Exploring Private Refugee Sponsorship Option(s) for the United States

Abstract

The research goal of this thesis is to identify areas where the current United States government funded refugee sponsorship program can be augmented by private refugee sponsorships. The idea is not to replace government funded refugee sponsorship program, it is simply to augment it so that the collaborative resources can be leveraged to help more refugees while an average of 24 people are being forced to flee a minute in 2015. Canada has a private sponsorship model that it augments with its government sponsorship model. United States and Canada have many similarities. If this approach has been working in Canada since the 1970s, it is worth also considering in the United States. One out of 100 humans are now displaced from their homes per a Pew Research Center publication as of October 2016. If all of these individuals created a country, it would be the world’s 24th biggest country. To put it in perspective, this is more than the population of United Kingdom, or more than 65.3 million people. As everyone is already aware, this has created an international humanitarian crises that will only lead to other types as people get desperate – unless helped. At the same time, finding government funding to meet the challenges of the refugee and migrant crises has been difficult worldwide. In the United States, which has accepted over 3 million refugees since 1980, and was projected to accept over 110,000 refugees in 2017, only 53,716 refugees were actually accepted under President Trump’s Administration. It doesn’t look any better for 2018 as his administration has proposed to only accept 45,000 in 2018. Meanwhile, as previously noted, an average of 24 people were forced to flee each minute in 2015 . Countries like Greece, Jordan, Turkey, etc., that were already struggling with an economic crises before the migrant crises, are now struggling to juggle both an economic and migrant/humanitarian crises. There is no more time left to wait, world leaders must make it a priority to innovate humane, practical, sustainable and logical solutions. This research hopes explores whether private sponsorships of refugees can be part of the solution. This research uses qualitative method and uses the current U.S. government funded refugee sponsorship and Canada’s private sponsorship model as case studies. The research identifies the refugee screening steps and processes for entry into the United States as well as the reception and resettlement steps and processes once the refugee arrives at the United States. It identifies the costs based on data provided by the U.S. Government and its non-profit partners. Then, it takes a similar case study approach towards the Canadian Private Sponsorship model. It is understood that Canada also has a government funded refugee sponsorship model like the United States. Their government-funded model is not the focus of this research. However, this research focuses on studying their private sponsorship model since it augments to their already available government funded model, and enables them to accept additional refugees. As part of the research background, the thesis also lays out why addressing the international refugee crises is of importance to the United States and the world in terms of national security, stability, our role as a world leader, our identity as a nation, and humanitarian reasons. In the findings and conclusion portion of the research, the thesis identifies areas where the United States can leverage from a private sponsorship model similar to the Canadian model. It concludes that the Reception and Resettlement steps and costs, once the refugee enters the United States, is an area where United States should consider leveraging and expanded private refugee sponsorship model first.