海角大神

Salai Lungngam听had two strikes against him in Myanmar: ethnic minority Chin and religious minority 海角大神. His activism against the Burmese government eventually led him to flee the country for his life. By way of India then Malaysia, he resettled as a refugee in the United States 10 years ago.

The Hoosier State has resettled at least 12,804 Burmese refugees since 2007. Mr. Lungngam arrived in Indianapolis with about $50. Now a real estate broker, he鈥檚 sold around 180 houses since 2016. He says 8 out of 10 of those homeowners have been fellow refugees.听鈥淭hese refugees are not draining the resources of the government,鈥� says Mr. Lungngam, now a U.S. citizen. Instead, they鈥檙e 鈥渞eally helping the community.鈥�

As the world鈥檚 refugees number a record听25.9 million, the U.S. is welcoming in historic lows since the modern refugee program began in 1980. The Trump administration is considering another cut to refugee admissions for the upcoming fiscal year 鈥� or scrapping the program entirely.听

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to see how this can be advancing our nation鈥檚 foreign-policy goals or our humanitarian goals,鈥� says Mark Greenberg, senior fellow at the left-leaning Migration Policy Institute.

Nayla Rush, a senior researcher at the right-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, argues for capping refugee admissions at 15,000 to focus on the United Nations鈥� urgent and emergency refugee submissions.

The program 鈥渏ust needs to be rightly applied, as a ticket out only for those refugees who are genuinely at risk in the countries they鈥檝e fled to,鈥� Dr. Rush wrote on the CIS blog.听

The White House鈥檚 consideration has raised worries among resettlement experts.听Besides humanitarian concern for听refugees who may never reach the U.S., they also warn of consequences for already resettled refugees and implications for the communities they鈥檝e helped revitalize.

Humanitarian concern

When President Barack Obama left office, the annual ceiling for refugee admissions was set at 110,000 for fiscal year 2017. President Trump reduced the cap the following year to 45,000, then down to 30,000 for 2019.

White House officials will convene Tuesday to discuss the refugee totals for the next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Some officials argue for lowering the cap to focus on security concerns and capacity to offer humanitarian protection to asylum-seekers, Politico reported.

鈥淢y focus right now is trying to manage the crisis at the border for us and keep those asylum backlogs from growing,鈥� acting U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Ken Cuccinelli told CNN.听Border agents have been overwhelmed with immigration traffic at the southern border, and U.S. immigration courts face a backlog of around 1 million cases.

Unlike asylees, refugees apply for protection before they鈥檝e reached the U.S. Some migration experts say the country must address the increased asylum claims while also responding to refugee resettlement needs.

鈥淭hey should not be pitted against each other,鈥� says Mr. Greenberg.

Economic impact

Cole Varga, executive director of Exodus Refugee Immigration in Indianapolis, sees a financial downside to family separation. Some refugee families are waiting for wage earners听to join them,听such as a spouse or other adult relatives.

鈥淭he more people you have locally relying on each other, building assets, building income, the more successful they will be long term,鈥� says Mr. Varga. The reduction of refugee admissions under the current administration forced him to let go of 15 employees 鈥� nearly a third of his staff at his refugee resettlement organization. Similar nonprofits have shuttered entire offices.

Research shows that refugees鈥� economic contributions to American communities outweigh the initial costs to resettle them. Refugees in southeast Michigan generated around 2,000 jobs in 2016 alone. The study by nonprofit Global Detroit and the University of Michigan also found that within a decade refugees there generated between $229.6 million and $295.3 million in new spending 鈥� a boon to a region hit hard by the struggles of Detroit鈥檚 auto industry.

Global Detroit director Steve Tobocman sees local-level collaborations that root for immigrants鈥� success as an emerging trend.

Mr. Tobocman says there鈥檚 a 鈥渉uge growth of community and economic development leaders who are thinking of their own self-interest from the region 鈥� who have embraced refugee resettlement and immigration as a strategy really to revitalize their economies.鈥�