OCT 3
By Joanna Krause, Executive Director
With minutes to spare before the October 1st deadline, the Office of the President submitted the fiscal year 2021 Presidential Determination to Congress: the United States will resettle a maximum of 15,000 refugees in the 2021 fiscal year. Now, we wait to see if Congress will approve this number.
This is 3,000 less than last year, and an over 80% reduction from the average. The national refugee resettlement infrastructure was hit very hard in the last few years with travel bans and admittance caps of 30,000 in 2019 and 18,000 in 2020. The United States Refugee Resettlement Program has a history of bipartisan support and is considered to be a global model for protecting the most vulnerable people, but this historically low number does not reflect our excellence and capability as global leaders in refugee resettlement.
This year, a main argument for the further admittance reduction is the economy and American jobs. So, how does refugee resettlement play into Arkansas state and local economy? The top sectors where Canopy helps employers fill jobs and refugees find their first employments are:
- Poultry Processing
- Grocery
- Healthcare (primarily nursing homes)
- Truck Driving
Throughout the pandemic, these industries have locally offered sign-on bonuses and retention bonuses as they added jobs to meet demand. As recently as last week, an employer called our employment team seeking referrals to fill vacancies. These jobs require extremely hard physical work, and due to the nature of the industries, put workers at higher risk for exposure to COVID-19.
What does this presidential determination mean for our families who are already here? For the many families who have filed petitions for their family members still residing in refugee camps, it means they will continue to wait. It means they bear the burden of knowing their families members are in living conditions where they may be at much higher risk of contracting COVID-19 and with limited access to health care if they are sick.
When Canopy receives a notification that a refugee or asylee case is assigned to one day be resettled in Northwest Arkansas, we see the year the family fled their home country. 2017. 2005. 1996. 1994.
We celebrate each family who arrives— who gets a new chance. Join us in contacting our elected officials to support a refugee admissions goal of 95,000 in FY2021.
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