World Refugee Day 2019

World Refugee Day is June 20th. Here are some quick facts about refugee admissions in the United States this year.

The refugee ceiling is set at 30,000 for Fiscal Year 2019. Thus far into the fiscal year, the US has admitted 18,051 refugees, or 60 percent of the total allowable. It is likely that the US will not admit all 30,000 refugees this year.

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According to the US Department of State Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, two-thirds of the way into the fiscal year, only 14 percent of allowable refugees from Latin America have been admitted (409 of a possible 3,000) and 15 percent of of the total from the Near East/South Asia (1,460 or 9,000). However, nearly all allowable African refugees and European refugees have already been resettled in the US.

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The top countries for FY2019 refugee arrivals have been the Democratic Republic of the Congo (8,402), Burma (3,081), the Ukraine (2,085), and Eritrea (1,229). The largest number of refugees was resettled in Texas (1,619) followed by New York (1,129) and California (1,031).

Since 2008, the top languages spoken by refugees are Arabic, Nepali, Somali, and Sgaw Karen.

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