The Refugee Influx - Who Is A Refugee?

Before World War II, the U.S. government had no arrangements for admitting people seeking refuge. The only way oppressed people were able to enter the United States was through regular immigration procedures.

After World War II, refugees were admitted through special legislation passed by Congress. The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA; PL 82-414) did not specifically mention refugees, but it did allow entry to large groups of people, such as Hungarians after their unsuccessful uprising in 1956, Cubans who left after Fidel Castro's takeover in 1959, and Southeast Asians after the defeat of South Vietnam in 1975.

Refugees were legally recognized for the first time in the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965 (PL 89-236) with a preference category reserved for refugees from the Middle East or from countries ruled by a communist government.

TABLE 4.1
Countries participating in UN refugee resettlements, 2003
SOURCE: "Table VIII. UNHCR Resettlement Statistics by Resettlement Country FY 2003," in Proposed Refugee Admissions for FY 2005: Report to Congress, Submitted on behalf of The President of the United States to the Committees on the Judiciary, United States Senate and United States House of Representatives in fulfillment of the requirements of Section 207(e) (1)-(7) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, September 2004, http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/36228.pdf (accessed March 1, 2005)

Resettlement countries	Total	Percent of total admissions
United States	15,588	53.98%
Canada	4,991	17.28%
Australia	4,354	15.08%
Norway	1,391	4.82%
Sweden	805	2.79%
Denmark	518	1.79%
Finland	451	1.56%
New Zealand	443	1.53%
Netherlands	137	.47%
Great Britain	119	.41%
Germany	82	.28%
Other*	219	.76%
Total	29,098	100%
*Principally to Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Chile, Iceland, Brazil, and Austria.

The Refugee Act of 1980

The Refugee Act of 1980 (PL 96-212) changed the definition of the term "refugee," which previously applied only to those fleeing a communist or Middle Eastern nation. The Refugee Act of 1980 adopted the definition of "refugee" contained in the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

The definition of "refugee" found in Section 101(a)(42) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by the Refugee Act of 1980, is as follows:

The term "refugee" means (A) any person who is outside any country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, is outside any country in which such person last habitually resided, and who is unable or unwilling to return to, and is unable or unwilling to avail himself or herself of the protection of, that country because of persecution or a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, or (B) in such circumstances as the President after appropriate consultation [as defined in Section 207(e) of this Act] may specify, any person who is within the country of such person's nationality or, in the case of a person having no nationality, within the country in which such a person is habitually residing, and who is persecuted or who has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

The term "refugee" does not include any person who ordered, incited, assisted, or otherwise participated in the persecution of any person on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.

[A] person who has been forced to abort a pregnancy or to undergo involuntary sterilization, or who has been persecuted for failure or refusal to undergo such a procedure or for other resistance to a coercive population control program, shall be deemed to have been persecuted on account of political opinion, and a person who has a well-founded fear that he or she will be FIGURE 4.1
Asylum claims filed in 38 industrialized countries, 1980–2004
SOURCE: "Fig 2. Asylum Claims Lodged in 38 Industrialized Countries, 1980–2004," in Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2004, UNHCR, Population Data Unit/PGDS, March 1, 2005, http://www.unhcr.ch/cgibin/texis/vtx/home/+ZwwBm16QeqxwwwwnwwwwwwwhFqAIRERfIRfgItFqA5BwBo5Boq5AFqAIRERfIRfgIcFqOw5Oc1MacnVnc5awDmaBGnDm5Dzmxwwwwwww/opendoc.pdf (accessed April 6, 2005) FIGURE 4.2
Top ten countries of origin of asylum seekers in 36 industrialized countries, 2003 and 2004
SOURCE: "Fig 3. Origin of Asylum-Seekers in 36 Countries (Top 10)," in Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2004, UNHCR, Population Data Unit/PGDS, March 1, 2005, http://www.unhcr.ch/cgibin/texis/vtx/home/+ZwwBm16QeqxwwwwnwwwwwwwhFqAIRERfIRfgItFqA5BwBo5Boq5AFqAIRERfIRfgIcFqOw5Oc1MacnVnc5awDmaBGnDm5Dzmxwwwwwww/opendoc.pdf (accessed March 4, 2005) forced to undergo such a procedure or be subject to persecution for such failure, refusal or resistance shall be deemed to have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of political opinion.

The Refugee Act of 1980 requires the president of the United States, at the beginning of each fiscal year (FY), to determine the number of refugees to be admitted. (The federal fiscal year begins on October 1 and ends on September 30 of the following calendar year. It is identified by the calendar year in which it ends.) Refugee numbers are determined without consideration of any overall immigrant quota. The law also regulates U.S. asylum policy. A refugee is someone who applies for protection while outside the United States; an asylee is someone who is already in the United States when they apply for protection.

The Lautenberg Amendment

Normal procedures require refugees to establish a well-founded fear of persecution on an individual, case-by-case basis. A provision of the Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs Appropriations FIGURE 4.3
Afghan and Iraqi asylum requests in 36 countries, 1999–2004
SOURCE: "Fig 4. Afghan and Iraqi Asylum Requests in 36 Countries, 1999–2004," in Asylum Levels and Trends in Industrialized Countries, 2004, UNHCR, Population Data Unit/PGDS, March 1, 2005, http://www.unhcr.ch/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home/+ZwwBm16QeqxwwwwnwwwwwwwhFqAIRERfIRfgItFqA5BwBo5Boq5AFqAIRERfIRfgIcFqOw5Oc1MacnVnc5awDmaBGnDm5Dzmxwwwwwww/opendoc.pdf (accessed March 4, 2005) Act of 1990 (PL 101-167), called the Lautenberg Amendment, addresses persecution based on group identity. Applicants are only required to prove that they are members of a protected category (or group) with a credible, but not necessarily individual, fear of persecution (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, "Refugee Admissions Program for the New Independent States and the Baltics," http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/fs/15373.htm, November 19, 2002). In the former Soviet Union, for example, Jews, evangelical Christians, and certain members of the Ukrainian Catholic or Ukrainian Orthodox churches are identified as groups subject to persecution.

Since 1990 the Lautenberg Amendment has been reauthorized each year as a provision of various laws. In FY 2002 it was extended under the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriation Act (PL 107-116). As of FY 2004 nearly 470,000 individuals had entered the United States as Lautenberg refugees, representing over 35% of all refugees admitted since 1989 (U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, "Refugee Admissions Program for Europe and Central Asia," http://www.state.gov/g/prm/rls/fs/2004/28215.htm, January 16, 2004).