 Annual ORR Reports to Congress - 1997
Executive Summary
The Refugee Act of 1980 (section 413(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act) requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to submit an annual report to Congress on The Federal Refugee Resettlement Program. This report covers refugee program developments in Fiscal Year 1997, from October 1, 1996 through September 30, 1997. It is the thirty-first in a series of reports to Congress on refugee resettlement in the U.S. since FY 1975 and the seventeenth to cover an entire year of activities carried out under the comprehensive authority of the Refugee Act of 1980.
Admissions
- Approximately 76,500 refugees and Amerasian immigrants were admitted to the United States in FY 1997 (including 6,606 Kurdish and Iraqi evacuees with 34 new-borns in Guam). An additional 5,279 Cuban and 38 Haitian nationals were admitted as entrants.
Reception and Placement Activities
- In FY 1997, ten non-profit organizations were responsible for the reception and initial placement of refugees through cooperative agreements with the Department of State.
Domestic Resettlement Program
- Refugee Appropriations: The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) obligated $404.4 million in FY 1997 for the costs of assisting refugees and Cuban and Haitian entrants. Of this, States received about $191.6 million for the costs of providing cash and medical assistance to eligible refugees and entrants.
- Social Services: In FY 1997, ORR provided States with $67.5 million in formula grants and $23.2 million in discretionary 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: ORR provided $59.4 million in targeted assistance funds to supplement available services in areas with large concentrations of refugees and entrants.
- Unaccompanied Minors: Since FY 1979, a total of 11,554 minors have been cared for until they were reunited with relatives or reached the age of emancipation. The number remaining in the program as of September 30, 1996 was 447, a decrease of 91 from a year earlier.
- Voluntary Agency Matching Grant Program: Grants totaling $33.1 million were awarded in FY 1997. Under this program, Federal funds are awarded on a matching basis to national voluntary resettlement agencies to provide assistance and services to refugees.
- 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 about $4.835 million.
- Wilson/Fish Alternative Projects: ORR provided $14.4 million to fund alternative projects in Massachusetts, Oregon, Kentucky, Nevada, and California to help refugees find employment and reduce assistance costs.
- Cuban/Haitian Initiative: ORR provided three States, Florida, Nevada and New York, with $19 million in funds to increase services to Cuban/Haitian entrants in the areas of access to health, improved education for youth, and crime prevention.
Key Federal Activities
Operation Pacific Haven
- In response to a compelling set of circumstances that developed in Iraq in the fall of 1996, the U.S. government airlifted just under 6,600 Kurdish and Iraqi evacuees from a temporary safe-haven in Turkey to Guam for asylum processing at Andersen Air Force Base. The Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), under the authority contained in Section 412(b)(3) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, asked ORR to enter into Cooperative Agreements with nine voluntary agencies (VOLAGS) to provide Reception and Placement services to the evacuees. Cooperative Agreements were also undertaken with the Immigration and Refugee Services of America (IRSA) to act as the Joint Voluntary Agency on Guam (representing all nine VOLAGS); and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to provide transportation for the evacuees from Guam to their resettlement sites throughout the U.S. An Interagency Agreement between HHS and the Department of Defense (DOD) was entered into to facilitate further HHS support of DOD activities on Guam.
- Congressional Consultations for FY 1997 Admissions: Following consultations with Congress, President Clinton set a world-wide refugee admissions ceiling at 78,000 for FY 1997.
Refugee Population Profile
- Southeast Asians remain the largest group admitted since 1983, with approximately 616,500 refugees, including about 73,500 Amerasian immigrant arrivals. Nearly 400,000 refugees from the former Soviet Union arrived in the U.S. during this period.
- Other refugees who have arrived in substantial numbers since the enactment of the Refugee Act of 1980 include Romanians, Iranians, Poles, Ethiopians, Afghans, and Iraqis.
- Six States have Southeast Asian refugee populations of 20,000 or more and account for about 60 percent of the total Southeast Asian refugee population in the U.S. The States of California, Texas, and Washington continue to hold the top three positions.
Economic Adjustment
- The Fall 1997 annual survey of refugees who have been in the U.S. less than five years indicated that about 54 percent of refugees age 16 or over were employed as of September 1997, as compared with about 64 percent for the U.S. population.
- The labor force participation rate was about 58 percent for the sampled refugee population, compared with 67 percent for the U.S. The unemployment rate was 7 percent, compared with 5 percent for the U.S. population.
- Approximately 55 percent of all sampled households were entirely self-sufficient. About 21 percent received both public assistance and earned income; and another 21 percent received only public assistance.
- Approximately 37 percent of refugees in the five-year sample population received medical coverage through an employer, while 38 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 former Soviet Union (12.0 years), while the lowest was for Southeast Asian countries other than Vietnam (3.0 years). About five percent of refugees reported spoke good English well or fluently upon arrival, but another 69 percent spoke no English at all.
- Approximately 42 percent of refugee households in the five-year sample population received some sort of cash assistance. The most common form of cash assistance was supplemental security income, received by about 21 percent of refugee households. About 40 percent of refugee households received food stamps, and 17 percent lived in public housing.
1997 REPORT TO CONGRESS
Director's Message
FY l997 was a year of rapid change and response in the arena of refugee resettlement. Change was reflected in the growing ethnic diversity of arriving refugees and the need to reflect those realities in program design and service provision. Refugees from Bosnia, Iraq, Somalia, the Sudan and other areas began replacing the decades of Southeast Asian and Soviet arrivals. The need for services that are linguistically and culturally attuned to the newest refugees was a tremendous challenge to the resettlement program. In addition, the new welfare reform program required adaptation of refugee services among the private and public sectors at national, state, and local levels.
ORR responded to the evacuation of Kurdish asylees from Iraq in an unusual but not unprecedented way. A number of ORR staff was deployed to Guam to direct permanent resettlement processing efforts for over 6,600 Kurdish asylees. ORR staff in Guam and in central headquarters effectively coordinated activities with U.S.voluntary resettlement agencies, the Immigration and Naturalization Service and the Department of Defense in moving the asylees to the U.S. For their exemplary work during this eight-month period, the ORR Guam team was presented the Secretary's Distinguished Service Award.
The State-administered program has responded to recent changes by improving their employment results. Since the Government Performance Results Act (GPRA) was implemented with State-administered refugee programs in FY l995, we were able to compare State goals and results data for the past two-year period. Performance data show improvements in the following national averages comparing FY 1996 results to FY l997 results: l) Average wage rose by 14%; 2) Job placements with health benefits increased by 6%; and 3) Cash assistance terminations due to earnings increased by 22%.
In order to measure results of the entire program, during FY l997 we implemented GPRA in the Voluntary Agency Matching Grant program, the Wilson/Fish alternative programs and the discretionary programs.
Our discretionary programs continue to evolve to address the needs of refugees in the U.S. ORR awarded 20 grants to establish a new citizenship program. In partnership with the Administration on Aging (AOA), we began a program for older refugees to ensure that these vulnerable newcomers have access to nutritional and social services programs.
Ahead of us, we see a program that will continue to evolve. We are focused on building flexibility into every aspect of the refugee program to ensure the most effective and responsive resettlement system. The unique partnerships in the refugee program -- public agencies, community-based organizations, refugee mutual assistance agencies, private voluntary agencies, and local churches -- are our greatest strength. In the pages that follow, we describe the work these partnerships made possible during FY l997, which improved the lives of people who fled their country due to persecution. Refugees have suffered greatly, but for those fortunate few selected for resettlement in the U.S., we believe ORR programs offer real opportunities for beginning a new life.
Lavinia Limon
Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement