The number of monthly arrivals of refugees into the United States witnessed a sharp decline "from 9,945 in October 2016 to 3,316 in April 2017," according to recent analysis of official State Department data by the Pew Research Center. This development is perhaps the first line of quantitative evidence of the Trump administration rolling out its new refugee policy; built on President Donald Trump's campaign promise to suspend the refugee program, particularly from war-torn Syria and other Muslim majority countries in the Middle East.
For international and local refugee organizations and advocates, this is not only distressful news, it is a set back for U.S. global leadership and its commitments to the 1951 refugee convention. It is also a retreat in America's standing as a nation of immigrants and refugees; welcoming the "poor," the "tired" and the "huddled masses yearning to breathe free," in the words of poet Emma Lazarus.
For Breitbart news, this decrease was reported as a boon; proof that President Trump is delivering on a major campaign promise to keep the refugees out and thereby keep America safe. Such coverage, not only reinforces the frame that refugees represent a threat to U.S. national security, it also fuels the already rising anti-refugee and anti-immigrant sentiments particularly amongst Trump’s Republican base. Two polls conducted by Gallup (2015) and Brookings (2017) showcase a consistent partisan gap in attitudes towards admitting refugees particularly from Syria or other Middle East countries with Republicans overwhelmingly opposing such a policy--84% and 63%-- versus 40% and 15% of Democrats.
While seen as localized in a U.S. domestic context, these numbers represent a serious challenge for U.S. foreign policy, particularly its ability to continue to lead a global effort to effectively address an increasingly unfathomable global refugee crisis with over 65 million people forcibly displaced from their homes, amongst which over 21 million are refugees.
“It is important that the United States is a friend to refugees, particularly as UNHCR’s largest supporter” says Andrew Harper, a UNHCR official who represented the refugee agency in Jordan, the second largest host country of Syrian refugees. The United States is the UN agency’s number one donor, as of September 2016, followed by the European Union and Germany.
Beyond the Numbers: Shattered Hopes
"I lost hope that my sisters, brother and their families will be able to join us here in America," says Al-Mansour when asked about how the new U.S. refugee policy has affected him and his family. A Syrian refugee resettled in Maryland with his wife and children in late 2016, Al-Mansour (who prefers not to use his full name out of caution) and his family left his home in Homs; Syria’s third largest city, once a historic trading hub, dating back to the first millennium BC.
"My brother was interviewed in Jordan for resettlement to America last year, and we were hopeful he would follow us here, however, this is no longer possible now,"says Al-Mansour. "We want to be together but we cannot. Our country is destroyed, we cannot go back either," says Al-Mansour, sighing heavily on the phone.
Al-Mansour fled the war and destruction in Syria in 2012 to neighboring Jordan where more than a million Syrians currently live, representing 15% of the population. He was referred to the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration by UNHCR in 2015, which then reviews and processes all applications together with the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies to ensure a through and comprehensive security vetting process.
Al-Mansour says his family's fate is shared by thousands of other Syrian refugee families in Jordan, Lebanon and other host countries whose hopes to be resettled in the United States have been shattered. Further, while host governments in the region have shouldered a hefty responsibility to provide a safe haven and provide basic services to Syrian refugees, many still face socio-economic challenges as they navigate the uncertainty of their futures.
According to UNHCR, the Syrian refugee crisis this year is suffering a "funding gap" of more than a billion US dollars, "US$187 million" of which is urgent to "avoid the disruption of cash assistance and other vital aid" affecting approximately "60,000 vulnerable families" in Jordan and Lebanon. These grave concerns are echoed by the World Food Program whose recent study At the Root of Exodus: Food security, conflict and international migration reveals a direct link between food insecurity and migration. The study shows that about “half of Syrians residing in Jordan and Lebanon” interviewed for the assessment “indicated a preference to move on to another country, citing lack of economic opportunity and low levels of assistance provided.”
American Leadership Needed
Similar funding challenges were witnessed in 2014 and 2015 when the shores of Europe were hit by waves of refugee survivors; risking their lives in unchartered waters, for a hope of a brighter future for their families. Accordingly, one lesson learned from the past few years is the need for strong leadership in the international community to work together, driven by shared values enshrined in the 1952 refugee convention, in order to not only mitigate the crisis, but to give all refugees, regardless of their country of origin, ethnicity, or religion, a reason to hope.
U.S. leadership is crucial to ensuring the commitment and cooperation of all regional and international actors; governments, international organizations and the plethora of non-governmental organizations engaged in the humanitarian response ecosystem. The current administration’s closed-door refugee policy does not bode well for the present or future of this global refugee predicament. "It (this policy direction) affects the whole pipeline around the globe, and it affects the willingness of other countries to fulfill their responsibility," to those in need, says Westy Egmont, Boston College Professor whose work is focused on immigration integration and refugee policy. Egmont cautions further that there are also "multiple urgencies" at this time that cannot be disregarded "in addition to the Syrian refugees such as the South Sudan refugee crisis," which according to UNHCR's assessment is becoming the world's fastest growing refugee crisis.
In light of this reality, U.S. refugee policy cannot afford to play into what President Trump’s base believes, which, in turn is largely influenced by misinformation and negative framing of refugees as threats rather than people escaping war and searching for hope. Perhaps the recent remarks of Jordan’s Prime Minister Hani Mulki in Brussels in April 2017 sums up the cost of non-engagement in the current global refugee and migration crises; “it is on the loss of hope that radicalism and terrorist ideologies thrive." It is indeed in the U.S. national security interests to lead the international community with a robust and open refugee policy that lends the necessary support to host countries across different regions; raising hope for present and future generations to come.