Immigration: Refugee Resettlement

This is a list of links from the UNCHR and other sources on America’s obligations for refugee resettlement. Feel free to email with more suggestions (madeline.cohen@lehman.cuny.edu).

• Info about and text of the 1951 Refugee Convention
  • This is the governing document for refugee resettlement. Under this convention, a refugee is defined as a person who “owing to wellfounded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality.” (Article 1)

• UNHCR Mid-Year Trends 2016 from the UNHCR

• FAQs on the UNHCR’s Refugee Resettlement process
• UNHCR Resettlement Handbook
  • Provides a history of the Refugee Convention and describes the process at the UNHCR level.
• UNHCR’s resettlement flow chart
  • Before any refugee can come to the US, they must pass through this complex process. The US has the right to refuse any refugee during screening.
• How UNHCR’s refugee-resettlement process actually works
  • This article from Maclean’s provides a clear overview of the process in Canada. While it is Canada specific, the steps are similar to the US.
• US Refugee Admission Program from the Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration
  • Provides an overview of the process in the United States.
• Overview of the U.S. Refugee Resettlement process from the ORR
  • This office primarily serves asylees after they have been accepted into the United States.

Source: UNHCR Mid-Year Trends 2016

The sources above were compiled by Lynda Kellam, Data Services and Government Information Librarian at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s University Libraries and the part-time Assistant Director of the International & Global Studies program. The links appear on her blog: https://lyndamkreads.wordpress.com/refugee-resettlement-info/