General Refugee Resettlement and IINE Questions

Since 1975, the U.S. has admitted more than 3.3 million refugees, an average of 80,000 per year. Under U.S. law, the President has the authority to determine the number of refugees the United States will admit each year. In Fiscal Year 2017 (October 1, 2016 to September 30, 2017), President Obama raised the ceiling [...]

There are humanitarian and strategic reasons for the program, which the United States formally began in 1980. While not a stated purpose of the resettlement program, there are economic benefits to local communities that receive refugees. The U.S. has led the world in formal refugee resettlement, accepting more refugees annually than any other country. [...]

IINE was resettling an average of 625 refugees each year prior to 2017. We experienced a reduction in refugee arrivals in 2017 and 2018, and an increase to 246 refugees in 2019. Refugees come to New England from many countries facing war and violence including Myanmar (Burma), the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Sudan and [...]

In our reception and placement program, our staff dedicates approximately 75 hours of case management time to each refugee. Services include welcoming each refugee family at either Manchester or Logan airport and escorting them to a furnished apartment that we have provisioned with home goods, clothing and food. Within days of arrival, our staff [...]

It is important to understand nationwide, and at the International Institute of New England, private support for refugees dwarfs public financing. Federal resettlement funds provide a one-time cash grant of $2,375 to resettlement organizations like IINE to support each newly arrived refugee. The program allocates $1,275 directly to client expenses in order to cover [...]

In the final months of FY22, IINE resettled more than 500 Afghan evacuees while simultaneously providing intensive case management and essential services to Haitians displaced by natural disasters and political unrest, children who crossed the U.S. border unaccompanied, and Ukrainians uprooted by war in their homeland. This human rights crisis has created an unparalleled [...]

Since 9/11, the United States has had the most organized and carefully managed refugee admissions process in the world. After screening by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the U.S National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI Terrorist Screening Center, and the Departments of State, Defense, and Homeland Security vet all refugees seeking resettlement [...]