Articles - Refugees & Resettlement

Refugee resettlement initiatives have extended beyond the traditional provider regions of North America, Western Europe, and Oceania, broadening from 14 states in 2005 to 26 in 2012. However, projected needs are expected to continue to far outpace the number of available spaces. This article investigates the various explanations for why more countries in Latin America, Asia, and other regions are opening resettlement places.

Counterterrorism policies have had an unintended, negative effect on asylum and refugee resettlement in the United States. Swetha Sridharan of the Council on Foreign Relations explains the origins of the material-support bar, which groups it has affected, and how the U.S. government is addressing the problem.

Not long after the United States passed the 1980 Refugee Act, thousands of people began fleeing civil war in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua. Their treatment in the United States, linked to U.S. foreign policy, spurred the Sanctuary Movement and efforts to grant them refugee status, as Susan Gzesh of the University of Chicago explains.

In the early 1990s, Ethiopians who had been living in refugee camps in Sudan began to return home. As Laura C. Hammond of Clark University explains, they created a new community in an unfamiliar part of Ethiopia that is thriving 12 years later.

In addition to post-September 11 security concerns, the U.S. is dealing with less predictable refugee flows. David Martin of the University of Virginia School of Law reports.

MPI's Joanne van Selm analyzes the EU's latest effort to guarantee rights, protect refugees, and regulate migration flows and borders.

MPI Associate Policy Analyst Erin Patrick presents an in-depth look at some of the controversies associated with gender-related asylum.