in close cooperation with our Federal, State, and local partners in aligning our program to meet the changing times.

Because of security concerns and overseas clearance delays, the flow of refugees - which had totaled 68,010 in 2001 before the terrorist attacks- dropped drastically to only 27,070 for all of 2002. Major points of origin for these arrivals were the Middle East and Africa.

Due to the low arrival numbers, ORR adjusted some of its funding mechanisms and policies to assure that agencies serving refugees would receive adequate funds to carry out their activities and maintain their viability. ORR waived its regulations which had limited use of social service formula funds to five years and permitted Matching Grant agencies to draw down Federal funds during the first three months of 2002, enabling them to sustain their infrastructure during a period of no arrivals.

A major initiative during 2002 was the strengthening of ethnic community-based organizations to help with long-term integration of their peers into American society. In all, 42 grants were awarded to ethnic organizations to help with organizational development or provide services.

ORR grantees succeeded in placing 43,211 refugees in employment despite the national economic downturn. Of special interest was ORR's work in strengthening refugee economic enterprise through its programs of Individual Development Accounts (IDA), which promote development of refugee assets, and microenterprise, which enables refugees to access business training and micro-credit. ORR awarded 49 IDA grants and 28 Microenterprise grants.

In July 2002, ORR reinforced communications with the refugee resettlement network at a national consultation in Washington, D.C., attended by approximately 300 State Refugee and Refugee Health Coordinators, national voluntary resettlement agencies, refugee mutual assistance associations, and various service providers. The agenda included specific consultations by the Director with State refugee officials, national voluntary resettlement agency staff, and leaders of refugee mutual assistance associations.

In May 2002, the first of 900 Montagnards from Central Vietnam, who had fled into refugee camps in Cambodia, began arriving in the U.S. They were resettled in North Carolina, where they joined a large Montagnard community that had begun arriving in 1986. The 2002 resettlement, on only 40 days' notice, was coordinated by a task force consisting of ORR staff, Federal and State agencies, national and local voluntary agencies, and many local service providers.

In August 2002, under a grant from ORR, the Ethiopian Community Development Council conducted a five-day Southern Sudanese Youth Reunion at Camp Letts in Maryland for 223 Sudanese youths and 23 voluntary counselors and caseworkers from communities across the U.S. The camp provided a dynamic blend of reunion and celebration combined with educational workshops designed to enhance future study and work opportunities for the youth.

Our challenges for the coming year included maintaining a viable national program, meeting the ongoing and changing needs of new and recently arrived refugees of ever-changing ethnic diversity. We will need to promote the integration of our clients into American society and the strengthening of our ethnic organizationsallow them to serve effectively and creatively the new, non-refugee clientele assigned to ORR. We remain confident that we will meet these challenges and continue to build on our national humanitarian objectives in welcoming refugees to our shores.

Nguyen Van Hanh, Ph.D.
Director
Office of Refugee Resettlement

This is a Historical Document.