A New Perspective as to why Refugees should be Welcomed with Open Arms
It is no secret that xenophobia has been on the rise in the past decade. From the rapid dismantling of the asylum system to the ramping up of deportations and immigration raids by the Trump administration, the sentiment has most definitely spread outside of the White House, with Americans’ chants to “build a wall” being the first of many that comes to mind. Nativism cites crime, poverty, security, and disease as the most stand-out justifications behind the resentment of immigrants and refugees; however, the denigrations don’t stop there. Nativists accuse immigrants of stealing local jobs and increasing tax rates, declaring that they can never be “true” Americans, though they conveniently forget that the United States itself is a country of immigrants. As an Indian American, the daughter of two immigrants, I never truly understood the reasons behind the hostility that immigrants, refugees in particular, are met with.
In light of the recent happenings in Afghanistan, this xenophobic sentiment is in dire need of change, and this article presents an altogether unique perspective as to why refugees should truly be welcomed with open arms.
To the Basics: Who are Refugees?
The 1951 Refugee Convention defines a refugee as one “who is unable or unwilling to return to their country of origin owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” From fleeing war and conflict to escaping famine, poverty, and climate change, refugees come from all backgrounds, many of which reside in the United States today. By 2019, over 26 million refugees were registered worldwide, out of over 82 million people who had been forcibly displaced from their homes. The vast majority of refugees have fled from simply five nations: Syria, Venezuela, Afghanistan, South Sudan, and Myanmar.
Refugee Admission in Recent Times
In short, the president consults with the Congress in order to set an annual target for refugee admissions. As documented by law, this bar must be “justified by humanitarian concern or otherwise in national interest.” The action of setting the refugee admissions ceiling is termed the Presidential Determination, and is issued before the new fiscal year begins on October 1. Established by the 1980 Refugee Act, the average annual ceiling exceeded 95,000 prior to 2016. Notable presidents of both political parties have taken the liberty to set even higher ceilings: President Reagan’s highest bar was 140,000, while President Obama’s was set to 110,000. However, the Trump administration had set the refugee target to a meager 15,000 for 2021 while in office, the lowest number since the creation of the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in 1980. The limit marked the fourth consecutive year that the administration set the Presidential Determination at a record low. Fortunately, President Biden signed an Emergency Revised Presidential Determination to raise the 2021 fiscal year’s goal to 62,500. Biden’s decision is rooted in the removal of prejudiced admission categories set by previous administrations targeting immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, especially those of Muslim majority nations.
Why it is so Crucial to Welcome Refugees
Year by year, individuals and families are fleeing their home countries at record levels. In 2019, an average of 24,000 people per day were forced to flee their homes. An entire one percent of the global population is forcibly displaced. As these wars escalate day by day, leaving the local population devoid of resources and shelter, it becomes so crucial to welcome them, by the values that the United States was founded on. Refugee resettlement reflects exactly what America stands for: “the right to equal treatment, the commitment not to discriminate, and the determination to uphold human dignity.” In fact, our very history is built on the first Americans fleeing to the East Coast, seeking religious freedom. To close our doors to refugees would disregard our legacy as a land of refuge for the persecuted.
As Americans, we hold a moral and social obligation to respect these refugees and the immeasurable scale of struggle they have experienced. Yet, let us address a different perspective, as to why refugees can aid us as well, through economic means.
An Economic Perspective
In small towns or declining cities, as Vox reports, refugees can aid in “reversing depopulation trends that threaten the financial viability of the region.” As observed in Rwanda, refugees who received $120 to $126 in cash aid from the United Nations increased annual real income in the economy by $205 to $253. In the United States itself, “after 6 years in the country, these refugees work at higher rates than natives. ... [Researchers] estimate that refugees pay $21,000 more in taxes than they receive in benefits over their first 20 years in the US.”
Beyond an overall economic impact, refugees can also aid in increasing growth in cities and towns external to the coast and sunbelt, an urban policy issue that is especially pertinent in recent times. Vox cites that “uneven population growth is leaving more places behind. 86 percent of counties now grow more slowly than the nation as a whole, up from 64 percent in the 1990s.” Due to population increases in a select few cities, market forces have pushed the vast majority of well-off jobs to these areas. This in turn develops a phenomenon known as “agglomeration economies,” where employers and workers tend to cluster geographically in a handful of locations.
As businesses begin to expand in these urban areas, and workers and industries clustering in the same region increase employment opportunities and the size of a qualified labor pool, these highly populated cities hold an “outsized effect” on the American economy: the demand for goods and services shift toward these areas. However, once the educated worker population begins to move away, cities shrink. A declining population, fewer taxes (which leads to dwindling public services), higher unemployment, and less demand for goods and services render these cities as less attractive to new entrants.
Refugee resettlement is key to alleviating this issue, in how place-based visas (also known as “heartland visas”) would allow immigrants to live in communities “facing the consequences of demographic stagnation and in desperate need of new entrants.” In no way would these visas limit where immigrants can visit and travel; they would “simply require that their residence and place of work be somewhere within a specific geography.” Such visas have seen great success in Canada and Australia!
There you have it: not only would welcoming refugees further enrich our cultural diversity and uphold our American values of freedom and opportunities, but it would also benefit the nation economically by revitalizing our cities.
It is about time we stop referring to refugees as burdens, and welcome them with open arms.
Unite. Educate. Inspire. Gen Z: We are the Future.
SOURCES:
[1] Perspective | Trump has spread more hatred of immigrants than any American in history. By the Washington Post.
[2] Why should America take in more refugees? Get the facts on the refugee cap.. By Rescue.org.
[3] Refugees. By the UN Refugee Agency.
[4] Tucker Carlson is wrong. Refugees are good for the economy.. By Vox.
[5] 4 thoughts on “10 Reasons Why America Needs Refugees”. By the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
