Refugees

After getting an insight in the legislative framework of refugees in the U.S. we spent the afternoon talking about what it actually meant to bare the refugee status and how refugees take their first legal steps in the U.S. American society. There are ten organizations supporting refugees in getting a basic orientation in the U.S.A. One of them is the

International Rescue Committee (IRC)

It is the second largest organization of its kind in the United States.

Talking about refugees in a global perspective one has to be aware of the fact that less than one per cent of people having fled there homes are actually relocated into so called third countries, which are neither countries of the refugees' origin nor countries into which the refugees flees and live in refugee camps. Currently the number of people that have been driven out of their home country is estimated to be around 14 Million. The number of internally displaced persons is believed to be much higher.

The U.S.A. has by far the largest resettlement program worldwide. Around 17,000 refugees are admitted annually. The process, however, is lengthy and can take a few years. The IRC alone has resettled between 8,000 and 10,000 refugees per year over the past decade. The numbers for this year are expected to be even higher. The IRC is taking care of 155 different ethnicities from all regions of the world.

As soon as a person is granted refugee status he or she is entitled to work. The IRC encourages the refugees to make their own living in order to be able to pay for housing and obtain health insurance. The IRC has developed a program called Individual Development Account (IDA), which is supposed to support refugees in handling financial issues. In addition to that the U.S. government grants the refugees an initial aid in terms of public benefit (the so called Refugee Cash Assistence). This aid is granted during the first eight months after the acknowledgment of refugee status. It is very low, but entails medical aid. Around 30 per cent of refugees arriving in the United States have family members that already live in the country. After one year of physical presence in the country refugees have the right of becoming a permanent residence of the United States. He can apply for citizenship after five years.

The IRC works together with the Bellevue hospital in Downtown Manhattan and is engaged in a partnership with their “Survivor of Torture” program. Usually, psychological problems refugees have do not show immediately upon arrival. Often it is the case that during the first months refugees are very engaged in getting used to the new situation. Only after they have started settling down post-traumatic symptoms or other psychological stress phenomena seem to appear.